Good in the world

On the flip side of the evil coin, I hope you all will get the chance to read Peter Singer's new book The Life You Can Save. For those who don't know him, Singer is a Princeton philosopher and applied ethicist best known for sparking the animal liberation movement. In any event, The Life You Can Save is a philanthropic gem written by a genius who doesn't have a theistic bone in his body. The book is a siren call to the developed world and is best described on Random House's website as follows:

This is the right time to ask yourself: “What should I be doing to help?”

For the first time in history, it is now within our reach to eradicate world poverty and the suffering it brings. Yet around the world, a billion people struggle to live each day on less than many of us pay for bottled water. And though the number of deaths attributable to poverty worldwide has fallen dramatically in the past half-century, nearly ten million children still die unnecessarily each year. The people of the developed world face a profound choice: If we are not to turn our backs on a fifth of the world’s population, we must become part of the solution.

In The Life You Can Save, philosopher Peter Singer, named one of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine, uses ethical arguments, provocative thought experiments, illuminating examples, and case studies of charitable giving to show that our current response to world poverty is not only insufficient but ethically indefensible.

Singer contends that we need to change our views of what is involved in living an ethical life. To help us play our part in bringing about that change, he offers a seven-point plan that mixes personal philanthropy (figuring how much to give and how best to give it), local activism (spreading the word in your community), and political awareness (contacting your representatives to ensure that your nation’s foreign aid is really directed to the world’s poorest people).

In The Life You Can Save, Singer makes the irrefutable argument that giving will make a huge difference in the lives of others, without diminishing the quality of our own. This book is an urgent call to action and a hopeful primer on the power of compassion, when mixed with rigorous investigation and careful reasoning, to lift others out of despair.

The book is dirt cheap, currently $14.01 for a hardcover edition on amazon.com at: http://www.amazon.com/Life-You-Can-Save-Poverty/dp/1400067103/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236997847&sr=8-1 Singer is currently on a promotional tour of the U.S., Canada and the U.K. and appeared on Colbert Nation yesterday - it was hilarious.

Singer is a textbook example of secular humanism as its best. If you get a chance to pick up The Life You Can Save, you will see why.

So, despite the fact that genocide might be endemic to humanity, it also appears that we possess the capacity to do a great deal of good - without any need for religious prodding. Maybe our kids stand a chance after all .....