Giving Back

Every so often people write articles about  trite, over used, syrupy, or simply annoying words or phrases they would like to see fall into disuse. I would like to nominate “giving back” as in “giving back to the community” or “giving back to his fans” or “giving back to the people of _________”   for dishonorable retirement, not only because it has become such a hackneyed phase and one so often uttered with such mush mouthed piety,  but also because of the assumptions behind its use.  

When one hears talk about giving back or the need to give back to the community, there is usually an at least implied sense of some sort of obligation or even of some level of guilt to be assuaged. Yet a person who came by his success honestly and fairly  has no such obligation and should feel no such guilt. He  would be quite right to reply to a claim that he is obligated to give something back by simply stating that no he isn’t, because he never took anything  that did not belong to him. In fact a person who acquires wealth honestly by selling his goods and/or services has already given back every time he did so by giving the people he sold to something they valued enough to pay him for it. There is no obligation beyond that. Giving charitably to people or organizations that he wants to help or support is a fine thing for a successful person to do - “giving”,  without the “back” and its implications of guilt and obligation. That is the clean way to do it.

Of course there are people who are obligated to give something back. They are the  thieves and con artists of the world, and their form of giving back has a precise name. It is called restitution. The rest of us should do our giving freely, because we want to, not because of any obligation or a need to appease someone.