"People exist for one another. So help them improve, or just put up with them."

After apartheid fell, Nelson Mandela invited former opponents into a Government of National Unity and backed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission under Desmond Tutu. He neither excused harm nor sought vengeance. He worked to reform institutions and, where reform could not be forced at once, he tolerated people without hatred so the country could move forward. This is service to the whole: Improve what you can, and endure what you must.

"People exist for one another" is not sentiment. It's a statement about function. You are a rational, social being. Your actions should benefit the common good. When someone fails through ignorance, weakness, or vice, you have two rational options: Help them become better, or bear with them without rancor. The first choice serves justice and friendship. The second preserves your own ruling faculty when correction won't work. Anything else, such as contempt, rage, or gossip, harms the common good and warps you. Help when useful, forbear when aid would fail, and in both cases, keep your purpose: The health of the community and the cleanliness of your character.

Errors & Corrections

• Don't confuse annoyance with license to wound. Correct calmly or endure patiently.
• Don't demand perfection from others while excusing yourself. Apply one standard, virtue, for you and them.
• Don't "help" to establish a position of dominance. Help to restore their agency and the common good.
• Don't stew in resentment when change is impossible. Accept limits and maintain a steady mind.
• Don't enable vice under the banner of patience. Set boundaries and consequences without malice.
• Don't moralize tribal loyalty. Save the whole, not your clique.

Applications to Modern Life

At work, start with improvement. Give specific feedback, offer a workable next step, and share tools. If the person refuses correction or the situation is not yours to fix, enforce clear boundaries or escalate once, then carry on without bitterness. In leadership, design systems that raise capability: Transparent standards, coaching, and fair consequences. Drop performative shaming.

Online, prefer contribution over condemnation. Offer sources, propose fixes, and disengage from outrage mills that only addict the crowd to anger. In politics, argue policies and processes that benefit the broader public. Stop treating opponents as enemies to be humiliated or destroyed. In relationships, tell the truth once, set limits, and keep goodwill. If the other remains difficult, practice patience without enabling. Across all contexts, measure your conduct by whether it strengthens the shared work and leaves your own mind unpoisoned.

Maxims

• Help if you can; endure if you must.
• Serve the whole; keep your character clean.
• Correct without malice; set boundaries without hatred.

In-depth Concepts

Social Nature

Humans are made for cooperation. Your excellence includes contributing to the common good, not just private success.

Correction vs Forbearance

Reason asks first whether improvement is possible. If yes, correct and clarify. If no, forbear to protect your mind and the relationship's future use.

Justice without Hostility

Justice requires trust, boundaries, and consequences. Hostility adds nothing and corrodes judgment.

Shared Citizenship

Treat others as partners in a common city: Often erring, sometimes harmful. Its improvement benefits you as a part of the same body.

Limits of Control

Other minds and outcomes are externals outside of your control. Your role is to choose the fitting action, whether aid or patience, while refusing resentment which is only your judgment indulged.