21st Century Benevolence & Human Survival

change-671371_1920

Bottom-line, benevolence is good for individuals, relationships, nations, and the world as a whole  – benevolence is not just moral, it’s essential. Benevolence is a fancy word that means something simple: good intentions toward living beings, including oneself. Benevolence means relating in a positive, well-meaning way. It often flows naturally from empathy, and when someone is suffering, it takes the form of compassion. Benevolent people tend to lead meaningful lives, touch the hearts of those around them, and elicit feelings of admiration.."Benevolence is a commitment to achieving the values derivable from life with other people in society, by treating them as potential trading partners, recognizing their humanity, independence, and individuality, and the harmony between their interests and ours".
David Kelley, Unrugged Individualism

magnifying-glass-1607208_1920

Self-presentation in cyberspace is strategic, as it often predicts success in moving a relationship offline. People experiment and alter their profile construction based on what seems to be successful in attracting others. Obviously, they start by choosing the best photos and videos they can find. Regarding content, many users seek to cultivate a profile that is uniquely interesting, often using humor. The proliferation of smart and mobile devices in social network environments, the social side effects of these technologies, include cyberbullying through malicious comments and rumors, are becoming very serious. Malicious online comments have emerged as an unwelcome social issue worldwide.

 

Despite the positive connotations of benevolence and kindness that most people hold for altruism, that is not what this moral code means. The Encyclopedia of Ethics gives this definition (under ‘Theories of the Good’): “altruism is the policy of always denying oneself for the sake of others.” In other words, every time you attempt to achieve a value—food, a job, a promotion, a gold medal, profit, you must give it up for someone else who needs it more than you do. As per altruism, there are always people needier than you and therefore it is realistically impossible to be truly altruistic.

It is important to decide between morality as caring (an agent‐based ethics of caring) and morality as universal benevolence. The latter has a distinctive conception of social justice that is more plausible, intuitively, than what utilitarianism says about justice, but there are reasons to think that the impartialism inherent in universal benevolence does not allow us to do justice to the value we place on love and loving relationships. For this and other reasons, we should prefer a virtue ethics of caring as the grounding basis for individual and benevolent morality.

Ability, benevolence, and integrity are the most critical facets of trustworthiness. They foster a sense of trust in the leader by followers. Ability reflects the knowledge, skills, and aptitudes of a leader, in both technical areas and general management competencies. Benevolence and integrity are aspects of the leader's character, and require more time and attention on the part of followers before they can be reliably judged. In order to increase trust, leaders need to take steps to project their ability, build their benevolence, and demonstrate their integrity

2 thoughts on “21st Century Benevolence & Human Survival”

  1. Pingback: 2absolutism
  2. Pingback: 1summary

Comments are closed.