By Dr. Fantastic
I travel the world on a mission to promote kindness, and everywhere I go I see incredible beauty, wonderful people, and tremendous human potential. But I also see something that makes absolutely no sense to me.
I call it “The Insanity of Humanity.” We are supposedly the most intelligent species on Earth, yet we continue doing things we know are destroying ourselves, hurting other people, and damaging the only planet we have. Albert Einstein is often credited with saying:
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
Whether Einstein said those exact words or not, the message certainly describes much of what we see in the world today. When Is Enough Enough? One of humanity’s greatest problems is greed. There is nothing wrong with success. There is nothing wrong with making money, building businesses, enjoying beautiful things, or creating wealth.
The problem begins when enough is never enough.
How many houses does one person need? How many cars? How many billions of dollars?
At what point do we stop asking, “How much more can I get?” and start asking, “How much good can I do?”
Greed becomes destructive when profits become more important than people, when money becomes more important than our environment, and when personal power becomes more important than humanity.
That is the insanity of humanity.
We Know Better
What makes our behavior even more ridiculous is that we know better.
We understand pollution.
We understand poverty.
We understand hunger.
We understand war.
We understand corruption.
We understand that our natural resources are limited.
We understand that hatred creates more hatred and violence creates more violence.
Yet humanity continues repeating many of the same mistakes generation after generation.
Knowledge without action is useless.
If you know something is destroying your home and you continue doing it anyway, is that intelligent? Mother Earth is our home. There is no Planet B waiting for us. Greed Has Infected Our Priorities Look at what humanity is capable of accomplishing. We can build skyscrapers, send spacecraft beyond Earth, communicate instantly with someone on the other side of the planet, perform extraordinary medical procedures, and create technologies previous generations could never have imagined.
Yet millions of people still struggle for basic necessities. How can humanity possess so much knowledge and technology and still fail to take care of one another? Again, the insanity of humanity. The problem is not simply a lack of resources. Too often, it is a lack of priorities. We have become obsessed with getting instead of giving. I believe humanity needs to rediscover something very simple: Giving is better than getting. Imagine what would happen if the smartest minds, largest corporations, wealthiest individuals, governments, communities, and ordinary people began measuring greatness not simply by what they accumulated, but by what they contributed.
As I say:
“Greatness is not what you achieve for yourself; greatness is what you do for others.” — Dr.
Fantastic
Kindness Is Not Weakness
Some people hear the word kindness and think it sounds soft.
They are wrong.
It takes strength to be kind when others are cruel.
It takes strength to tell the truth when lying would be easier.
It takes strength to give when everyone around you is taking.
It takes strength to protect our planet when destroying it might make you more money.
Kindness is common sense.
That is why I believe the answer begins with The Three Commitments to Kindness:
- Be Kind to Yourself.
Take care of your body, your mind, your character, and your future. - Be Kind to All Others.
Treat human beings and all living creatures with dignity, compassion, respect, and kindness. - Be Kind to Mother Earth.
Protect the planet that gives every one of us life.
Think about how different our world would be if humanity actually lived by those three simple commitments. We Don’t Need More Greed. We Need More Greatness.
I am not against capitalism, success, wealth, innovation, or ambition. I am against allowing those things to become more important than humanity.
Make money. Be successful. Build something extraordinary.
But while you’re doing it, do some good.
Help somebody.
Protect something.
Teach somebody.
Feed somebody.
Encourage somebody.
Leave this planet a little better than you found it. Your bank account will eventually belong to someone else. Your possessions will eventually belong to someone else. Your body will eventually return to the Earth. What remains is the difference you made while you were here. Humanity Has a Choice I refuse to believe humanity is doomed to continue this insanity. We can change. But change doesn’t begin with somebody else. It begins with you and me. Every morning we have another opportunity to decide what kind of human being we are going to be. Choose kindness over greed. Choose compassion over hatred. Choose truth over deception. Choose giving over taking. Choose humanity over ego. We don’t need another thousand years to figure this out. We already know what to do. Just Be Kind. That may sound ridiculously simple. Maybe it is. But sometimes humanity is intelligent enough to make incredibly complicated things and stupid enough to ignore the simplest solutions.
It’s time to end The Insanity of Humanity and begin a new consciousness based on kindness, trust, compassion, and respect.
Be Kind. Be Fantastic.
You are Fantastic.
Dr. Fantastic
Founder, The Foundation for World Harmony
The Kindness Revolution