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scarp · 4675 days ago · link · · parent · post: Question for Hubski: Why do people give? Why do you?
It's something that's hard for me to put into words. I feel like we're all swept up in the machinations of life on a planet of toil, hardship, inequality, disease, death, and general unfairness that the natural inclination is to ease the pain in some way. It's not a pain that we're always acutely aware of, but more like a sustained background throbbing or a residual headache. And although we try to numb the pain through work, play and artistic expression, it is through charitable work that humanity collectively tends to its wounds.
And in that sense, I do think that there is something to the penance angle -- we in the first world feel some guilt for all of the senseless, wasteful indulgences we take while billions of people still live in poverty, especially when the products of our modern lifestyle are so reliant on the labor of those same people and the resources of the land they inhabit. For me, the most fulfilling form of charity is that which requires my time and energy.