Is Pure Altruism Possible?

 

Love is one of the greatest altruistic acts, that is the kind of love that is all giving, not getting, not sharing, just the giving of love not bound in any way by expectation of return

Interesting thoughts come from reading Is Pure Altruism Possible? a commentary that appeared in the Opinionator Column of the New York Times some time ago. Click on its title to read it on my Archive.

This article provoked in me the following thoughts:

“What can I do to help you?” is a phrase rarely heard in our culture. When it is it is said to a relation or responding to an acute need presented. This is not a common ordinary question generally asked among us. This is true for many reasons, the one I deal with here, responding to the silence of the question never asked is this:

Our western civilization is built on the fundamental concept of “Survival of the Fittest.” It is built around this general belief that man in his depravity best serves himself and all others by having to compete amongst all others for his selfish needs. This is the only real urge that man in his wantonness can consistently adhere to.

If all men compete with one another, they will secure the greatest possible good obtainable for themselves and secure that same degree for all others. This will happen because all will come into balance as one man’s selfish needs act as a check on the other getting more than his rightful share, leaving all in the end with the greatest possible measure of share.

In that base way man secures the greater common good.

For centuries this principle has directed us and has seemed to work for us. We now see the effectiveness of it crumbling away. Many reasons are responsible, the most prominent one being this: through media access and politics one group has come into too much control taking more than their fair share.

Normally the political process could balance this. It seems unable to do it today. No other remedies are seen. The baseness of Capitalism has taken over the baseness of man and made it worse for man.

Man by nature is Altruistic. The need to do for others is knee jerk to the condition we know as being human. Instances of quiet care of one another readily attest to the existence of it and the satisfaction found in doing it.

The loneliness and emptiness looking out for one’s self is real. If not realized immediately it does in time. It wears out after the endless distraction of getting, holding on to, attaining, owning, acquiring, having, belonging for self and not someone else. Always, it comes up empty in the end.

A truism of life is “The Only Thing That Lasts Is What We Give Away.”

The end product of living leads us to this realization. When we have exhausted doing all that we have to do and are blessed enough to see the emptiness the result, we then start looking for what really works. We learn that looking to another’s needs offers us what is missing. Compassion for others is the key to finding peace and serenity for one’s self.

Best said by a famous Buddhist teacher Shantiveda:

Whatever joy there is in this world
All comes from desiring others to be happy.
And whatever suffering there is in this world
All comes from desiring myself to be happy.

How does the subject of this essay, which I originally posted some years ago, fit in to my current theme, “There Is More Than Meets the Eye?”

It seems to me little question that in our life time we are driven in part by urges. I often speak of

the infant and young person’s urge to learn and work towards becoming what they are to be.

A middle aged person is urged to be whatever it is they have become. In doing this they have the benefit of having the recognition of it, acquiring all available to acquire and then to hold on to all of it. It is their primary avocation with so much involved there is not time for anything else.

We came into this world designed this way and it is ok. We can’t fight Mother Nature. At the start we are driven by the urge to look to our own needs, to learn and then become so we can acquire and be recognized by it.

At some point, usually our senior years, we look out and look around. We see the something missing from the mix. Our urge changes and we become centered on filling the void that starts to evidently appear. This involves both identifying what is that is missing and then our undertaking to seek whatever it is to complete our life on earth.

This happens in the normal order of things. We learn about the baubles of life, we yearn to possess these baubles, then if we are lucky, we realize how empty the having of them is. It is this realization that comes with the corresponding gift of a sense of what is transcendent to us. This is the time of our lives when Altruism gains in importance to us.

It is also a time that we are reminded of how important it is not only at the end of our days but throughout our lives.

This is another realization of mine, produced particularly by my Dementia. Not only is this needed at this time in my life, but needs to be recognized for all of our lives. That realization is the need to look out for one another and the need to abhor the system we know have that canonizes selfishness and greed, making it sacred and not abhorrent.

We are designed to seek our selfish ends then realize this leads only to loss. When turning from the selfish to the altruistic to we find fulfillment having lived.