Kindness is not weakness

I am of the firm conviction that kindness is the best policy - the one which will bring us furthest in life and as a species. Yes, in fact, I think the world will become a better place if we let kindness be our favorite reaction pattern when we interact with the world.
There is only one problem in this. There are people who confuse kindness with weakness, and some of these people will do their utmost to exploit such weakness for their own benefit.
And as such, there is only one way to meet that kind of people. They must be kindly, but definitely, be told that the exhibited behaviour is kindness, not weakness. And furthermore, that it must be considered most reasonable that we invest our kindness in people who recognize it as kindness and who therefore will not attempt exploit it.
(Translated from Venlighed er ikke svaghed)

On the topic of (un)natural kindness

Sometimes, discussions continue in directions that are difficult to predict from the beginning. For example, what started in the reflections on whether creators are selfish and continued into more on whether consumers are generous, thereafter continued into considerations on whether kindness is natural to humans.
There might be some truth to the observation that another one of my dear Twitter friends, Garima Patet, put forward in relation to this:

"Often, the higher one climbs in the social context, the greater becomes the danger of demonstrating unkind behaviour. There maybe may be exceptions to this statement. But showing kindness is unnatural to human beings."

On the other hand, I think such an observation on a negative trait in general human character just underlines that we need to insist on kindness and common courtesy - and the higher we climb in a social context, the more people we have climbed above, the kinder we should be - as we should always be as least as kind and courteous towards those we have climbed above, as we should be towards those who have climbed above us.
(Translated from "Noget on (u)naturlig venlighed")

On the topic of common courtesy

The other day, in a discussion about politeness, I was lead to say something, which initially made me happy, but ended up frightening me.
It began with the finding that even though all people seem to have less time these days, this is no excuse for rude behaviour - hereafter, the recognition that because common courtesy does not cost any money and does not take much extra time - well, there is no reason why not all people are polite. All in all quite well. Thus the happiness.
But then I came to think: since there are actually rude people who do not observe common courtesy, there can only be one of two scary reasons for it: either they are not brought up to treat other people with kindness, or they actively make a choice to be rude.
I do not know which one is most scary. But I know that if you are treated politely and with kindness, it tends to rub off. So, hereby a call to all of us to exhibit kindness and common courtesy towards other people at all times.
Not to say that we can not disagree. But let's do it respectfully.
(Translated from Noget om almindelig høflighed)