The Kindness of Strangers Experiment

Some of you may be aware of the famous quote from the film A Streetcar Name Desire by Tennessee Williams, “I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers”.

I have always thought this quote rather interesting..  Going back 60 or 70 years, people were genuinely concerned about one another‘s welfare and wellbeing.  During the Second World War, everyone would rally together and support one another, and this was one of the contributing factors to winning the war.    It didn’t matter if people did not know one another, they simply all worked together for a common cause.

Nowadays, however, things appear to have radically changed.  It now seems that everyone is looking out only for themselves, which I think is really sad.  Through the advancement of technology, we have become insular.  We have the ability to talk to people on the other side of the globe – yet we do not talk to the people living next door.  We would sooner sit down and waste countless hours by “talking” through Facebook or Twitter, than sit down for an hour over a cup of coffee and talk face to face.  What went wrong?

Gone are the days where everyone knew the name of every neighbour along their street.  Gone are the days where someone noticed if their elderly neighbour hadn’t been seen for a few days, and  would go and check to see if they were ok. 

My faith in society has been shaken, hence my reason for conducting this experiment.  I would love to believe that there are people still out there who do care about their brothers and sisters throughout the globe, and are still there to rally to the cause when needed.

Please read this article and take just five minutes to think about the people living in your neighbourhood.  Do you know the name of your neighbour?  If not, why not go and  introduce yourself?  Are there any elderly neighbours that might want some company or assistance?

This is my equivalent of the Police song “Message in a Bottle” – I do not expect one hundred billion responses, but a target of one million would be amazing.

To each of the kind strangers reading this article, please help to make this experiment a success.   Once you have read the article, please copy the link into an email and forward the message onto your friends and family – working together we can make a difference.

Thank you.