"When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.” -- Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison
This is a nice cover-story because it's endlessly plausible. We don't know the circumstances of your life. If you say you're struggling just to get by with your family, we have no choice but to believe you.
And yet, in this industry–and especially in this forum–I know many are following an ideology that values success only at another's expense, and not in collaboration with others. In a game theoretical sense, defectors.
>Most people are busy trying to free their children, spouse, and immediate family
what you're basically saying is that most people are primarily concerned with their communities. that's true and it's not even unreasonable but what's also true is that the communities of most people in positions of power are not marginalized/precarious.
I'm not suggesting either, just that hoarding resources for your immediate family does not sound as altruistic or venerable as hoarding resources for "your community."
i think a lot about this (more than i think about my research). i wholeheartedly agree not because i feel obligated but simply because i'm able to - my life is not precarious (it used to be) and others' lives are. i've argued it from many perspectives (pragmatism, morals, etc) but the simple truth is i'm pained by the fact that other people are living hopeless and miserable lives. so i help and give and sacrifice because i can and it's the only thing i can do.
unfortunately most people simply don't care. maybe they're lucky for that but there's a sartre quotation that comes to mind (i think it's from no exit): the only pain you could've avoided was being ignorant of others' pain.
edit: sorry i was wrong it was kafka
"You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid."
The fact that you are acknowledging what you are feeling about others when they are in a miserable situation and the empathy that you show to them is a gift.
You don't need to research about this more! Just try to do what you can do to others :)