the kindness of a stranger essay

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I Have Always Depended on The Kindness of Strangers: Exploring Human Connection and Compassion

• Categories: A Streetcar Named Desire American Literature Humanity

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Published: Dec 16, 2024

Words: 803 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Table of contents

The essence of human connection, experiences that define us, the ripple effect, the role of technology, a call for compassion.

• Bennett et al., 2018 - “The Ripple Effect: Examining Social Networks’ Influence on Kindness.” Journal Of Social Psychology.
• Cohen & Wills, 1985 - “Stress, Social Support and Coping.” Annual Review Of Psychology.
• Holt-Lunstad et al., 2020 - “Loneliness And Social Isolation As Risk Factors For Mortality.” Perspectives On Psychological Science.

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Essay about the kindness of a stranger.

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." ––– Mark Twain The most joyous season of the year in our house is Christmas. All the family gets together, gifts are exchanged and we give thanks for all that we have. This Christmas however, was one that I will never forget. If it weren't for the help of a stranger coming to my rescue, my holidays would have been ruined. He reminded me that a little kindness really does go along way. It was three days before Christmas, snowing outside and the hustle and bustle of the holidays was in the air. Before leaving work for the holiday's, I remembered I needed to stop at the grocery store to buy some last minute goodies for our guests. With the.. more content... My old car had the keyless entry, and this one did not. I ran around to Tyler's (my stepson) side of the car to open the door and get him out, but the door was locked. I reached for the keys out of my pocket and realized that I never put the door key back on the ring. Unfortunately Tyler was only two and could not reach the door to unlock it. I was in a panic. What are these people going to think of me; I locked my son in the car? Should I run in the store and call my husband for help? Oh, I can't do that, then I will be accused of abandoning my son? Oh lord what do I do? After a second or two of thinking, I asked people who were coming out of the store if they could help me and go to the gas station and ask for some assistance. No one would even pay attention to me. One lady said, "Stupid mom, people like you shouldn't have children." Another man said that it was too cold out to walk over there to ask anyone. I replied, "Well as you drive by can you tell them I need help? In an abrupt voice he said "Hell no, I'm to busy." I didn't know what to do. I was on the verge of tears. It was all I could to keep Tyler happy by making funny faces at him through the window felt completely alone. No one would help me, my son was going to start crying soon, and it was getting very cold outside. Finally a man came up to me and asked if everything was all right. I explained my situation to him, and he offered to help.

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Stranger danger research paper.

As children we were taught about a thing called "Stranger Danger" meaning we should never speak to people we don't know as we may be faced with a dangerous situation. The truth is, this teaching damaged us as children who are now young adults who don't know how to communicate effectively with people we do not know. Although the thought behind this lesson we all learned at a young age was believed to be the best thing for us, was it really beneficial or detrimental? Many parents teach their children not to speak to strangers unless they are in uniforms and only when the child is lost. What happens if the child cannot find a uniformed adult, do they start running until they find one? The answer is probably 'no'. Is that setting a filter for who these children become friends with when they are older? Although most parents dream of their child becoming a firefighter, or police officer or someone of the like, you have to ask, "will it be your child's dream job in the end or will it be the choice they make the next time they feel afraid?" Quite often I see the more detrimental side of the "stranger danger" lesson than the beneficial side in that these children are so worried that every new person may kidnap them that they begin to fear the world around them entirely. They are too scared to go.. more content... Where do we draw the line when it comes to this topic without shaping who our children will become friends with in the future and who they see as the real heros? A good start, come up with a better phrase than "stranger danger" because not every person we don't know, is going to be a threat. Instead to teach children to be safe in situations with a lot of strangers, parents should use the idea of "tricky

Stranger in a Strange Land Essay

Stranger in a Strange Land is a book written by Robert A. Heinlein that completely throws away the social mores of the late fifties/ early sixties society. The book opens with a ship returning from a trip to Mars with an interesting passenger, a man, Michael Valentine Smith who was the son of a previous voyage to Mars that was believed to be entirely dead. This was a human raised by Martians, who are an ancient race that has various powers that are discovered later in the book to be possessed by Smith through his knowledge of their language. When Smith gets to earth the U. government, under the pretense that he is not well sequesters him away in a hospital. Smith is spirited away by a nurse and her reporter friend. Smith is taken to.. more content... In the book Heinlein followed and influenced some of the 1960's counterculture. The Hippie movement started in the early sixties and continued in force until roughly 1970 (Hippies and 1960's counterculture). Hippies rebelled against their parents' conformity and many ran away from home to experiment with their lives and what they could do. Heinlein wrote Stranger in 1962, although in letters to his editor he had been thinking about writing the book since the late forties (Grumbles from the Grave), the book was a huge success largely thanks to the 1960's counterculture as the book portrays many of their ideals. Stranger in a Strange Land falls in perfect step with the Free Love movement influencing it in a few ways; in the book Michael Valentine Smith creates a small commune in which sex is common, shared, and without jealousy, sex for Smith starts at a "young" age, although he is a man, socially he has had no experience. This book came about at a time when the hippie movement was gaining steam and it influenced hippie leaders in how they viewed sex the book was written in direct opposition to the social standards of the fifties and it is very different with its

The Stranger Research Paper

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The Stranger Essay

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Descriptive Essay About Stranger

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Schneier on Security

Home Essays

The Kindness of Strangers

• Bruce Schneier
• The Wall Street Journal
• March 12, 2009

When I was growing up, children were commonly taught: “don’t talk to strangers.” Strangers might be bad, we were told, so it’s prudent to steer clear of them.

