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If I see one more article or tv spot about "giving back" I swear I'm going to scream!

Posted by Mamaemma 9 years, 2 months ago to Culture
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It's so obvious that this is a successful attempt to shape what people think is good and admirable. Especially when I see stories about children "giving back". When I was growing up children were recognized for their achievements; now only altruism is lauded.
How much would I give to see even one businessman, sports star, or celebrity say "No one gave me anything. I earned it!"

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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 2 months ago
    The other phrase for this sort of thing is to "Pay it forward." I gag just writing it down let alone saying it out loud. So...how about this: "Pay it back, pay yourself, and if there's anything left, give some away to a worthy charity."
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  • Posted by NealS 9 years, 2 months ago
    I'll scream with you if I hear, "It's not if, it's when", again. Actually I already do, scream that is. It helps me relieve tension.
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  • Posted by NealS 9 years, 2 months ago
    Again, we'd be living in a different world if Romney had said, "No one gave me anything. I earned it!"

    I'm about ready to go and "give back" some of the same kind of stuff that was shot and launched at me in Vietnam. We need only to "give back" what our enemies are giving us. I remember something called the Golden Rule, it went something like this: Do unto other as they do unto you, only do it first.
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  • Posted by Bob44_ 9 years, 2 months ago
    I give back based on what I've been given that I didn't pay for. So don't give me that bunk about fire and police protection as I pay for that. Don't say military as I pay for that. And don't say the poor as they steal from me already. I don't think I have anything to pay back because no one has given me anything. Government charity with taxpayer's money has about cleared the issue of paying back. If you want to give, terrific, but don't impose your guilt on anyone else.
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  • Posted by scojohnson 9 years, 2 months ago
    I don't have as much of a problem with people performing acts of charity, as I do with lauding the people that don't work for a living as somehow holier than thou. We have a serious problem with "nobility in poverty" in this country with he goal of making people feel guilty for being successful and working hard.
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  • Posted by Ben_C 9 years, 2 months ago
    My T-shirt reads: "The government didn't build my business, I did." On the "give back" matter I give to a person's strength, not their weakness if I chose to give at all.
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  • Posted by CTYankee 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I don't have a problem with an otherwise vacuous celebrity saying they're 'giving back'... But I have *never* seen a legitimate reason to pressure a 'producer' into that behavior pattern.
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  • Posted by $ Snezzy 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    She was generous in ways you might not imagine. Again, at FHF, she occasionally would overrule the Forum's moderater, Judge Lurie, as Lurie was trying to squelch a questioner who he thought was hostile or argumentative. Rand would say, "No, no, this is interesting. Let him ask his question."

    Personally, she was very generous of her time, spending hours into the late night having discussions with her friends. She was perhaps better known, though, for her occasional bursts of vitriol at people she thought were trying to take advantage of her. I heard her say to one of her fans, "I'LL SUE YOU!" (He deserved it.)

    Monetarily generous? I really do not know. She was very private about money.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 2 months ago
    I am always giving back.
    I give back whenever I kill and eat whatever I can catch or outfight. .
    That way, I improve a multitude of species.
    Too slow or too weak? You can't mate, Jake.
    I even give back whenever I slaughter a nest of hatchlings.
    That way, I control that deficient neglect your nest gene.
    I give back whenever I relax and open my mouth.
    That way, all the cute little pterodactyls may fly in and pick rotting rancid flesh and offal out from between double-edged serrated machete-sized teeth.
    I even give back when I mark my territory.
    That way, my fertilizer helps grow food for prey.
    I'm a good giving back horrific terrorizing billy bad-assed predator.
    Excuse me while I go wash off some gore.
    Dang, is that pancreas stuck on a talon? .
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  • Posted by conscious1978 9 years, 2 months ago
    It's disgusting that 'the message' and its corollaries are so pervasive. 'Apologize for your talent, belittle your accomplishments, and hide your value' because these things are not the result of your effort and focus.

    That idea is derived from the assumption that these things are gifts from a 'god' or the people around you. So, you're immoral if you don't "give back".

    ...excuse me, now, while I go cough something up and rinse out my mouth.



