Monday 24 June 2013

The Pride in Helping the Marginalised

Some people help the marginalised, not out of genuine care and love for them, but out of pride. They feel sympathy for these marginalised groups and even guilty, for being in an "elite" position. Catherine Deveny, in the SBS series Go Back to Where You Came From, upon arrival in Afghanistan cries about how guilty she feels for being Australian. The thing is, that one cannot change their background. No one wants to be marginalised or oppressed. However, for some, it is their story of the past and present which cannot be changed. Thus, there is no point in feeling guilty for anyone who is marginalised as one's social or cultural status cannot be helped.

However, such as statement is made out of pride. It is the type of pride one feels for having more or faring better than others. It may not be malevolent, or even be of benevolent intentions, but it is inherently based on pride; it is condescension. This explains why so many in the Third World are extremely skeptical about aid from Western nations. The people of Third Word countries are all too familiar with the condescension shown by many Western aid organisations.This pride comes from being humans with a greater reason to be proud. When there is no greater reason to be proud, we tend to feel envious or jealous of those who fare better than us.

Helping the weak when one is strong makes one proud, but helping the strong when one is weaker makes one feel jealous.

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