Altruism or Self-Interest

Just this morning I was reading an article outlining the "either/or" approach to the peak-oil, climate change duo and calling for a new outlook that embraces the "and/both" approach in order to kickstart rapid progress on our transition to more sustainable societies.

Since I believe that both are critical and impending sooner or later this is not a novel concept. However, the author sets out 4 distinct motivations for action and that I found intriguing and wanted to comment on. The author outlines the 4 main motivations as:

1. altruism - anthropocentric (towards fellow humans)
2. altruism - Gaian (towards our fellow planetary dwellers - bugs, zebras, dandelions, plankton, bacteria, whales, air, water)
3. self interest
4. they have no choice

At some point in our lives we are faced with a difficult issue which encourages us to walk one of these 4 paths. In the past I believed I would lean toward altruism (Gaian) with a dash of self-interest thrown in, but several years ago it was suggested to me (likely in the form of a book or article) that there are no authentic altruistic acts, only self interested acts which give the appearance of altruism. In other words, everything we do for others we ultimately are doing for ourselves.

This statement was quite a shocker. I didn't believe it to be true but I couldn't dismiss it and went searching for evidence of genuine, altruistic acts. In short, I couldn't find any and I was forced to alter my position on the matter. If you closely examine your own and others intentions you'll find that there is always something to personally gain by helping others.

Let's look at some of the ways this would ring true: We give money to charities we like because it affects our lives in some way. Often our helping others is based on the fear that we may be in their situation sometime and would be grateful for the assistance. Or we are coerced or made to feel guilty for not helping out and so we give to ease our conscience. Heroic types often help others to achieve a personal high or public recognition for their work. If we're honest we can see ourselves in each of these situations.

The key to admitting that altruistic endeavours are ultimately in service of our own self-interest is to realize that it's ok to be self-interested. How else would all of the earth's organisms be here at this moment if it wasn't for self-interest? Humans would not have made it to where we are today without a healthy dose of it. Self-interest is necessary for survival. Helping others is necessary for our survival. It's not easy to set aside years or decades of learning that altruism is the only way and then beating ourselves up for every twinge of self-interest.

This is relevant to survivalism and self-sufficiency for obvious reasons I think. We are all ultimately out to look after ourselves and our family and that's a good thing. Without that drive we would not be here to discuss the fallacy of altruism today. So the next time you feel the drive to give yourself to someone or something ask yourself honestly, "what's in this for me?"