The worst thing about Altruism

[BaalChatzaf]

Altruism is a thoroughly bad principle and inconsistent with humans living as humans. But its badness is not its worst property. It is the essential deceptiveness and mendacity of Altruism. Altruism is a vice that masquerades as a virtue and so many people fall for it.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[william.scherk]

Altruism is a thoroughly bad principle and inconsistent with humans living as humans. But its badness is not its worst property. It is the essential deceptiveness and mendacity of Altruism. Altruism is a vice that masquerades as a virtue and so many people fall for it.

That Altruism does sound like a very bad person, a bad liar full of vice . . . I don't think I like him as presented.

I am acquainted with his cousins, though, and they are fine people. There's a lot of them, I think. Kindness and Charity, Cooperation, Reciprocity, Benevolence -- you likely have met them, Ba'al. All fairly warm folk who care about other people. They even invite old cranky lying vice-ridden Altruism to their family picnics.

The creepiest two things about cousin Al are that he doesn't expect back from his ugly altruistic acts, but he leaves a distateful impression, like a bathtub ring, that we are obliged to look out for one another. When he puts himself out, he doesn't actually demand a quid pro quo. It's so non-objectivish. He just gives a creepy altruist smile, and says, 'but you're family.' Luckily the family picnics happen but once a year.

There are some great moments in Temple Grandin's works where she speaks of her puzzlement with love. She thinks the things she builds for the welfare of hogs and cattle, the way she reacts to them, has some kind of relation to human love. In some ways she links herself to the animals as a similar consciousness (Dr Grandin is autistic). Her brand of benevolence applies mostly to the feedlot/slaughterhouse, but has provided her with professional acclaim and personal satisfaction. We won't call what she does altruist, since altruism is bad, very bad, but I invite readers to have a gander on her discussion of altruism** (from a blog entry at Strange Mercy that features some passages from her book Thinking in Pictures).

The hardest part about killing off old evil Altruism is that he is in every big family, and appears to arise in every generation, unbidden and of dubious value, like a fungus on a lawn.

I always think of his creepy smile when I am at Arlington, or when I think of a flag-draped coffin -- that dreadful implication of service for others, and sacrifice and other things altruistic too ugly to be named.

**[these excerpts can be read in full context in the first chapter, Autism and Visual Thought, which you may have already grokked, Ba'al. If not interesting for her odd notions of altruism, for her evocation of the way her mind works.]

"I think with the primary sensory based subconscious areas of the brain. ... since I think with the subconscious, repression does not occur and denial is impossible. ... My memory is not automatic. ... However, I can search through old memories of really bad events, such as being fired from a job, with no emotion. At the time I was fired I cried for two days."

"... When I read that the Olympic stadium and the main library in Sarajevo had been destroyed, I wept. ... I become very upset and emotional when I think about the loss of knowledge and culture, and I am unable to write about this without crying. ... I don't know what it is like to hate somebody so much that you would want to destroy their culture and civilization."

"... I believe that if souls exist in humans, they also exist in animals, because the basic structure of the brain is the same. ... However, there is one thing that completely separates humans from animals. ... it is long-term altruism. During a famine in Russia ... scientists guarded the seed bank of plant genetics so that future generations would have the benefits of genetic diversity in food crops. For the benefit of others, they allowed themselves to starve to death in a lab filled with grain. No animal would do this. Altruism exists in animals, but not to this degree."

"I do not believe that my profession is morally wrong. ... I do feel very strongly about treating animals humanely and with respect... the slaughter plant is much gentler than nature. Animals in the wild die from starvation, predators, or exposure. ... Unfortunately, most people never observe the natural cycle of living and death. They do not realize that for one living thing to survive, another living thing must die."

"... People feed, shelter, and breed cattle and hogs, and in return the animals provide food and clothing. We must never abuse them, because that would break the ancient contract. We owe it to the animals to give them decent living conditions and a painless death."

"... I realized there can be a conflict between feeling and doing. Zen meditators may be able to achieve the perfect state of oneness with the universe, but they do not bring about reform and change in the world around them."

"I believe that the place where an animal dies is a sacred one."

"When I was in high school, I received a brochure from a cattle chute company that said, 'thoughts with no price tags.' "Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it." I never forgot that quote."

[BaalChatzaf]

Altruism is a thoroughly bad principle and inconsistent with humans living as humans. But its badness is not its worst property. It is the essential deceptiveness and mendacity of Altruism. Altruism is a vice that masquerades as a virtue and so many people fall for it.

That Altruism does sound like a very bad person, a bad liar full of vice . . . I don't think I like him as presented.

I am acquainted with his cousins, though, and they are fine people. There's a lot of them, I think. Kindness and Charity, Cooperation, Reciprocity, Benevolence -- you likely have met them, Ba'al. All fairly warm folk who care about other people. They even invite old cranky lying vice-ridden Altruism to their family picnics.

A very cute posting.

Every family has a Black Sheep in the flock. We don't blame the good ones for the family association with the bad one. And you bring up a good point. Those who dislike altruism (as I do) sometimes mistakenly put down good old human kindness and compassion as vices (a mistake I have made, more than once). That is yet another bad mark against Altruism.

This is a very old problem. R. Hillel once said (about 2200 years ago):

If I am not for myself, who is for me?

If I am only for myself, what am I?

If not know, then when?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not my brother's keeper. I am my brother's brother.

Ba'al Chatzaf