The problem with the do-gooders

in German published 2018-03

The Duden German dictionary adopted the term Gutmensch (do-gooder) in the year 2000.

Is a do-gooder a good person? Or: Is well-meant the opposite of good and is well-meant not the same as well done?

It could be argued that the term do-gooder is often used polemically. In 2015, Gutmensch became "non-word of the year" in Germany.

Every human being who aspires to higher goals (myself included) repeatedly slips back into the role of the do-gooder.

           However, the influence of the do-gooders can have disastrous consequences, as the war in Syria has shown.

In the past there were true believers, who also felt they were better people than their fellow men. The true believer feels superior to the paper Christians.

The term Pharisee is even more pejorative.

The do-gooder, the orthodox and the Pharisee all feel morally superior.

Do the do-gooders have an ideology? Is there a do-gooder ideology?

Most do-gooders are positioned to the left of the center.

They have a rosy worldview.

The Swiss politician Blocher coined the term "the left and the nice".

The nice are for the most part religious.

The do-gooders want to remove all dictatorships in developing and emerging countries, whatever the cost. In Syria, an attempt has been made to overthrow the bad man Assad. As a result, half a million people have died for nothing and several million Syrians have had to flee.

Sure, Assad is a brutal dictator, but can a country in the Middle East be governed in accordance with human rights?

What would happen if a do-gooder was instated with full powers as head of the government in Syria?

Do-gooders can also have a negative influence on development aid. The distribution of second-hand clothes in Africa decimates the local textiles manufacturing. Due to food distribution, local farmers can no longer live on the sale of their products. Clothes and food consignments only make sense in disaster areas. However, this does not shine a light on do-gooders, because they have often been taken over by the helper syndrome.

Only help for self-help gives people in developing countries a boost.

Do-gooders oppose the fact that we support voluntary family planning in developing countries, because we may be subject to racist motives. There is certainly a danger of this, but that does not have to be a reason to make family planning a taboo subject. This promotes famine and the neglect of children who are sent out on the street by their parents, because they can no longer feed their large hoard of children.

         I would like to transplant do-gooders to Africa and see how they use the opportunities there to feed 6-8 children without having access to any contraceptives.

          More than 3 million children die each year as a result of malnutrition and hunger. This number would be much smaller if we were to allow all women to volunteer for family planning.

Now a look at the USA: Why was Trump elected? US voters were fed up with Obama, who was accused by Trump of placing more importance on political correctness than the welfare of the American people.

           Trump is the anti-do-gooder.

Whereby it is unclear how anti-do-gooders are to be classified.