We have a thing called the Golden Rule that says something like, “Treat others as you’d like to be treated,” or “Do not treat others as you would not like to be treated.” It might be that this rule exists just in case you might find yourself going from being in a position of power to being in a vulnerable position. The tables can turn, as they say. But maybe it goes beyond that. Maybe it’s wrong to treat others unkindly, or even to not treat them kindly, because it’s simply wrong, even if you never have anything material to gain from it personally.
There are states of being that we find unpleasant and that we want to avoid. Nobody wants to be anxious all the time, for example, or to live in fear of his neighbors, or for any injustice to befall him, and it seems to me that even if you were assured to rule over everybody forever with no possibility of negative consequences coming your way, you would still be wrong to not treat others as you would like to be treated if, by chance, you happened to have found yourself in a different social position.
If there is suffering in the world that you are in a position to help to eliminate or to ease, then it is your moral obligation to do just that, even if you would be just as well off in every other respect were you to do nothing to help, because you would be better in a moral respect if you help to eliminate or ease that suffering.
I should add that you definitely do not need religion for this; all that you need is humanity, and granted that you are human, you have no good reason not to steer the world away from evil and towards good, in no matter how small a measure your greatest efforts may push it in the direction of good.
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