Recalibrating the Moral Barometer
Hmmm, could one randomact of kindness be the difference maker?
There have always been and will always be people who choose to get rich by dishonesty and preying on the unsuspecting nature of others. They devise elaborate schemes to defraud people of their money. But the practice of scamming seems to have become a immoral pandemic these days. Forget about COVID-19, the scamming pandemic is a bigger hazard.
Hardly a day goes backwhere the telephone does not ring once, or a text message pops up, or an e-mailappears from someone trying to hoodwink us and get their hands on ourhard-earned money. Scammers are breeding like rabbits and getting ever moredevious in their tactics.
I find myself wonderingwhy this practice has mushroomed the way it has in the last few years.Technology does play a role. It gives scammers more tools to use and abuse. Buttechnology is only an enabler. The question remains: Why are so many people orgroups abandoning basic morals and becoming under the table thieves?
Forgive me for ragging on politicians, but I think they are one small part of the problem. So many of them are knee deep in scandals and engage in self-serving behaviour on a regular basis. They are setting a bad example which many ordinary citizens may be falling in line with: If it is okay for them to be corrupt, it is okay for me too.
It feels like we aredevolving into an all-out, Darwinian survival of the fittest mentality in whichthe end justifies the nefarious means.
There is not much we as individualscan do to put the brakes on this disturbing escalation. But perhaps we can dosomething to recalibrate society’s moral barometer. It may be as simple asrandom acts of kindness to inject humanity and good will into the world.
When someone is waitingin a lane to pull out onto a busy road, pause and let them in.
When we are racing tothe checkout with the shortest line in the grocery store and we see someoneelse headed there, stop, smile and wave them ahead.
When someone at work isstressed and losing ground on the backlog of work, offer to take a project offtheir hands.
When some has that “Ican’t take much more of this” look, ask if they are okay and if you can helpwithout being judgmental or needing to know the details of their problem.
Random acts of kindnessmay seem inconsequential. But each one corrects the moral barometer just alittle bit. Added together they can become more than the sum of their parts andthe beginning of a wave.
Give it a try. It takes so little effort but can make such a big difference.
~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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