Have You Lost Your Courage to Do Good?

Was there a time earlier in life where you consciously or sub-consciously decided to stop trying to do good? Where you maybe even surrendered, feeling there was no choice but to give in to evil?

Below, Zilong Wang talks about the stages he walked through, particularly in adolescence, where he rationalized away the need to do good. But thankfully, he’s recovering his courage to live for good.

First, being a teenager, I was embarrassed by the “good.” Being kind and compassionate seems so un-cool, so preachy. It was what the parents said, which certainly couldn’t be right.

Second, I was intrigued by “evil,” the tempting power of the devils. The society stands ready to rationalize the evil by calling it “utilitarian self-interests,” “survival of the fittest”, and so on.

Third, my self-awareness was not clear enough to tell the real motives behind my acts of kindness. Adding to my own confusion, some peers tended to accuse me of hypocrisy or kindness-with-strings-attached — which, upon introspection, was sometimes true.

Embarrassed by my hypocrisy, disappointed by my lack of pure goodness, and fearful of the accusation from my peers, I decided to abandon “good” altogether, and embrace evil — and owning it. I thought, if I never claim to be good (loving, kind, compassionate, generous) in the first place, then no one can call me a hypocrite. If I own my evilness (selfish, calculated, manipulative, cynical), and if the society glorifies evil as the normal state of the business, then I am given the get-out-of-jail-free card. How convenient!

I never considered how culturally, kindness might actually be conditioned out of us. But I think it forces a great question: have we let some life stage or circumstance strip us of the courage to do good?

Read the rest of Zilong’s article here.