According to the oxford dictionary, altruism is defined as an act of unselfishness. But does altruism really exist?
According to the author of “The Fountain Head” , Ayn Rand, it doesn’t. What exists is only the Creator. The altruist is the most selfish man, although he calls himself selfless. Altruism is slavery. The altruist is a parasite and a secondhander. Through Howard Roark she puts forth the idea of the ultimate egotist- the creator. The altruist is a person who wants to serve humanity, but by doing so wants to see mankind suffer. He sacrifices other people and in the process ends up in a sea of blood. The creator creates for himself and the altruist destroys what the creator creates in the name of humanity.
If what Ayn Rand says is considered true then Adolf Hitler becomes an altruist. But is he? And what do Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela become? Selfish? Sacrificial? Humanitarian? Were Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King selfish because they tried to unify people and lead them onto a new path? It takes courage to face the flak of the system and go against it. To bear lathis on your body without uttering a word. To leave one’s homeland to serve people from another country. To be jailed for 27 years to save people from racism. Yes they were selfish because they tried to gain satisfaction of doing something for others benefit, happiness of helping mankind and get a good nights sleep. They are not unselfish because they have a hidden motive- that of seeing other people happy and contented in life, people without the extra baggage of suffering, without diseases, racism and communalism to bother them. Yes Altruism is an illusion because it does not exist in its true sense. Even if the act is for the betterment of the people. Even if it’s not materialistic. Even if it’s the noblest one.
The people who want to see others happy are selfish because they cannot be happy if others are sad. That means that their ultimate aim is happiness for themselves. So does it make a huge difference? If we stop feeling for others and live only for ourselves, won’t we become stone hearted, soulless bodies? It is this empathy and sometimes sympathy that we feel for others that makes us human beings. And it is this very feeling that gave India its independence and the Negroes equal rights in USA It is also the lack of this feeling that gave us two world wars and has brought us on the threshold of another one.
So I think is thanks to these altruists who laid the foundations of service to others that gives us a world that’s somewhat a better place to live in. Think about it.
1 comment:
So I read your description of yourself, and I realized that that is almost a perfect description of me. I recently began reading Ayn Rand for a project, and I agree with some of her philosophy. It's so very difficult not to agree, as most of it just makes so much sense and can be so irrefutable. However, I like your argument, and it is one of the most conclusive arguments against Objectivism or benevolent selfishness I have come across. While Rand's philosophy is seamless on paper, history points to something beyond strictly reasoning. I tend to maneuver through phases where I begin to think like an atheist, which is a very easy philosophy to argue, and then I come to complete conviction that God does exist in some for or another. Since picking up Rand my atheist side has resurfaced. Reason leads me to believe that there is no God, but experience tells me otherwise. Also, have you ever read Terry Goodkind? You mentioned that you get most of your philosophy from fiction. Goodkind's greatest inspiration is Rand, and their writing styles are very similar. Goodkind is actually the reason I chose Rand for this project, you should check him out. Oh, and I started an account on this site just to comment on this, lol.
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