People can see a wrong done and refuse to expose it because of self preservation.
They will look the other way because they are frightened that they will be an outcast from their “group” of work mates, friends, or family, or could get hurt.
History tells of many occasions where someone has seen something wrong and exposed it to the world. To right a wrong is a wonderful thing and we can all gain from that. Today’s society can gain from more honest people, and people willing to go the extra mile for others, even at personal risk.
In one of my books I found the wise advice that, “one can overcome a fear, when the feeling of fear, becomes less than what the person wants achieved”, one feeling overrides the other feeling (fear). A good example is of the parent who will not do something that they feel is foolish or risky until they are told that they must do it to save one of their children. The fear of personal-risk now is less important than the life of the child so the parent goes and does what they needed to do to save the child. All of a sudden all fear is cast away for love. The loving parent’s heart wretches at the thought of someone that they love being hurt or threatened in some manner.
The society that we currently live in seems to be set up to keep us quiet about dishonesty that we see in the work place. Being workers with a family, a mortgage, children, school fees, school uniforms, debts of all sorts, etc we are frightened of doing anything that may break the income that it seems that we must have to survive. The fear of losing our job can cause us to become quiet about dishonest actions of co-workers or the boss. But even with those threats every now and then we hear of, or read about, someone who has spoken up about some dishonesty or unfairness in the workplace, even at the risk of losing their own job. Moral courage wins the day.
We may fear the reaction of our friends if we tell the boss that one of them did wrong. People complain about society being dishonest and life being unfair, but when someone decides to speak out to right a wrong, people get mad at the person for telling the truth and they can be labeled nasty names like snitch, nark etc. This kind of thinking will allow dishonesty and crime in society. We should reward those who let the truth out to help others.
We may fear that our family will react negatively if we tell authorities about a family member being violent or a child abuser.
I was once put in this situation when I was young and I had to call the Police about someone being beaten badly in the house, and I had much fear about what was going to happen to me physically (I was around 12 years old at the time) because the man involved was being very violent and was drunk so there was no telling what he would do when the Police arrived and he found out who called them – I thought that after the Police went I was going to get a beating that I was never going to forget. But it still wouldn’t have stopped me ringing the Police to stop someone else getting beaten by this person. I never got that beating and my fears never came true, and I did the right thing because I stopped someone else being hurt.
We must cultivate a sense of ownership of our own life and of the planet in general. We need to cultivate a concern for all other people, and desire a greater good for all, and then be willing to step forth and take part actively in the achieving of this greater good for all.
If we are concerned about people, the planet, and of the general direction that society is heading, then we will focus on the good things that we can do to help make the world a better place, and then take some sort of decisive action.
With a general feeling of wanting to be honest, and wanting others to all be treated fairly we will do what it is that we can to stop wrongs, even if it will put some part of our life at risk, or it will take us out of our comfort zone and bring us some stress.
Doing what is right is what is important, and righting wrongs is very important if we want a society that works for all people.
Society today needs people will lots of courage and a love for all people and the planet.
All the best from
James M Sandbrook.
Originally posted on the 6th of August, 2014.