Member-only story
The Crucial Difference Between Niceness and Kindness
Niceness is about maintaining the status quo. Kindness is revolutionary.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Gal Gadot produced a video featuring an array of celebrities singing John Lennon’s “Imagine.” It was supposed to be a declaration that we’re all suffering through this crisis together. But it didn’t exactly come off that way. As viewers watched the stars croon lyrics like “imagine no possessions” from their isolated mega-villas, those of us in the real world were losing our jobs, health insurance, homes, and loved ones. Many viewers described the video as “out of touch” and “cringe-worthy.”
Gadot insists she was just trying to do something nice! In a recent Vanity Fair cover story, she explained of the video, “Sometimes, you know, you try and do a good deed and it’s just not the right good deed. I had nothing but good intentions and it came from the best place, and I just wanted to send light and love to the world.”
There’s a crucial difference between niceness and kindness, and an overemphasis on the former, I believe, only protects those in power. To explain what I mean, let’s first take a look at what it means to be “nice.”
