Badness Spreads 5 Times Faster than Goodness…

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan, emphasizing that there is a balance between good and bad behaviors and malice emerges by its own when the good deed is not done, said selfishness is the biggest enemy of goodness. Tarhan points that the badness spreads 5 times faster than goodness and said “happiness hormone is released when you do the good deed, and it reduces blood pressure. The good deed must be done as it is the righteous thing to do.”. Tarhan emphasizes the good deed that based on knowledge is a rehabilitation and he advised to teach children how to be good-hearted since they were born in order not to be self-centered.

Goodness releases happy hormone, and reduces blood pressure...

President of Üsküdar University, Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan made evaluations the balance between goodness and badness.

The true goodness is the one accepted by the majority.

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan indicated that notions of good and goodness are genially used as subjective goodness and says “A person accepts the goodness that they favor, however, there is also a social goodness. There is also individual goodness and social goodness just like individual benefit and social benefit. Generally, the real goodness notion is considered as a notion that is accepted as goodness by majority of the society. There is also a goodness notion that is accepted as common values by majority of humanity. That is, the main framework does not change even though many things change within the society.”.

The notion defining goodness is determined

Reminding the Global Ethics Conference held in Chicago in 1990s, Prof. Nevzat Tarhan stated “The most important decision made at the conference was the notion that defining goodness which is ‘do not treat the other the way you do not want to be treated’. This notion was accepted as a notion where all the religions, all the psychology schools met in a common ground.  Almost everybody united over the notion that you should not treat the others in the way you do not want to be treated. In fact, this is also describing goodness as well. That is, if a person treats the others in a way they do not want to be treated, it is considered under the notion of badness. If a person can do things that were done for themselves or a person can do a thing for another person, this means that person was able to overcome selfishness and does kindness. In this case, the decision is certainly made by seeing the bigger picture.”.

On Successful Projects we got Good Health and Well Being label

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan emphasizes that recently studies on happiness psychology have recently increased and said “Many philosophers use a new shelter of capitalism for studies on happiness sciences. The notion of Well Being indicates that the main principle of happiness is, in fact, being well.  Good Health and Well Being are used together. Even, United Nations determined 17 principle for Sustainable Development. One of these labels are “Good Health and Well Being”. In the last April, Üsküdar University was given this label. They examined many of our project including Positive Psychology course.”.

The reason of Immigration is not famine, it is unlawfulness

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan points out that there is a serious injustice of income in the course of humanity and expressed “In Africa there are 2 million people and they cannot access clean water. There is this sort of injustice. There is a constant immigration. People in the countries of Far East and Africa are actually running away from unlawfulness in their country.  It is not certain that whom will knock their door, when they will go to jail or what will be happen if they go to court. In an environment like this, people do not feel that their future is safe and they try to run away from there. Unlawfulness in Afghanistan is the biggest reason of the immigration from there. The problem is actually not the famine.”.

In a society, there are legal, social and moral norms

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan stated that goodness is a very discussed topic in philosophy and continued:

“In definitions made for goodness, it is also described as tendency of objectively doing a favor for another person’s need without expecting anything in return. Legal norms are constituted by the Law, and it is determined in the Law. There are legal norms and limits are certain. ‘There are limits such as If you do this, there is this punishment. If you pass by the red light, you will be fined’. There are also social norms. For example, if you go outside while wearing pajamas, society might judge you but it is not forbidden, there is no punishment for it. However, social norms are determined according to the customs and traditions. There are also other norms. Those norms are determined by morals and conscience. It is called as moral norms. It determines good or bad, and beautiful or ugly. In Physics, there is a second principle of thermodynamics called entropy. For example, there is no such a thing as darkness but it is not existing of the light and there is no notion of cold but it is not being hot in another words, when heat is decreased, cold is increased by its own. This is also called behavioral entropy. If there is no good behavior, bad behavior is emerged naturally.”.

Badness spreads faster than goodness

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan indicates that good behaviors, doing a favor for each other, helping each other and love and affection for family members are lacking in a family, bad behaviors spread on its own and adds “We can imagine a garden. If we do not take a good care of the garden for a year, we can see that couch grass surrounds the garden. The spread face of badness is 5 times faster than goodness. There is a balance of good behaviors and bad behaviors. If you do not do the good deed, badness emerges on its own. That’s why we need to learn to do kindness and teach it.”.

The biggest enemy of goodness is selfishness

Emphasizing that selfishness is the biggest enemy of goodness, Prof. Nevzat Tarhan said: “Empathy is already within the notion of goodness. Certainly, love and empathy yield good behaviors. When you can empathize with others, you can pay attention to needs and struggles of the others.  When the rate of violence and crime increased in California, 6-8-week kindness projects were launched. They put high school students within a Community Service program and they place them in a dormitory, an elderly care home or a child protection home. They submit reports of their activities after 2 months. In that way, children are evaluated and given a note. This act is taught as kindness. When they asked Mother Teresa ‘How world can be a better place to live?’, she said it can be possible by. There is unconditional kindness in showing kindness to one another, and there is also an approach of not letting one hand see the other hand’s giving.”.

