On Medium, Kindness Has 193 Followers — Justice Has 568,000!
Can we have one without the other?
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On Medium, you can follow topics. Many have. One of the most popular topics is “Justice.” It has 568,000 followers. Kindness has 193.
Here’s the question…
Can we really have justice without kindness?
At least on an ongoing basis?
We’ve heard that kindness is something we’re supposed to pass on. See the article image above. Well…
Not many people are passing it on these days. As fellow Medium writer Brooke Meredith pointed out back in 2019, it’s quite the reverse.
It’s not just kindness. Civility itself is on the decline.
And yet…
We persist in our interest in and calls for justice.
To the extent that Medium is a reflection of American society overall, the picture is really bleak. Here are some of the most popular topics and their follower counts:
- Movies — 1 million followers
- Politics — 2.2 million followers
- Money — 3.1 million followers
- Business — 3.8 million followers
- Technology — 6.8 million followers
Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those topics. But…
Divorce them from human kindness and we’ve got problems. Come to think of it! Isn’t that what’s happened?
Well, it can’t be that bad!
No? How about we look at topics similar to kindness?
- Compassion — 171 followers
- Respect — 31 followers
- Grace — 27 followers
- Civility — 12 followers
- Mercy — 4 followers
The only semi-hopeful one was “Love” which has 492,000 followers. Yet I have a feeling most people, when they think of love, are thinking of…
