Generosity

Is it truly generous to enable a system which does not serve the needs of all the people? By subscribing to capitalist systems of "giving" to non-profit corporations which are simply businesses which provide salaries and tax havens for capitalists do people expand any humanist cause? Do they further universal health for all? Do they really sacrifice in favor of their principles?  Or do people who subscribe to the system simply propagate the system? Is this really generosity? Is it conformity perhaps?

These are big questions about big systems in an overpopulated human species on a planet with diminishing resources and deteriorating environment. However, my humanism is based in the skepticism that asks these questions. My humanism is one of individual practice. Within the framework of my humanism, money is not action. Money is money. Action is action. Working to raise money is about money. It is not humanist action within the context of my humanist practice.

True generosity entails the exchange of energy and compassion from one human being to another. True generosity is not a check written to one bureaucracy to dispense funds to another bureaucracy. This check-writing may be called philanthropy, but philanthropy is giving by those who have a surplus from which to give. The accumulation of these surpluses most often comes with the sacrifice of humanist values in a materialistic world.

The generous humanist, in my opinion, practices generosity of thought and action each day. This has nothing to do with the expenditure of money. It is a practice of self-development in pursuit of fostering greater peace and joy for all human beings. That fostering of peace and joy for all is generous, but it must come from an individual peace and joy in the practitioner of that generosity. Otherwise, it is hypocritical and ineffectual. Humanist practice is not a job. It is not financially profitable. It is a way of life, which must be supported by labor and financial activity which reflect its values.