Proof that people are basically good

Humanism’s starting point is the idea that people are basically good. The success of our philosophy depends on whether that statement is true or not. Turns out, it is and the Panera Bread company just proved it. The Panera Bread Company opened a store this past year that is run on a non-profit model. Basically, people pay for their food on the honor system. If you can’t afford to pay, you can still get food. If you can afford to pay, you pay and perhaps pay a little extra to cover the cost of the food of your fellow customers who can’t afford to pay. And – it works!

The good folks at Panera bread didn’t know if this would work because, well, you just can’t ever be sure of basic human nature. And leaving the payment up to the best behavior of your customers is a risk. But it turns out that people are basically good and the number of good people more then makes up for the few who might be taking advantage of this system. Which is good because this model actually pays for itself as a way to help feed the hungry. So double plus good.

The next time someone tells you that people are basically evil don’t believe them. Thanks to Panera Bread we now have capitalist proof that people are basically good.

Be a Good Sport

So the US men’s team had a goal taken away from them during a recent World Cup match. That goal made the difference between tying the game and winning the game. It may also be the difference between the US moving into the next round. Fans are obviously upset. However, the big discussion in America is why the US can’t challenge the referee’s on field ruling or even ask for an explanation of why the call was made. After all, you can do that in American football, baseball, basketball and all our other sports. Seems unfair that what the ref says goes in soccer. Soccer doesn’t even utilize instant replay to help with the ref’s decisions ensuring that at least some of the calls will be bad.

What seems to have American sports pundits in a tizzy is that everyone who likes the sport is ok with the fact that bad calls are made that will impact the outcome of the tournament. Even the members of the US team are unconcerned about what was obviously an arbitrary bad call. Don’t they care? Well, of course they do. But what these critics of the soccer system don’t seem to understand is that soccer players, despite all the professional fouls and faking of injuries to get a ref’s attention, are actually good sports. At the end of the day, they accept the ref as the final arbitrator of the game. Understanding that the ref is indeed human and can and will make mistakes and that those mistakes will sometimes go against you. That’s just part of the game. If you don’t like it play something else where people actually want to listen to you whine.

A big part of being a good sport is accepting the outcome of the game and not being a whiney baby when things don’t go your way. I’m not saying that football players are big fat babies; I’m just saying that soccer players approach their game in a more mature way. And besides, on field instant replays would spoil the flow of the game. Seriously.

To Empathize is to Civilize

Thanks to a friend on facebook, I learned about this really cool video based on a talk by Jeremy Rifkin.  It is really excellent and so I am sharing it here.  In it, Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways it has shaped our development and our society. I particularly liked the idea that to empathize is to civilize and that to civilize is to empathize. That is a concept that resonates strongly with me as a Humanist and I agree with his assessment and ideas on where we need to go as a world community and why. The book this talk is based on is called the Empathic Civilization - which I've linked to on the left. Enjoy.