What is charity? Why do we need charity?

Charity is one of the outstanding qualities of China tradition. Our ancestors began to do charity thousands of years ago, and the development from generation to generation has been passed down to today. In modern society, the economy has developed, the material has been enriched, social security has been provided, and the living standard has been improved. Do all these changes mean that we can stop charity? Is it possible to transfer charity to the government and enterprises? To answer these questions, we must first understand what charity is.

Charity is the origin of human nature.

Specifically, charity comes from the goodness of human nature, that is, it is natural and human nature that makes people human. Mencius once said that human nature is good. When a child playing by the well is about to fall into the well, everyone will lend a helping hand. This is subconscious-driven behavior. Charity begins with sensibility and ends with rationality. Perceptual emotion is the motive force and beginning of charity activities, and then rational consciousness determines the development direction of charity activities.

A few days ago, the media reported that there was a security guard in Xi 'an. When he saw someone fall from a height, he immediately reached out his hands to catch it, but the security guard finally died because of the impact. If he thinks rationally first, as some people do, he may choose a more reliable rescue method or choose to stand by and no one will accuse him of suicide. However, this veteran security guard made a gesture of supporting life, which is precisely the respect for life and the pursuit of good human nature.

In the animal kingdom that abides by the survival principles such as the law of the jungle and the survival of the fittest, we often see similar behaviors of helping, caring and saving each other. When similar people's lives are in danger, they will definitely stand up and never ignore them. As an advanced animal, human beings have developed with the help of similar animals. We not only care and help people who are related by blood, but also sympathize with our compatriots who encounter difficulties and disasters, take out money and even pay blood and life. This is the natural origin of charity of our ancestors, and it is also one of the important characteristics that distinguish human beings from animals. Human beings are conscious and take the initiative to carry out charitable activities and behaviors. This is the origin of humanity that we do charity through genetic inheritance today. As a friend said, charity is addictive, which is actually due to human nature. It stimulates the soul's pursuit of goodness and the subconscious's yearning for beauty through the feedback of behavior.

Charity is the welfare of the weak.

Since ancient times, the development of human society has been unbalanced. Due to the differences in geographical environment, historical development priorities, individual physical and intellectual abilities, and the arrival of natural and man-made disasters, there are significant differences in economic conditions and uneven living standards among countries, regions, people and individuals. In countries with rapid economic development, the living standards of the vast majority of the population have generally improved, and absolute poverty has become relatively rare.

However, for all kinds of people who are lonely, widowed, disabled, destitute, suffering from misfortune and losing their ability to work, they still need government social security and charitable assistance to help them tide over the difficulties and solve their basic living problems. Therefore, charity is the welfare of those vulnerable people who are still poor. Without charity, their survival becomes a problem. Members of society can balance social resources through charitable activities, so that all members of society can enjoy the material and spiritual achievements brought by social development. This is an inevitable choice to build a harmonious society with human destiny, and it is also an inevitable requirement for precision poverty alleviation to win a well-off society.

Starting from the theory of diminishing marginal utility in economics, a person will have a sense of satisfaction when consuming a commodity, and this sense of satisfaction will decrease with the increase of the number of consumer goods. At this time, the redistribution of social products beyond the balance point through charitable activities can further meet the needs of vulnerable groups, make the utility of the whole society increase continuously, and thus drive the increase of social satisfaction and happiness. Therefore, we do charity not only for the instinctive pursuit of goodness, but also for the relief and care of the socially disadvantaged groups; It's not simply that we want to do it, we can do it, but that we should do it, we need to do it, and we need to persevere in charity. It is also necessary to encourage people around us to participate in charity, so that vulnerable groups can get better help, improve their plight and lay a solid foundation for their own development.

Charity is a purifier of spirit.

For a long time, with the rapid development of economy and the great enrichment of material life, the decadent ideas of money worship and money supremacy have quietly impacted people's inner world. Relic forgetting righteousness and seeking profit have corroded many people's hearts, and people's deep consciousness has been covered with the thick dust of extreme egoism. People often say that I have a lot of material wealth, except health and happiness. Yes, many people in life are in sub-health and sub-happiness, and they are exhausted in trivial life and busy work. In the long run, most people will feel depressed and depressed.

Then, if we take a trip and exercise once, we can get relaxed and comfortable. So, how can our hearts be happy and satisfied? Where should our spiritual destination go? Some people put their spiritual home in religion, go to worship several times, attend several lectures and volunteer in temples, and they can also get peace of mind. For most people without religious beliefs, charity activities can be a purifier of people's hearts. We take out part of our own funds and do some charitable activities in person to help those in need, which can purify our hearts, restore our spirit to rationality and purify our consciousness. I guess people who do bad things are restless, tasteless and unable to sleep. On the contrary, people who do good deeds are happy, have a stable sleep and are full of energy. Therefore, I often say that charity is good for health, and charity is a purifier of people's hearts. Doing a little charity is good for physical and mental pleasure and helps to prolong life.

Charity is the stabilizer of society.

Objectively speaking, human society has not achieved real fairness and justice until today, and it is even full of all kinds of discrimination and prejudice. It is common for the rich to bully the weak and the rich to bully the poor. Various social contradictions such as the contradiction between the government and the people and the contradiction between the rich and the poor still exist. Political progress, economic development, cultural prosperity and social civilization have accelerated the pace of social fairness and justice. Among them, charity has played an irreplaceable role. Doing charity can make the government and citizens understand each other, which is beneficial to the communication between the government and society; It can make the rich and the poor contact with each other, ease the contradiction between the rich and the poor, narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, and be conducive to social harmony and stability.

Marxism holds that contradictions and struggles are the driving forces of social development, but some unstable factors will inevitably appear in this dynamic system. When we cook at home, we use a pressure cooker. As we all know, the pressure in the pressure cooker is very high, which is the guarantee for the work of the cooker. But if the pressure is too high, it is likely to explode, so the pressure cooker needs to be equipped with a safety valve. Under the action of the safety valve, the pressure cooker can work normally under a certain pressure.