Why should we help others?

Why shouldn’t we?

I see this question as sort of a personality test, both for the person who asked it and for the people who answer it. It’s sort of a positive/negative binary decision: if you’re a positive person and are generally optimistic, then your inclination is to be kind and help others. If you’re a negative person, than you won’t.

I don’t think it has to do with religion or morals or anything external. And it especially has nothing to do with reward, either in this world or after death. It’s about good deeds for their own sake, and nothing else.

So my attitude would be – yes, we should be kind and help others because it is the humane thing to do in our society, and I am a member of this society.

- Kindness seems to be innate. Children show empathy and try to help other people at very young ages, perhaps 12-to-14 months.

- When we’re kind, we make the world a slightly better place. Kindness is contagious, and it inspires good things in most people.

- Kindness makes us and others feel great, and studies suggest that this is reflected in the neural circuitry of the brain. Endorphins and neurotransmitters enhance happiness; we can elevate our own moods, perhaps even get a natural high, by thinking, saying, and doing kind things.

- Life’s improved by behaving kindly rather than nastily. Communities flourish, and interpersonal connections are gained.

- Why pass on any opportunity to act in a kind manner? Kindness is rooted in common sense; it’s the rational way to be.

Kindness is infectious. Small acts of kindness be it holding a door open, smiling or telling people you appreciate them are things that have a profound effect. The more people appreciate each other the less bigotry, hate and unhappiness weigh people down and mess with their heads. If there is anything wrong with our culture and culture around the world it’s that we are not kind enough to each other. When people are not kind when there is no reason for them not to be it’s a red flag I look for. Sometimes you can intervene and give that person a reason not to be rotten, sometimes you just have to run the other way.

Because, we ARE the “others” and others are ourselves. I am not religious but do unto others as you would have done unto yourself is a solid life philosophy. Yesterday morning about 8:30 a.m. I saw a homeless man washing his face in a sprinkler on the corner of a building. It broke my heart. I wished I could afford to buy him a hotel room for a week and let him feel like a real human again.

It is like there is some inherent thing in me that tries to help when I can. I would like to think that is a common trait.

Because other people have lives and stories as rich and full as yours, and deserve kindness as you do.

Because the world does not revolve around you or anyone one person. We also should help people to establish a sense of community, unity, stability and peace within the human race.

As @Coloma has suggested (and I will phrase this in my own way) treat others as you wish to be treated is what we need to do. Because we are all made of the same blood guts and bone. We are all human. United we are stronger, divided we are weak and a shatter shell of our humanity.

We are all one species on a planet that gives us life. We need no other reason to be kind to one another than that.

It is part of the happiness equation. A need to serve others is built into us.

Yes. Try it, you’ll like it.

When you have the opportunity to help someone when it’s very easy for you to do, do it. Then they can pay that kindnes forward to someone else. That’s what makes the world go around.

Because the alternative is unthinkable. Look where un-kindness has lead humans in the past, and even just today.

The debate over the necessity for altruism is as old as time. I think most of us believe that we all fare better the more prevalent it is among us. Personally, I believe the tendency to resist it or to characterize those receiving it “freeloaders” and “moochers” a touchstone of current conservatism.

Hardly

We sense ourselves as being part of something larger, and not necessarily in a religious sense. I have yet to see this expressed better than John Donne:

‘No Man is an Island’

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Because we’re selfish as we want to feel good about ourselves by helping others. This ‘feel good’ is a psychological benefits that we all can’t deny so there’s no such thing as pure altruism by helping others. We actually help ourselves by helping others.

If you present this question to politicians you’ll get heartwarming answers but you’ll see that they help others to get good publication and for selfish interests. Nobody does something for nothing.

I feel better when I have something to smile about, even if it’s only a stranger returning my smile.

Really there’s not much point in living, we’re all going to die and be forgotten. I guess we should have a nice life though, shouldn’t we? By being kind we can improve someone else’s life which could then improve your own life.
All this is going to come an end, but we may as well have a nice time whilst we’re here.