And yet most people are honest, kind, and generous, especially when someone asks them for help. If a small child is in trouble, the smartest thing he can do is find a nice-looking stranger and talk to him.

These two pieces of advice may seem to contradict each other, but they don’t. The difference is that in the second instance, the child is choosing which stranger to talk to. Given that the overwhelming majority of people will help, the child is likely to get help if he chooses a random stranger. But if a stranger comes up to a child and talks to him or her, it’s not a random choice. It’s more likely, although still unlikely, that the stranger is up to no good.

As a species, we tend help each other, and a surprising amount of our security and safety comes from the kindness of strangers. During disasters: floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, bridge collapses. In times of personal tragedy. And even in normal times.

If you’re sitting in a cafe working on your laptop and need to get up for a minute, ask the person sitting next to you to watch your stuff. He’s very unlikely to steal anything. Or, if you’re nervous about that, ask the three people sitting around you. Those three people don’t know each other, and will not only watch your stuff, but they’ll also watch each other to make sure no one steals anything.

Again, this works because you’re selecting the people. If three people walk up to you in the café and offer to watch your computer while you go to the bathroom, don’t take them up on that offer. Your odds of getting three honest people are much lower.

Some computer systems rely on the kindness of strangers, too. The Internet works because nodes benevolently forward packets to each other without any recompense from either the sender or receiver of those packets. Wikipedia works because strangers are willing to write for, and edit, an encyclopedia – with no recompense.

Collaborative spam filtering is another example. Basically, once someone notices a particular e-mail is spam, he marks it, and everyone else in the network is alerted that it’s spam. Marking the e-mail is a completely altruistic task; the person doing it gets no benefit from the action. But he receives benefit from everyone else doing it for other e-mails.

Tor is a system for anonymous Web browsing. The details are complicated, but basically, a network of Tor servers passes Web traffic among each other in such a way as to anonymize where it came from. Think of it as a giant shell game. As a Web surfer, I put my Web query inside a shell and send it to a random Tor server. That server knows who I am but not what I am doing. It passes that shell to another Tor server, which passes it to a third. That third server—which knows what I am doing but not who I am—processes the Web query. When the Web page comes back to that third server, the process reverses itself and I get my Web page. Assuming enough Web surfers are sending enough shells through the system, even someone eavesdropping on the entire network can’t figure out what I’m doing.

It’s a very clever system, and it protects a lot of people , including journalists, human rights activists, whistleblowers, and ordinary people living in repressive regimes around the world. But it only works because of the kindness of strangers. No one gets any benefit from being a Tor server; it uses up bandwidth to forward other people’s packets around. It’s more efficient to be a Tor client and use the forwarding capabilities of others. But if there are no Tor servers, then there’s no Tor. Tor works because people are willing to set themselves up as servers, at no benefit to them.

Alibi clubs work along similar lines. You can find them on the Internet, and they’re loose collections of people willing to help each other out with alibis. Sign up, and you’re in. You can ask someone to pretend to be your doctor and call your boss. Or someone to pretend to be your boss and call your spouse. Or maybe someone to pretend to be your spouse and call your boss. Whatever you want, just ask and some anonymous stranger will come to your rescue. And because your accomplice is an anonymous stranger, it’s safer than asking a friend to participate in your ruse.

There are risks in these sorts of systems. Regularly, marketers and other people with agendas try to manipulate Wikipedia entries to suit their interests. Intelligence agencies can, and almost certainly have, set themselves up as Tor servers to better eavesdrop on traffic. And a do-gooder could join an alibi club just to expose other members. But for the most part, strangers are willing to help each other, and systems that harvest this kindness work very well on the Internet.

Categories: Psychology of Security

Tags: Wall Street Journal

Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.

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Kindness Starts With One ®

One smile. One hug. One cup of coffee. One person...

Do you have someone in your life who inspired you to be a better person? Did you witness an act of kindness that left an impression? Share your kindness story with the world.

The Kindness of a Stranger

Earlier this week I was at an eye doctor appointment for a second opinion about several diagnoses expected to result in my blindness. I just turned 30. In the waiting room a gentleman began to talk with me. I’m a very private person and was somewhat reluctant to engage in the conversation, but ended up telling him why I was there. This complete stranger expressed more sympathy than nearly every person that I am close to. After a minute he got up and walked over to hand me something. Expecting a prayer card or religious token of some kind, I reached out. Cash. And not exactly a small amount. I was shocked and tried to decline his generous offer, to which he replied “If you get some good news today go celebrate with a nice dinner, if it’s bad news go get yourself a drink”. At this point I was speechless and am afraid I didn’t make a very gracious act of accepting his generosity. I’m still waiting to hear back from the doctor, but the prognosis is not good. I would have needed that drink, but a good meal and the kindness of a stranger has gotten me through. Thank you sir, you really are too kind. What you gave me that day was so much more than money. I not only appreciate it greatly, but promise to pay it forward. Best wishes to anyone out there who is struggling, and a big thank you to all those who engage in random acts of kindness. Amber Springfield, MO

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