Writing Feedback / Being right or being kind, which is more important to you? [3]

Being right and being kind

"Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." - Dead Poet Society,1989 -

Being right and being kind are equivalently essential to the prosperity of humankind. While being right implies one's sense of righteousness and his awareness of universal laws and morals, being kind reflects his ability to sympathize and harmonize with other individuals.

In certain cases, righteousness might prove to be of higher value than kindness and vice versa. Situations that require accuracy such as a calculation in math, a prescription for a disease or an installation of parts in engineering, kindness is of no assistance since an error might render consequences as dire as the student's failing an exam or the patients' death or the collapse of a whole system of machinery. However, when it comes to social interaction, to indoctrinate one's stance is often perceived as a domineering act that might result in dissonance or the partition of the group. The reason for such negative consequences is that each person has his very distinctive, exclusive set of disciplines that might apply only to himself. In most cases, people are so rigid with their disciplines that it is of insurmountable hardship for them to compromise with others.

But what if a face-deformed child is in sight? Should a person be straightforward and tell the child that he has a distasteful face or should the person show him sympathy? This is actually the case depicted in the book Wonder by R.J.Palacio - a book about the incredible journey of a boy with a face deformation, who had every reason to be furious at the world that showed him contempt but learnt to love himself and other people accordant to his mother's indefatigable love, the undying sympathy of his friends and his sister, all of which are acts of kindness. As kindness made its way around, it shatters hope, trust and love. In certain cases, kindness might be regarded as the nobler state of righteousness for knowing when to act kind is when the person is fully aware of social disciplines yet recognizes when to tolerate circumstances that go against his morals.

Conclusively, righteousness and kindness are not two adversaries but rather allies who take turns to utilize moments in a human's life. After all, it is the harmony of the mind and the heart that holds the key to the sustenance and the prosperity of the human's community and its individuals.