One of the questions we often get is this: where did you get the phrase “Conspiracy of Goodness™?” While “conspiracy” is a word that seems to be so modern, the origins of the Conspiracy of Goodness™ start with World War II.
So, here’s the story…
Not many people know that during World War II, the community of Le Chambon, France saved 3,500 Jewish people from the Nazis. Without any formal organization and at great risk to their own lives, the villagers managed to hide thousands of strangers (many of them orphaned children) for several years. In fact, there were countless rescuers like this all over Europe during the war.
Decades later, in 1987, a Rabbi was giving a talk about that chapter in history and recounts:
“Once, when I was speaking of the ‘conspiracy of evil’ in WWII: a Dutch rescuer in the room stood up and asked, ‘Do you think I could have hid Jewish families in my home without the active cooperation of the mailman, milkman, and the neighbors? For every one person saved, there were seven who rescued.
There was a conspiracy of goodness.’” 1
Source: US Holocaust Museum
When we heard those three words — Conspiracy of Goodness™ — everything we had discovered with the Goodness Exchange made sense.
The Goodness Exchange team had been single-mindedly celebrating goodness and curating the web for insight and innovation, and all the while our articles had been pointing to one Conspiracy of Goodness™ happening right under our noses. There are countless thought leaders all around the world whose ingenuity, courage, and relentless perseverance are helping to rescue our shared futures. But unfortunately, too few people know about them.
The problem is not the lack of goodness in our world, it is our lack of awareness about all that progress.
There are innovators out there saving the rainforests using old cell phones, making skateboarding a cornerstone of progress in Afghanistan, and discovering our human history using satellites to do unimaginable archeology. There are thought leaders doing the seemingly impossible: growing ears from apples, teaching the blind to “see” like bats using a kind of natural sonar, and figuring out how a family can put a whole year’s garbage in one mason jar. Not to mention all of the wonders of nature that no one knows about!
The most beautiful part? We don’t all have to be the ones climbing the trees, on the front lines, or spending years of our lives in labs to help the Conspiracy of Goodness thrive. We can be like the milkman, the mailman, and the neighbors of Le Chambon, and create a community that shares and celebrates goodness. No, those people starting the nonprofits, running the organizations, or making discoveries, those doers need a community of people behind them to make their work reach its full potential! And that’s why we have the Conspiracy of Goodness.
Human beings thrive on curiosity, challenge, and cooperation. We are at our very best when situations call for courage, compassion, creativity, and collaboration. And we persevere in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, continuing to overcome in bleak places because of our ability to see beauty, humor, and wonder in the world around us, no matter the blight. And that is all made easier when we have a community to support us and to lean on.
Perhaps it’s time to remember all that and begin a conscious effort to follow our strengths. We need to start celebrating what we are all doing to make this a better place!
- Dr. Lynda
Don’t miss out on a single article!
Enjoy unlimited access to over 500 articles & podcast that give you a positive perspective on the state of the world and show you practical ways you can help.
