# Models and Being Kind to Strangers By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2024-05-30 Two very different vehicles result in being kind to strangers. The first is a culture of respect. In a culture where respect is highly valued, kindness towards strangers emerges via societal obligation. To exist within one's society, one must show a person respect until they have done something against societal norms that frees one from respecting them. Generally, if one respects a person, one treats them with kindness. Thus, one shows kindness to strangers within a respectful culture because the stranger is unknown, and it is much easier to disrespect someone after they have been dishonorable versus regaining mutual respect from a disrespectful starting point. The second vehicle of showing kindness to strangers is a culture of tolerance. Here, tolerance requires accepting alternative ways of existing based on a core understanding that we are valuable at an existential level. In this way, kindness emerges as a behavior to demonstrate social acceptance of a stranger as a fellow human. Unlike the culture of respect, tolerance has no easily reconcilable action if a stranger takes advantage of the kindness. In the respect culture, a stranger who takes advantage of the kindness becomes disrespected and can no longer operate within the society. In the tolerance culture, the same stranger can continue operating under the tolerance meme by saying, "You should tolerate me as I am because it is who I am." Society must oblige based on their norms. In many ways, one can see the fate and history of societies from these two examples. Outwardly, both show kindness to strangers, but inwardly, the foundational beliefs and philosophies are divergent and critical. This does not mean the respect culture is superior, as its structure has many other flaws. Instead, one should be called to understand the models we live by rather than their immediate outputs. We only understand and predict how things might unfold by understanding the models that emerge from our beliefs and philosophies. #### Related Items [[Models]] [[Society]] [[Culture]] [[Beliefs]] [[Philosophy]] [[Kindness]]