Humans have a moral obligation to help other humans.
He who wishes to preserve his life at others' expense should
also, when it is necessary, be ready to give it up for their sake.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Social Contract, 1763
The Social
Contract is certainly quite problematic by today's standards in that
it asserts that the individual must follow the orders of his prince,
etc. However, at the time it was important in recognizing that both the
leaders and the led have obligations to the other based on their
membership within a society.
This theory can be generalized to be a part of the relationship
between any two individuals. You watch out for me and I'll watch out
for you. We've seen this in many places before. From the
Golden Rule - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - to the
Army's "Loyalty to the unit" to the Christian thought that "You are your
Brother's keeper," it's a pretty common idea.
"United we stand, divided we fall." We've heard it many times before.
Why? Because it makes a lot of sense. We're all in this world together
and it's all we can do to stay afloat. It's our responsibility to help
our fellow human out, just as we would expect others to help us out.
We do not live in a vacuum, we live in a society. Unless you can
honestly say that NO ONE in this world has ever helped you out, and no
one ever will, you are part of the exchange of human decency. Nearly
everyone's ancestry has been oppressed somewhere along the line - many
recently. Imagine if no one had helped them out.
Related Pages
The work of each individual helps
Once you do something, others will join you
Pitfalls of volunteerism without activism
So you're ready to get involved
Republished with permission from
Activism 101 by kerig@sas.upenn.edu