I am exhausted from hearing praise for those “selfless” acts. There is no such thing. Selflessness is one of those things that people think they exist, but don’t. Not unlike the pretense of “buy 1- get 1 free”. No free lunch either (sorry). You are paying for it one way or the other.
But I digress, but not really. Even when people do something for the sake of doing it, and have no material, or otherwise apparent gain, it is still not selfless. Those words are usually accompanied by: “It feels right, or I feel good helping, or could stand and do nothing.” Well, that’s grand and all, but you are doing it for selfish reasons still. To make YOU feel good. If one helps without feeling anything, in a true selfless way, it would be closer to apathy, and that would just be sad.
So go ahead, stroke your ego a bit, butter up that hero complex a little, and if somebody gets helped in the process, then you just made two people feel good. In the end, isn’t that really what it’s all about. Let’s not mislabel things. Call them for what they are, and I am confident you will find yourself feeling even better about your selfless *ehm* actions.
I’d love to know your thoughts. Can you give me an example of a non-self rewarding action that is not apathetic?
9.04.2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hmm, I can't give you an example, but I SEE where you're coming from. I have this same issue with the term 'hero.' It's lost all meaning nowadays. Heroes were, according to the Greeks, people who 'saved' people without provocation. What I mean is that a firefighter according to the Greeks isn't a hero--it's his job to save people--but an average bloke who saves someone from a burning fire is a hero. Make sense?
Anyway, you're absolute right. We are creatures who thrive off 'feeling good.' That's innate--no sense in trying to suppress that.
I don't know. Is a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect his buddies apathetic?
Post a Comment