Children should be taught to be kind

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan said that when a person left on their own, they have capacity of showing bad behaviors and continued:

“In other words, children must be taught to behave well by an external control. If we do not teach good behaviors to our children since they were born, they can develop bad characteristic behaviors by own their own; they can be self-centered, they only think for themselves, and they do not care for other’s rights. Goodness must be taught to the children. For example, a child can have pure mercy, however, the important thing is the goodness that is based on knowledge. Goodness based on knowledge is a rehabilitation to improve a person’s behaviors. If children learn good behaviors instead of bad behaviors, it helps them to realize people with disadvantages. Life can be taught to them by making them realize people who have less than them. The goal here is to prepare our children to the life, not to make your children happy. That’s why, it is a very healthy practice.”.

Doing Kindness releases happy hormone, and reduces blood pressure...

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan indicated that people accept their behaviors normal as long as they do not experience the natural consequences of their action and they do not pay the price of their action and he continued “That’s why we should certainly learn to put a limit on our actions. People learns this balance. In a brain of a person who does kindness, happy hormones which are dopamine and serotonin; however, this act of kindness are not obligatory. If a person is obligated to do kindness, that is not a true act of kindness. Some associations and foundations make a commitment to people on the condition of donation. That is not charity but a trade.”.

There is a trend towards to “You do the hard work, I am glad to spend the money.”

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan reminds the statement by Cemil Meriç, “A favor that is done unconditionally is a usury.” and Tarhan continues his words by saying: “What is a usury? It is a person’s saying ‘you do the hard work and I am glad to spend the money’. People who tries to earn money with money, are freeloaders. They are people who do not produce added value. People who want to make money without producing added value, actually steal others’ right. What they want is not to produce an added value while having the comfortable life with the power of money.  This is being self-centered. That’s why all the sacred creeds find fault with usury. In people’s lives, there is a trend towards to the idea of ‘you do the hard work, I am glad to spend the money.’ When people let to be on their own, they tend to do this behavior. This learned behavior gives satisfaction permanently in a longer term.”.

Goodness reduces blood pressure

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan said that there are studies on how doing act of kindness reduces blood pressure and adds “If one makes a good deed, their blood pressure reduces. For those who have higher blood pressure, they are given tasks to do kindness and it is seen that their blood pressure was reduced as a result of given tasks. When you do kindness, brain releases less stress hormone. Stress hormone increases the vascular resistance but when a good deed is performed, the vascular resistance is not increased and blood pressure is reduced naturally. Doing kindness benefits both of the parties. If you let children on their own, they become self-centered. This is the human nature. If a person is not educated, they think the world revolves around themselves. If one is educated, they start to think ‘I am a part of life and a social structure in this world’. Once a person is not educated, they think they are at the center of the world.”.

Smiling and donating are acts of kindness

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan expressed that even a smile is doing kindness and adds “when you come to home, smiling at your child and asking about them, are acts of kindness. Doing kindness is the charity. When you smile each other, you tell them ‘You are worthy.’. Kindness must be based on knowledge. When you do a favor for a person who do not deserve and perform bad behaviors, you actually support that person. If an action is based on wisdom, you reinforce, support and multiply it.”.

İyilik karşılık beklenmeden yapılmalı

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, hayatı anlamlı yapanın pozitife doğru ilerlemesi olduğunu söyledi ve sözlerini şöyle tamamladı:

“Anadolu’da İyilikten maraz doğar.’ diye bir söz vardır.  İyilik yaptığın zaman bu kişi hakediyor mu diye muhakkak düşünerek iyilik yapmak gerekiyor. Genellikle buralarda iyi zanla hareket etmek gerekiyor. ‘Sen iyilik yap denize at balık bilmezse halik bilir’ sözü de zaten oradan geliyor ama burada niyeti vurguluyor. İyilik yapıyorsan niyetin karşı taraftan iyi cevap beklemek olmayacak. Doğru olduğu için yapacaksın, hak için yapacaksın. Bunu yaptığın zaman o iyilik zaten ibadet hükmüne de geçiyor. Bizim kültürümüzde rastgele iyilikler vardır. Yoldan giderken taşı kaldırıma sadaka kabul ediliyor. Bu başka kültürlerde yoktur. Onun için bunu kaybetmeyelim. Bizim kültürümüzde bunlar güzel değerlerdir.”

Good deed must be done unconditionally

Prof. Nevzat Tarhan said that what makes life meaningful is to move forward to the positivity and continued his words with:

“In the Anatolia region, there is a saying that ‘doing good deed yields the trouble’. When you do a good deed, it is certainly necessary to keep in mind that whether this person deserves it or not. Generally, we should act by reasoning. In Turkish, there is a saying ‘cast your deed upon the sea, if the fish does not appreciate, the creator will.’. In the basis of this old saying, the intention is underlined.  If you do a favor, your intention must not be return from the other party. You should do it because it is the right thing to do. In our culture, there is random acts of goodness. When you lift a stone on the road, it is considered as charity. This is not seen in any other culture. That’s why, we should keep this custom alive. These are good values that our culture has.”.

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)