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Bobkgin -> RE: "Love Reign O'er Me" (9/2/2007 7:22:29 AM)
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To the audience at large:
The argument that the selfless can in no way benefit from their actions is a fallacy.
The selfish, by definition, focus on their own benefits, to the exclusion of others.
The selfless, by definition, are not selfish.
Thus they are focusing on the benefits of themselves -and- others.
The selfless seek a win-win result, whereas the selfish only focus on winning for themselves, and to hell with anyone else.
The selfless do not take: they receive what is given.
This is why they seek a harmonious balance of opposites: a self-sustaining cycle of giving and receiving.
For too much giving without enough receiving leads to an energy drain that cannot be sustained indefinitely.
Real-life slaves have been worked to death, thus demonstrating this simple principle.
Real-life slaves were owned by selfish people, not selfless people.
It is not hard to see why selfish people insist selflessness does not exist.
In any capitalist society, selfishness is the engine that drives the economy, and makes rich men richer.
How do you make money if people selflessly help one another, rather than selfishly hoarding all to themselves?
The first job I ever had, was selling shoes. On one occassion I was required to slash old shoes that were not sold.
I asked, why don't we give these to charity, they haven't the money to buy them?
I was told that the company believed it was better for the company to refuse to give to charity, and thus force the needy to buy the shoes at retail outlets.
Better to slash shoes than give to those who have no money.
It wasn't until the following year that I'd had enough. A woman came in with her two young children, looking for winter boots.
She couldn't afford more than the cheapest of rubber boots, with a pair of insoles in each.
Back then, winters in Toronto could be bitterly cold, and none of my artful efforts of persuasion could convince her to buy a better boot.
She didn't have the money.
So I bought them the boots. Quit the next day.
I just couldn't be a part of a system that did this to little kids.
It is difficult to blame the selfish for being selfish. Like religion, selfishness is encouraged from birth.
Not everyone is taught this, but those who are taught selfishness are less likely to play nice with the other kids.
For every 11 kids in day care, there will be one bully who threatens the others or has done harm to the others.
It is not that selfishness must be deliberately taught. It can be taught through example, through older siblings or neglectful parents. By older bullies in the school yard.
Selflessness need not be taught deliberately either. I recall the man who came to our home in Montreal when I was a kid. He asked my mom if she could spare hims omething to eat. She brought him a bowl of soup, and I know we were not well off at that time.
Yet here was someone in greater need than us, and she helped.
Some of us were taught to care for others, as well as ourselves.
Some of us were just taught to care for ourselves, and to hell with others.
The first I call "selfless", the other "selfish".
To say we should all be selfish is to justify "every man for himself", "let the buyer beware", and other anti-social traits.
No society, no civilization can long endure the inability to trust one another.
In a selfish world, you believe everyone else is selfish. You believe everyone is seeking to get the most for what they give: to make a profit from their effort.
You don't believe anyone is seeking a balance.
You don't trust anyone. Everyone is competition.
You are trying to replace those above you, and they are trying to keep you from replacing them.
You are trying to eliminate those beside you, so that you can get all their rewards.
You are trying to keep those beneath you from replacing you, for they want what you've got.
Dog eat dog world.
Obviously there are people who grew up in such a world. Their inability to see beyond their faith in selfishness demonstrates how much they've relied upon selfishness to survive.
But not everyone is raised in a world like that. And amongst such people who were taught to help others, selflessness is a better paradigm.
Quite honestly, I am glad I was raised in a world where the people who taught me could see past selfishness to a better, more selfless world.
I pity those who must live in a world where selfishness is the best they can do.
And I recognize that by far, they are the majority in our society. One need only listen to the numbers of fakes, wannabes and liars reported in the profiles of submissive women to see how rampant selfishness is.
But I am reminded that the world was not flat when the majority believed it so.
And the world did not become round just because the majority changed their minds.
The selfish can beat their breasts and proclaim selflessness a delusion as much as they wish.
It does not make it so, and does not change my world one bit.
Nor would it change the world of anyone who is on a path for selflessness.
We all know there are selfish people in the world.
The real question is, who wants to be exploited until there is nothing left of to give, only to be discarded for fresh meat?
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