Tennessee Williams once wrote, 'We all live in a house of fire. No fire department to call. No way out. Just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down… with us trapped, locked in it.” I’ve deplored his plays because they accented altruism, that we should all sacrifice for others and painted out selfishness to be a brute. I do believe selflessness is only helpful to be hindering, rewarding to impotent, cordial to be aloof. I do believe all the misery comes from wishing joy to others and all the joy comes from wishing joy to oneself. I do believe selfishness is the way to happiness, to stop the fire and every decision is selfish.
In the real world selfishness can be seen through capitalism and selflessness is socialism. If the goal of your society was to reap equal benefits for everyone then what would be the point, the motive, the aspiration for striving to be better? Nothing. Do you consider the productive being paid and the lazy to not immoral? Do you consider working on your values to be egotistic? Do you consider expecting others to help you when you help them selfish? The Golden Rule itself is a selfish principle. It is based on the fact that your behaviors promote and justify to others the way in which to treat you. There is no daylight between selfishness and happiness while there is a chasm between happiness and selflessness.
I used to stand in as a therapist at a rehab center and at the end of summer I could assess one person and was allowed to give him access to attend his mom’s funeral. I met with him, and his dad who pleaded me to let him go, and though deep down inside I knew he wasn’t ready but I reasoned it was for a good cause and his mom would want him to, so I gave him permission. If something bad happened I would be in deep trouble but I put his interests above my own. The next evening I heard he overdosed and later learned he had a hypoxic brain injury. That’s the problem with altruism, you give but you never really know whether your sacrifice was justified or not. Social Contract Theory, a belief that a group of individuals follow a contract, as old as philosophy itself holds Thomas Hobbes belief in Psychological Egoism, that everyone essentially holds a selfish gene to be true. I was selfless to be selfish. To be a god who brings stoic families together for my own pleasure was my objective. It's easy to see things in black and white all you need is a body, but to see color you need will. There is a thirst for power in an act of generosity, despair in deception, shame in altruism, ambition in revenge, even drive within resignation.I won't. I won't lie. I won't lie anymore about the most obvious origin of the most obvious truth of the most obvious misconception. The greatest robbery Robin Hood ever pulled was convincing the world he was a man of good morals.
I’ve read of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Proust. And I learned the assertion that I should work on myself, for myself, by myself, that internal change is what propels an individual. You know that one person in your life that you love so much in your life that you would be willing to do anything for? Right, now, make that person yourself and do whatever you want. Because later, when your memories become pictures, and you become known as someone’s uncle or mom, or mentor, you’ll find yourself in front of the edge of doom. Then will your will have willed your willing right? Or will your willingness will into the abyss of the unfortunately unwilled?
No comments:
Post a Comment