Compassion and righteousness are both necessary for rightful action.
Compassion, by itself, can be used for all sorts of wrongdoing. A person empathizes with another person without seeing where that person is wrong. So for example a person may feel compassion for the mafia and get used by the mafia for wrong purposes. Righteousness balances that tendency out and gives discernment to see who is right and wrong and about what.
Righteousness, by itself, leads to cruelty and uninformed judgmentalism. A person judges another without understanding why he does what he does. So for example we see people persecuting narcissists and sociopaths without knowing why they are narcissists and sociopaths or how such things can get treated. Or we see people persecuting people who were part of 1960s or who were Communists without understanding that these people were coming from the right place and wanted to improve the treatment of workers, women, black people and the environment.
Sometimes people go from unbalanced compassion to unbalanced righteousness. They try to help people, they get used and abused, they turn mean. That is a tragic state of affairs. A good thing gets extinguished, and many suffer because of it. Kindness gives way to meanness and cruelty, resulting in bad things all around. This happened with “the sixties generation” in 1980s; this happened with feminists in 1990s; this happened with many other people.
The compassionate person can protect herself by virtue of insight through righteousness. She can see whether what people want is right or wrong. She can see whether she is dealing with good people and what her activities will be used for. She can then confront the wrong while making sure that her activities actually do good. The result will be informed, righteous, compassionate action – action that actually stands to achieve true good.
And yes, true good can be achieved and has been achieved by many. I have been a part of the Salvation Army, and I am very impressed with the work that they do. Altruism can be done right. The people who use altruism for wrong things have no right to define altruism any more than people who use beauty for wrong things have the right to define beauty. Use both heart and mind. Be both compassionate and righteous.
Now there are many people who understand this. Any number do not, and I hope to influence such people rightfully. Compassionate people need to learn righteousness, and righteous people need to learn compassion. The result will be the best of all worlds.