Who Cares?

Somehow, virtue in America has become defined as caring.  Whole industries
have grown up around caring and compassion.  We care for children, the elderly,
victims, criminals, pets, endangered species, the environment, and on and on.

From the time we are born, modern Americans are preached to from the pulpit,
from the school room, from the media, and from our politicians...if you don't
have compassion, you are not a virtuous person.  Your duty is to care.

And, truly, having compassion and caring is a virtue.  It's just not the only
virtue, or even the main virtue.  Other virtues such as fairness, justice, truth,
honesty, open-mindedness, and practicality remain equally or more important,
depending on the specific situation.

Everyone wants to protect their child from making tragic mistakes or falling
into tragic circumstances.  That's a worthy goal, but finding the elusive line
between protecting and coddling is much more difficult.  Where does
protection interfere with normal, healthy child development?

The truth is, caring, by itself, is not enough.  Caring does not relieve you
from the responsibility to make correct decisions.  Caring does not make
you more virtuous or intelligent than another person who cares, but who
makes different choices about how to show their compassion.

Caring is easy...choosing correctly is hard.  And, good intentions can be
manipulated.

Politicians will use caring to manipulate and control voters for power and
votes.  Vote for me!  I'm for the poor, the downtrodden, for you...and my
opponent is basically a fascist who doesn't care for anybody.

Educators use compassion as a tool to manipulate minds.  Maybe we
can't teach religion in schools, but we can teach the causes that we
believe in...and, if you don't agree, you're probably a fool, anyway.

Religion teaches compassion to manipulate behavior.  Nothing wrong
with that, depending on the behavior that's being encouraged.  Helping
the poor is good...beheading infidels is not-so-good.

Even the media plays on compassion in it's search for ratings.  Am I the only
one that sees a dichotomy between the anchor stating how badly they
feel for the person in the situation, and the field reporter shoving a
microphone in the face of the person stuck under the car and asking them
"How does it feel to have a two-ton car stuck on your chest?".

Even friends and family will attempt to use your compassion as a way to
manipulate you.

So, be as caring and compassionate as you wish.  It is a wonderful quality.
But be aware that unscrupulous and crass individuals are out there, who will
try to use your good intentions to their advantage.