People have been helping each other for centuries, the saying goes. People cannot live without such help. This help must be mutual, but the way our life turned out is that some people are helping while others are only making use of this help.
Everyone uses the labor of others, and therefore, to not be a thief, you must work and give other people the fruits of your labor for the things you take from them.
It is impossible to weigh how much you take and how much you give, and therefore, to not be a thief, you must try to take as little of other people’s labor as possible, and give other people as much of yours as you can.
Every time you acquire and use an object, remember that it is a product of human labor and that by wasting, destroying or ruining it, you are destroying human labor, you are wasting human life.
Whatever middlemen might stand between you and the object you have acquired, the object has been made by your human brother, whose labor you must respect. The only way to express this respect is by treating the products of your brothers’ labor with care and by laboring for them.
— John Ruskin
The rich, apart from their relationship to the labor of others, expressed by purchasing, have a direct relationship with laborers and servants. Nothing reveals our denial of Christianity as much as the way we treat our servants. People spend all their time serving us, doing the dirtiest, most unpleasant and pointless work for us, and for the most part we think that we are even with them if we have given them the agreed upon payment. But, after all, they are our brothers, and if our lives have turned out such that these people must serve us for money, then the least we can do is establish a human relationship with them.
If they are serving us, then why should we not eat together with them as equals? Why should we not rest, have fun and learn together with them?
Look upon all your gifts and knowledge as means to help others.
The strong and the wise are not given their gifts to oppress, but to help and support the weak.
— John Ruskin
It is not enough that human help should be mutual: those who accept help from their brothers should pay for it not just with money, but with respect and gratitude also.
