The Naturally Good Man

The traditional goodness in a man is found in the methods and techniques that have been invented in order to provide for a family and protect them from harm, even if it means the loss of his own life, good men for centuries have given this gift to society. From this gift have arisen many of the institutions of philanthropy in its varied complexity of forms, and whether it is in striving for a cure to disease or being a good dad it has been there since humans first existed. It may have begun, as a curiosity to make things better and slowly became the gift of philanthropy where careers are built upon these high standards of service. The key ingredient here is a whole class of activities and processes called levelling mechanisms. In Anthropology where it is generally used it refers to the distribution of wealth in a tribal environment, whereas here I have broadened it to cover all human activities that produce a fair sharing of resources and power through human societies. The best way to introduce these mechanisms further is to describe how they have influenced human history. Actually they are everywhere and this is the point of this work: to point out that we choose not to see them and continue to believe that life is a dreary and useless exercise in futility; whereas and in fact it is a magical existence where, if you are willing to see it, we are the recipients of countless centuries of sacrifice to make life easier, safer, more interesting and noble. Levelling mechanisms bring a fresh look to established and accepted ideas that may not be true or are fear-based dogmas such as the Earth was once thought to be the centre of the universe and that to go against this belief meant torture and probable death. Many good men died to free our civilizations from ignorance and fear and not only did they create technology and the skills to use them that were passed down as an inheritance, but also democratic ideals and the knowledge that vigilance against tyranny can never be relaxed. Evil deeds will occur if the good is forgotten. Humanity has suffered tremendous blood-loss in order to create the democracies we live in today, was it worth it? We will have to wait for the future to answer that question, yet the real accomplishments are easy to see if we look: One levelling mechanism, the development of The Magna Carta had a tremendous effect on early European societies, it is so obviously a great accomplishment that it occurred, yet so easy to forget…