If You Escaped the Meltdown, What Should You Do?

Published in the Washington Post in response to their question: In tough times, do those of us who handled our finances responsibly have a moral obligation to bail out those of us who didn't? Are we our brother's keeper economically?

When Barack Obama declared, "I am my brother's keeper," he stated not just a Christian obligation but a core tent of society. When the social contract is viable, the majority protects the rights of the minority. The obligation becomes stronger when the social contract runs into crisis, because that is the point where common bonds are most frayed. There's also a sense of natural morality at work. Passengers who made it into lifeboats on the Titanic pulled others out of the water. The same happened among the passengers on the recent crash landing of a jet in the Hudson River. So, yes, if you have escaped a collective economic disaster, it's your obligation to help the less fortunate. This is simple morality, and most people abide by it.

Ugly realities intrude, however. During the Great Depression many moneyed interests sat on the sidelines and did nothing but hoard their wealth. Others took advantage of misfortune, and the minority political party became obstructionists. We are seeing a repetition of the same pattern now. It's ironic, given that the Republicans are the party of right-wing religion, that "Am I my brother's keeper?" originated as a sarcastic comment by Cain after he killed Abel (it's also the first question that a human asks God in the Bible). To implicitly side with Cain seems wrongheaded, but particularly so since Jesus tells his disciples that their primary duty is to love one another.

But let's say that someone has avoided the worst of the economic meltdown and actually wants to help. The influence of fear, selfishness, uncertainty, caution, and pessimism still clouds the issue. Leaving aside any religious or moral injunction, we all have a psychological stake in two things that aren't totally compatible: individual survival and social survival. Perhaps the wisest guidance comes from the human body. Cancer, a runaway form of individual survival at the expense of collective survival, ultimately proves fatal. The individual and the collective both perish. Normal cells survive and cooperate at the same time. They are connected to every other cell in the body. They share the same food and air; they are sustained by the same circulation of blood.

With that in mind, the question of what to do comes clearer:

-- Identify with your own situation and society's situation as two halves of one whole.
-- Don't indulge in the illusion that selfish isolation is a valid survival technique. We all need each other.
-- Don't protect your luxuries when others close to you are struggling for necessities.
-- Refrain from blame, which only weakens the social fabric.
-- Remember basic moral dictates like "Love one another."
-- Be generous of spirit in every way, not just in how you handle money.

I think the last point is the most important. In a crisis the temptation is always to contract with anxiety, but no one ever got through a crisis by doing that. The heroes of every calamity are those who expand beyond fear. They don't keep only courage alive but reason, love, compassion, and giving -- the very values that we are here to experience if we want to be fully human. When you are generous of spirit, you consciously side against fear. You add to the expanded awareness that saves everyone, not just yourself.