The 36 People That Sustain the Whole World Work

Neil Gaiman is a talented writer who has brought some truly extraordinary literary works to life in the world. Although I have been much more of a non-fiction reader over the last couple of decades, I would strongly recommend The Graveyard Book and his Lucifer graphic novels (more on those here) to you.

Recently, I started digging into his Sandman graphic novels (So far, so good!), and in passing, it mentioned the story of the 36 Tzaddikim:

They say that the world rests on the backs of 36 living saints – 36 unselfish men and women. Because of them, the world continues to exist.

I was fascinated by that concept, so I looked it up to see if it was a real thing. As it turns out, it was.

It’s from the Jewish Talmud, although there is apparently debate among Jews about whether it’s meant to be figurative or literal.

Here’s the ChatGPT explanation of the concept:

In Jewish tradition, the “36 hidden righteous” are 36 unknown, humble people whose goodness helps sustain the world.

The idea is that civilization may survive not because of the powerful or famous, but because of a few deeply decent people quietly carrying moral weight in the background.

It’s the belief that there are always a small number of truly righteous people — often invisible, ordinary, and uncelebrated — whose existence is part of what keeps the world from collapsing.

You know something? I believe this. Not the part about there literally being 36 righteous people who the whole world depends on, but the idea that our whole society rests on the backs of humble, unknown people whose goodness sustains it.

In other words, leaders, inventors, business tycoons, laws, and economic policies matter. But ultimately, what matters most is the quality of the people in a society. Are they good people? Do they want to work for what they get? Do they want to make the world a better place? Are they selfish or do they care about other people, too? Does what happens to future generation of Americans matter to them? Past generations of Americans, flawed though they may have been, seemed to at least mostly have their heads screwed on straight when it came to questions like these.

If we go back to let’s say, the Greatest Generation, we find people who aspired to be moral, honorable, and prove their worth with their character and accomplishments.

That changed over time, and eventually, as the Internet and the social media age started to take hold, we morphed into a culture that became much more obsessed with victimhood and gaining fame.

Today? It feels like we’ve become a society that, for far too many people, seems to equate your value as a human being with how much attention you can get by almost any means necessary.

This is why Bonnie Blue had sex with 1,000 men:

It’s why Clavicular became a well-known influencer by telling people that the only thing that matters about you is your looks:

It’s why numerous influencers have publicly tormented Erika Kirk, not because she did anything wrong, but because going after the wife of the most prominent assassination victim since MLK is a great way to get people talking. It’s 100% immoral, soulless, selfish behavior by horrible human beings:

Of course, it’s no coincidence that as our society has embraced these kinds of values, it has also rapidly deteriorated.

That’s because the more your life solely revolves around your needs, your wants, and your feelings at the expense of everyone else, the more depressed, anxious, mentally ill, and, let’s face it, useless to the rest of humanity, you’re likely to become.

So many people believe the more people know your name, the more important you are, but not only is that false, it’s harmful. By definition, the vast majority of people can never achieve any degree of fame. Even if they do manage to “go viral,” then they have to find a way to do it again and again and again, usually by sinking lower and lower into the sewer. This often creates a selfish mindset where all human decency and concern for other human beings have to be shoved aside to do what it takes to get attention. Meanwhile, even if it works, do you like who you see in the mirror after doing it? Probably not. Do you immediately feel pressure to go even further to do it again? Probably so. Did you make anyone’s life better? Again, probably not.

So, let me suggest an alternate way of looking at life, one that philosophically fits with that story about the 36 righteous people who hold the world together.

Instead of seeking fame, seek to do the right thing. Instead of being obsessed with yourself, look out for yourself, but look out for other people, too. Make your own life better, but don’t do it at everyone else’s expense. Treat the people around you like they matter, because they do.

It’s true that people who think that way typically aren’t the ones who get the most attention, but back in the real world, where it matters, they’re the ones who “sustain the world.”

Some people get intimidated by this concept because to them, it means, “So, are you saying I have to devote my life to helping the poor, like Mother Theresa? I like playing softball on Saturdays. Do I have to give that up to start working in a soup kitchen? Heck, I’m not a billionaire. I’m not Mr. Beast. What can someone like me even do that matters?”

There is nothing Elon Musk, Mr. Beast, or even Donald Trump can do that will do more to improve the quality of life more than tens of millions of Americans committed to doing the right thing when they can, with what they have, where they’re at.

What could that mean day-to-day? A lot of things, great and small. Like…

* Taking your shopping cart back.

* Being kind and patient to the people serving you in a desperately understaffed restaurant.

* Giving someone you don’t know a compliment you think they deserve.

* Buying a week’s worth of groceries for someone who needs them.

* Letting someone merge onto the freeway.

* Helping a friend move.

* Being the guy who picks up someone’s wallet that they’ve dropped and handing it back to them.

* Taking someone a meal after a death in the family.

* Encouraging someone who’s down.

* Letting someone with just a couple of items go ahead of you at the grocery store.

* Stopping to help someone whose car has broken down.

* Taking someone a package that was delivered in error to your house.

* Coaching Little League or teaching Sunday school.

* Giving someone who needs it, food or clothes you no longer need.

* Giving someone you don’t know condolences because someone who mattered to them died.

* Agreeing to watch your neighbor’s dog when they have an emergency.

* Anonymously picking up the check in a restaurant for a soldier and just writing “Thank you for your service,” on the bill.

We could go on and on with small things, but here’s the thing: You don’t have to devote your life to serving other people. You don’t even have to do all these things. Just do a few. Get into the spirit of it, and you know what will happen?

It won’t make you famous, and the whole world won’t step up to pat you on the back for being such a good person. But you’ll be making the world a better place. You’ll be setting an example for other people to follow, and guess who will know what you’ve done? YOU WILL. You will know that you’re one of the people helping your neighbors, helping your country, and making the world a better place.

That matters because there is no attention you can get or thing you can buy that is going to mean more to you than liking who you see when you look in the mirror. It’s people like that, the sort of person you can choose to be today if you want, who sustain our whole country and the world.

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