Kind and Good, or Selfish and Greedy?

I am currently reading, have just begun really, a very interesting book, “Humankind” by Rutger Bregman, in which he argues in effect that the default for humankind is kindness and goodness, and I have a few personal stories that shed light on his ideas.

On a train from Athens to Piraeus in 1999 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my year living in Athens, I was pickpocketed. I had my passport, traveler's checks, and other valuable and treasured items, including the name and contact info of an artisan I admired, in a case inside an over-the-shoulder purse with a flap closing, which was turned toward my body; my arm wrapped around it.

I also had too many suitcases in my charge, and the train was so crowded that I was standing between the steps to the double doors, being pressed into the divider between the two. I did not know if, had I chosen to retreat down toward the doors, they might open and let me fall onto the rails. I did not move; and looking into my eyes - his laughing face about 8 inches from mine, his body pressed against me, was a beautiful young curly- haired man who I had seen with his friends in the station.

I did not move, and did not feel him move. But Oh, he did. We pulled into an interim stop and he and his friends barreled through the crowds and leapt off the train, “my” young man whooping gleefully. In his possession, of course, my passport case.

So no biggie, a night spent in Piraeus, rather than on a boat to Santorini, a trip back to Athens to the Embassy the next day, cancel the cheques, temporary passport order, temporary ID, never find the wonderful artisan we had known fifty years before, a pretty bad blow to my ego.. But really, no biggie. And I will come back to this story when I arrive, not too long from now, at the end of this tale and my take on Mr. Bregman’s book.

Twice in Oklahoma City, my home for many years, I dropped my wallet in a parking lot and went about my business. The first time, I was at a large shopping mall. A man called me that evening, he had found it, he would bring it to me at my place of work the next day. And so he did, completely intact. The second time I was at a large doctor's office building downtown. Half an hour after I got home and got the credit cards canceled, I saw a nice old Mercury pull up outside, the husband staying in the car and the wife coming to the door with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on her face. I mean, she was so happy to be doing what she was doing! And of course, in her hand, my very intact wallet.

And this year, in 2026, my brother twice - we will not judge here! - left his cross-body traveling bag in a restroom, once in an Italian airport, and once in a London restaurant. Each time, his bag was turned in completely intact.

Back to the unfortunate incident on the train from Athens: Well, it is clear to me that my young pickpocket on the train was being neither selfish nor greedy: he was doing his job, earning his keep, following probably in the family footsteps. He robbed a middle-aged woman from the richest country in the world, one at that time pursuing a controversial war in the region; and she suffered little more than a bit of  inconvenience and some hurt pride. Now if he stole from his granny that would be different, but I doubt that he did. 

His was a job, much like being CEO of businesses that harm people, or animals, or the earth; his was not an attitude toward life and people. So, Kind and Good, or Selfish and Greedy?  I come down firmly and tranquility with Bregman: Humankind is basically kind, and good. And what we are seeing in Washington DC is a total aberration.