Random act of kindness

A random act of kindness is a nonpremeditated, inconsistent action designed to offer kindness towards the outside world.[1]

The phrase "practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty" was written by Anne Herbert on a placemat in Sausalito, California in 1982. It was based on the phrase "random acts of violence and senseless acts of cruelty".[2] Herbert's book Random Acts of Kindness was published in February 1993 speaking about true stories of acts of kindness.

Examples of events or groups

In film and literature

Negative effects

There have been several documented cases when random acts of kindness failed to produce good outcomes and have even worsened the situation. For example, in the case of the 2014–15 floods in Southeast Asia and South Asia in Malaysia, random acts of donations were not reaching their intended targets, rather being strewn about and becoming streetside rubbish that further complicated planning, cleanup, and relief efforts.[12] Additionally, people claiming to help others randomly took selfies on social media,[13] sparking a disaster tourism frenzy of "I was there helping",[14] whereby actual relief vehicles were delayed by the excessively clogged traffic. Additionally there was some theft of relief supplies by pilferers pretending to be among the helping.

An explanation for such negative results is that those acts were random rather than coordinated with people who are experts in the task with a bigger picture understanding of needs, resulting in unintended consequences.

See also

References

  1. "101 Easy Ideas For Random Acts Of Kindness". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  2. "the origins of 'random kindness and senseless acts of beauty'". Improvised Life. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  3. "A Kabbalistic Approach to Spiritual Growth: Part 33 – Lovingkindness and Judgment – GalEinai – Revealing the Torah's Inner Dimension". www.inner.org.
  4. http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/livingtorah/player_cdo/aid/490071/jewish/Acts-of-Goodness-and-Kindness.htm and more generally, http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/10740/jewish/Chessed-Acts-of-Kindness.htm
  5. "Sunday's TV: Random Acts Of Kindness (06/06/2009) - TV Reviews - TV & Radio - Entertainment". www.smh.com.au.
  6. "Web site rewards inner beauty". CNN. 13 May 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
  7. WBRZ News, 5 April 2012
  8. Goodman, J. David (28 November 2012). "Photo of Officer Giving Boots to Barefoot Man Warms Hearts Online". New York Times. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  9. "5 Priceless Ways These People Made Someone Else's Day Just A Little Bit Brighter". Huffington Post. 5 March 2014.
  10. "State of Kind". 22q Family Foundation. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  11. "Chicagoan Ryan Garcia sets out to perform 366 random acts of kindness". ABC7 Chicago. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
  12. "Random acts of kindness hindering flood relief efforts".
  13. "When helping flood victims, don’t take selfies". The Malaysian Insider. January 6, 2015. Archived from the original on January 6, 2015.
  14. "'Disaster tourists' throng flood devastated areas in Malaysia". The Straits Times. January 6, 2015.
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