I am a Rock

I am a rock or so sang Simon & Garfunkel in their 1966 hit (well it got to number 3 does that count) For those that don’t know that song and given that it is approaching 50 years old there may be some, it discuss an individual who has decided to close himself off from love and friendship and become “a rock”.


This of course is unusual within the context of the human condition because we are by nature social creatures, we seem to have a built in need to communicate and interact with others and people who choose a solitary life are not well regarded by the rest of us. Being referred to as a “loner” is seldom found in a complimentary sentence.

On the other hand all of us exhibit a bit of the “Greed is good” attitude of Gordon Gecko from the 1980’s film Wall Street (now that I have started with the old cultural references why stop). To paraphrase the theme of this speech he credits “greed” for love, life, etc with being the driving force of humanity. To gather to oneself that which you desire if you will.

To put it another way there is a bit of selfishness in most of us, which at a minimum desires that those we love are first among equals.

But the people who have impact on us and that we eulogise are the unselfish, Jesus, Ghandi, Mother Theresa and the homeless guy on the TV the other night who gave a silly TV presenter one of his few dollars when he asked for some cash as a prank. To name but a few.

And what about Eugene Gifford Grace, who I hear you ask, he was the President of Bethlehem Steel for almost thirty years from 1916 – 1945 at which time this was the second biggest company in America employing 283,000 workers and Eugene was the highest paid person in America (the taxes at that time were crippling claiming two thirds of what he got paid). So in his day a prominent and powerful man who most of us have never heard of because he was not focused on helping his fellow man he was a business man. Before any one thinks I am maligning Eugene I am not, apart from a business man he was also very philanthropic and supported many charities and the like.

My point is that we are social beings by choice and we cherish the people who improve our society at the most human level and scale.

So why then do I get the feeling that we are forgetting the social contract which is implied in this arrangement?

That is that you need to put back in at least as much as you take out or the system won’t work, or it may continue to work but you are relying on someone else to put in additional effort to make up for your lack of effort.

If we think of our society as a bank account to maintain status quo then as much money needs to go in as is drawn out, otherwise we are eroding our balance (quality of our society) if we all contribute a little extra then the balance will increase and our “societal capital” will improve. Too much “greed is good” and not enough Ghandi and the society we live in becomes very unpleasant.

My challenge for today is what did you give back today, it doesn’t need to be a big thing because all the little things add up, just think about your contribution to your corner of the world are you a contributor or a spender.