So I was watching TV tonight, and out of the corner of my eye, I caught an advertisement that piqued my interest. The plot was basic and banal — a young guy got up on the subway and offered his seat to an elderly woman. The advertisement was for the Foundation for a Better Life or something. At first gloss, it seemed to be something I was interested in, and had been sort of questing after for some time now — an organization promoting an attitude much in line with Garrison Keillor’s classic admonition: ‘Be well, do good work, keep in touch.’
But the cynic in me urged me onward to research. And the cynic in me was right in his assumptions, as he usually is — the Foundation for a Better Life is supported by a man who is a conservative christian billionaire with ties to the Focus on the Family cult. So much for the feel-good commercials.
And it got me thinking — in the first place, is it a bad thing for someone who is so clearly focused on his own ideology to spread a message that isn’t really based in any specific faith tradition or religion? Especially when the message is something that applies to secular society and being nice in general? And in the second place, why aren’t there any campaigns for being a decent person that don’t appeal to some fundamentalist judeochristian belief structure?
These questions will perhaps be left to philosophers or later blog posts.
