The 21 Precepts
11
Do Not Harm a Person of Good Will

11. DO NOT HARM A PERSON OF GOOD WILL.1

1

Despite the insistence of evil men that all men are evil, there are many good men around and women too. You may have been fortunate enough to know some.

Factually, the society runs on men and women of good will. Public workers, opinion leaders, those in the private sector who do their jobs are, in the great majority, people of good will. If they weren’t, they long since would have ceased to serve.

Such people are easy to attack: their very decency prevents them from overprotecting themselves. Yet the survival of most of the individuals in a society depends upon them.

The violent criminal, the propagandist, the sensation-seeking media all tend to distract one’s attention from the solid, everyday fact that the society would not run at all were it not for the individuals of good will. As they guard the street, counsel the children, take the temperatures, put out the fires and speak good sense in quiet voices, one is apt to overlook the fact that people of good will are the ones that keep the world going and Man alive upon this Earth.

Yet such can be attacked and strong measures should be advocated and taken to defend them and keep them from harm, for your own survival and that of your family and friends depends upon them.

The way to happiness is
far more easily followed when
one supports people
of good will.

  1. 1. will: bearing or attitude toward others; disposition. Traditionally, “men of good will” means those who mean well toward their fellows and work to help them.

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