THE WORLD TODAY

CHAPTER ONE: KINDNESS

A series of ramblings about the world today from a potentially cynical point of view.
Kindness.
It pains me to say it but there is so little kindness in the world, everyone seems to be so caught up in their own business and lives that they forget how to treat others. In most situations, people let the door go instead of holding it. We do not like to think of our world necessarily as a horrible and negative place but the ever-growing platforms of social media with people broadcasting their life, we often forget what it means to be kind as we become more competitive and obsessive over our lives. We often talk to strangers in a blunt manner, as though we are the only person in the world who has any sort of problems. However occasionally a small kind gesture circulates on social media and people seem to feel that their faith in humanity is restored. This consistently confuses me as it seems that just a small act of kindness fulfils people and gives them a false feeling that the world is a nice place. It is not wrong to have a positive view of the world and it is in fact, something I envy of others, however a small kind gesture should inspire people and not make rely on others to give all the kindness. We feel the need to point out and praise a person for being kind when surely it should be seen as human nature to aim to be pleasant? I, myself am guilty of claiming to be a horrible person when I try to be kind towards people as it seems that no matter how hard people try, someone else is always going to be kinder and better at it. For a person that is not always kind by nature, it is difficult to always do the "right thing" however this does not mean that we should not try. For something as contagious as kindness, it is surprisingly rare in today's society. We are told as we grow up that is it important for us to make mistakes however we are often reprimanded when we make these mistakes, this is often misleading and therefore is a potential factor for why there is so little kindness, because people are not entirely sure on how to be kind and how to aid others. Kindness does not come naturally to everyone and a person's upbringing plays a large role in how they see and portray kindness which – when in conversation with someone with different views – can be difficult. What can only be asked is for us to try our best to be kind and loving as much and often as we can because we do not know how other people are feeling or about a person's upbringing, you only know as much as they care to tell you and that should be respected. So let us go and be kind, to spread some much needed happiness and love in to our world today.