"We don't have a moral obligation to everyone in the world, that would be impossible. But we do have a moral obligation to everyone we come up against, those in our "moral space" so to speak."
Andrew McCall Smith
Have we in America lost our sense of moral obligation to each other? As the generations pass are we growing more and more selfish? Have we come to consider each other as less valuable and more trivial in our strive for personal independence? Are we coming to lose sight of the fact that we must both give and take, need and be needed by those around us to fully express our own humanity? Anything less than that is a hypocritical assumption that our lives could be lived most perfectly when we manage to avoid giving or asking anything from anyone.
Jesus fielded a similar question, you can read about it here
3 comments:
Hmmmmmm....I like that!
i find giving so much easier in general. but i do like the fact that smith has essentially freed (me) from guilt at not doing more in the world at large and has also encouraged me to do more in my moral space.
That's the way I felt too Joy. I've always been overwhelmed at the thought of making a difference in the world at large. At times it has paralized me to the need at hand but this idea, along with Jesus's command to help my neighbor allows me to respond to one without feeling guilty I can't respond to all.
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