From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   The do-gooders have a reputation for being arrogant; and I think that this   
   reputation is ill-merited. The reason is that I know one of the most famous   
   do-gooders in all of history: Patch Adams. In his interactions with me, he was   
   not arrogant at all.    
   Although he is wealthy and famous, he was willing to reach out to me and   
   answer the questions that I had in a way that in no way made me feel inferior.   
      
   I've known any number of other do-gooders; and they likewise did not come   
   across to me as being arrogant. Rather these were the people who were good at   
   helping people and were willing to put these abilities to use. Whether it was   
   in finding jobs,    
   figuring themselves out or standing up to the people who were bullying them,   
   these do-gooders were able to meaningfully help other people, including people   
   from whom they had nothing to expect in return.   
      
   Who are do-gooders? Mostly people who have figured out something that other   
   people haven't figured out and believe that they can help others get to a   
   better place. Whether through thinking things through, working through   
   personal issues, having religious    
   or spiritual revelations, or attaining one or another kind of success, these   
   are people who have meaningful things to offer.   
      
   If you have been given a gift, why not share it with others? If you have an   
   ability, why not put it to good use? Is it arrogant to want to make things   
   better for other people? Or is it arrogant instead to force people to stay in   
   bad situations or bad    
   thinking, shorn of the attentions of those who can help them come to a better   
   place?   
      
   Really, we see arrogance all around us, and much of it is among people who are   
   against do-gooders. Wife-beaters, child molesters, and right-wing and Muslim   
   fundamentalists who think it their job to subjugate others, are more arrogant   
   than the do-gooders,    
   and they are not doing anybody a whit of good. Some measure of pride is   
   healthy. It protects people's rights and liberties from the abusers and   
   bullies who want to run roughshod over them or enslave them. By the standards   
   of some Christians intelligence,    
   creativity, beauty, science, technology, wealth and democracy can all be   
   regarded as hubris; which means, logically, that it is to arrogance that the   
   world owes what it has. And that includes the Christian's own big-screen TV,   
   SUV, hot meals and    
   representative democracy.   
      
   Even if some do-gooders are arrogant, they come nowhere close to owning   
   arrogance. We see exceptional arrogance among conservatives who think that   
   they have God on their side and that nobody else does, or that they are   
   America and that nobody else is. It    
   is time that things be put into perpsective. Some do-gooders may be arrogant;   
   but they come nowhere close to owning arrogance, and most arrogance belongs to   
   people who aren't do-gooders and are in many cases against them.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)