On the importance of getting serious

Nicole Curato

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

The challenge for us today is to fight our fleeting impulse to help and instead take part in sustained practices of solidarity

Much has been said about the quality of government response in the immediate aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). Nearly a month after the disaster, we could only hope that lessons have been learned so devastation of such scale will be prevented in the future.

But it is not only government that has to learn from such unfortunate event. Also important are lessons we learn as citizens who have become frequent witnesses of national tragedies. After 30 typhoons and more than 800 aftershocks, now is a good time to reflect on how we, as citizens, could uphold better conduct during times of distress and uncertainty. 

Ethics of the selfie

Interesting debates have occurred in social media about the ethics of witnessing a tragedy. The dichotomy between “helping” and “criticizing” was particularly contentious while others have threatened to “unfriend” those who kept on posting dinner photos of Wagyu steak with monkfish foie gras as thousands of displaced families struggle to find potable water.

The “ethics of the selfie” is also a point of reflection. Should volunteers proudly share a selfie when taking part in relief operations? Do these photos spread good vibes of cooperation and hope or are these cheap manifestations of our inability to overcome digital vanity as Tacloban is reduced to rubble?   

Compassionate citizenship 

These debates, I reckon, are part of a broader conversation about what it means to be compassionate in our troubled times. For moral philosopher Martha Nussbaum, compassion is a painful emotional state based on the awareness of another person’s undeserved misfortune. Such awareness motivates us to extend kindness, empathy and generosity towards strangers who are suffering and in great need of care. 

Compassion is often associated with charitable deeds or providing material support to less fortunate communities without expecting anything in return. The outpouring of support for typhoon victims has been phenomenal—from a couple of young American girls selling lemonade for the Philippines to Zamboanga siege evacuees pooling together what is left of their resources to turn over to the Philippine Red Cross. This, to me, is a less morally complicated form of compassion—we give what we can in the hope that we can put things right again.

The performance of compassion takes a more complex turn when we think about it not only in material terms but also as a matter of thoughtful ethical practice. Compassion requires a great degree of moral sensitivity which informs our behavior. This explains why some feel a level of discomfort upon seeing photos of extravagant meals shared by friends during times of calamity. Such seemingly banal acts are insulting to others’ suffering. They are blatant displays of moral ignorance—a failure to make proper ethical calculations in a sensitive social context.

Breaches of social expectations have not gone unpunished through tweets and online commentaries. For example, “shared” and “liked” over five thousand times is a meme shaming netizens with limited capacity for moral imagination.

Compassion in both its material and symbolic forms is an important currency in the immediate aftermath of disasters. It puts us into action and generates expectations of acceptable conduct in the midst of uncertainty.

A drowning child and a nice pair of shoes

However, as esteemed economist Paul Collier argues, compassion is important to get ourselves started but it is not enough if we want to get serious. 

What we need, he argues, is “a combination of two forces that changed the world for good”—the alliance of compassion and enlightened self-interest. Compassion is important to give credible hope to suffering communities. Enlightened self-interest, on the other hand, acknowledges that to look after other people’s well being is also to enhance our own quality of life. While compassion is a form of moral sensitivity, enlightened self-interest underscores the necessity to support each other because our destiny is inextricably linked to the welfare of others. 

Getting serious requires a transition from acting primarily based on compassion to acting based on enlightened self-interest, or, to slightly revise Collier’s formulation, to act in solidarity.

To act in solidarity is to rise above the language of charity and sentimentalism and move towards the recognition of our obligation to support others. Part of this is realizing that we too are vulnerable citizens not immune from the same misfortune—that the only thing that sets us apart from victims of typhoon Haiyan is a stroke of luck that the trajectory of an extreme weather event spared our homes and livelihood from devastation.

In this context, carrying the cost of assisting others is not particularly charitable or generous but a fulfillment of our basic duty as decent human beings.

Perhaps this is the shift of paradigm required at this point in disaster relief and reconstruction. As citizens begin to experience donor fatigue, it is most important that acts of solidarity do not end up as what philosophers label as “supererogatory” or acts that are good to do but not wrong not to do.

The challenge for us today is to fight our fleeting impulse to help and instead take part in sustained practices of solidarity by consistently devoting our time, money and energy in shaping our collective destiny. Failure to execute this duty, to revert to our lifestyle of living high while letting distant others die is just like letting a child drown in muddy water because we don’t want to ruin a nice pair of shoes. It is only important that we start getting serious. – Rappler.com

Nicole Curato is a sociologist from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. She is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at the Center for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the Australian National University. 

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!