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  • Posted by JuliBMe 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Sure. However, did she ever acknowledge the benefits SHE would gain by being giving to others? Was she a privately generous person? I've read just a few of her books and only seen a couple of her interviews. I don't know. I'm just wondering. And, of course, I'm not talking by force of guilt or any other coercion.
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  • Posted by wiggys 9 years, 2 months ago
    Mama,
    go to the ocean and start screaming because it is never going to stop.
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  • Posted by $ Snezzy 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    After one of her talks at Ford Hall Forum Ayn Rand was asked, "What do you think should be done to help the poor, in your kind of society?" She answered, "I would not stop you from helping them."
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  • Posted by samrigel 9 years, 2 months ago
    I earn what I get and expect others to do the same. Look at all the $$ sent overseas to help the starving families. PROBLEM!! Families are still starving but those in charge of those countries are getting richer. I give to no charity except if I am going to throw something out that is still good I drop it off at the Salvation Army and I DON'T wait for a receipt for taxes.
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  • Posted by sumitch 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Share the wealth". So long as it's not my wealth that is being shared. - Iman Obama
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  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Worse--it's aimed at those who have produced something of value that others don't have, but because there was a world here in which to produce it, everyone else, past and present, who is part of that infrastructure becomes entitled to a part of what you were able to accomplish. Except, of course, that Obama goes one step further and tells you "You didn't build that." The effrontery of this slave-making meme goes back to JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you..." And if you're not willing, they'll use force to extract it from you.
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  • Posted by Temlakos 9 years, 2 months ago
    This reminds me of Gerald Starnes Jr. and Clifton Locey in AS.
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  • Posted by strugatsky 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The reason is very simple -- individualists are difficult to control; sheep are, obviously, much easier to control. What better way to breed sheep than to have each member of a society constantly controling another and being controlled by others? When all the earnings, possessions and ideas are mixed in one big pot, everyone looks at everyone else and controls everyone. The leader then only needs to hold the leash and the world is his.
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  • Posted by JuliBMe 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I listen to Dave Ramsey, too. I don't mind his God talk. I'm pretty pragmatic about it. No one is forced to believe in a higher being. However, I know people need some sort of direction and hope for a beautiful afterlife to help them become the best people they can be here on earth. The people who do follow Christian beliefs tend to be the happiest, least angry, most generous, and nicest in my experience. So, I look at the Bible as being sort of a great instruction book for living and being.

    With regards to the Christian doctrine of "giving", as Dave Ramsey says, it is not a REQUIREMENT and you should always take care of yourself and your family first. However, he also talks about when you are wealthy and debt-free, giving becomes part of your joyful living. I think, if I were to get there one day, it would be fun and enhancing of my overall life-learning experience to be able to give to others (who I choose) who may be in need.
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  • Posted by flanap 9 years, 2 months ago
    Whenever I hear about giving back, I am curious as to the reason why? I hear guys like Dave Ramsey tell people as part of his financial advise to ensure they put part of their savings toward giving. The reason? Because almost all successful people he has ever met have been great givers; therefore, his reasons are not based on a principle from the Bible, which he will quickly quote at any given moment to support his positions, but from pragmatism, which is not a Biblical approach at all.

    If you do not give people valid reasons based on immutable principles from God's Word, then you are simple exchanging one form of self-worship for another with the whole "give back" crap.

    From an Objectivist standpoint, I also do not understand why businesses think they are doing anything special by giving some of their profits to some element of society they believe it is politically expedient for ingratiation. Didn't they trade value for value for their profits? Didn't they pay taxes to society's governmental entities to support the infrastructure that provides a business a place to operate? Unless someone just gave, without strings, money to a business, I don't see what there is to "give back."

    Also, I fully understand what this is all about, but these are the questions absolutely no one, even on the radio, asks. It is just assumed this is a "good" thing to do. What it teaches young people is that you should be thankful the government lets you live (couldn't be God giving you life...that would be basing your life on some mystical entity no one can prove exists right?), so you should show your gratitude by giving something you have to someone who doesn't have. There is no basis in this outside of what the government says you should do. It is all propaganda, Big Lie, agenda driven crap.
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