Altruism

Good evening ladies and gentleman

As per a recent conversation with a dear friend of mine, i couldn’t help considering on here the possibilities, different potential ideas and theories behind what this concept means to modern day society.

Altruism. What is it? Without initial thought and consideration, it could be argued as a “spiritual,” sort of “destiny” style sort of thing. To put a more specific, closer definition to altruism its defined as the “disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others”

I feel like this is a rare thing these days, because there is so much stuff going on in the world. People have a thing, an idea in their minds about what they want, who they want and what lengths they are willing to go to get to it, even through deception sometimes. Some people may walk around presenting altruistic behavior, when in fact they are busy hiding much darker intentions just beneath the surface. They are sometimes working on their much grander plans, maybe even selfishly showing you their “good” intentions, only with the intention of using what they can get from you and simply moving on.

Now i should be clear my intentions are not to make you paranoid, to make you believe everybody has negative intentions and do what they can to screw us all over, because frankly this couldn’t be further from the truth. Selfish, shitty people do this, only out for the one goal and that is to further themselves and their bank balance, regardless of the consequences and punishments good people may have to take in order for them to achieve this. In society these days, i feel like its very easy to be this shitty person. You can sit there, do what you want and not care about anything or anyone but yourself and get that “thing,” that “dream.” Surely there is another way of achieving your dreams, while being a good decent person, with the best of intentions to people, without expecting anything in return?

Or is there? Has altruism as a behavioral pattern, something people actively choose to take part in because in makes other people feel good died because with our interest in stuff, along with a strange curiosity of other people’s stuff that may be considered unfamiliar and novel to us, do we really do anything for nothing anymore?

Maybe you’re sat here reading this now shouting at me in front of your screen “i do these things! i am a good and rounded person, i help people where i can, doing a little something to hopefully make a difference” I hope somebody is or this point is going to look really weird.

Still, if you’re there, good for you. I hope so much that you carry on being this way, being a good, powerful person, brimming with positive energy,  the world shines to you in a unique sort of way. Proof, if we ever needed any that we can do a little good. We don’t have to change the world, even if we can make a few feel better the surely its worth it.

If your shouting at me in a different way saying “whats the point? people will only screw you over anyway.” Again a point well made. Its questionable sometimes whether its worth being a good person, because there are a lot of shitty people in the world. Its a shame, but its true and it can make our world view seem quite skewed seeing so many people driven selfishly to take the world for  themselves, rather than understanding that the world is so much more than just a collection of buildings, forests and oceans.

I truly believe people do have the capability to be altruistic, but its questioned on so many different levels these days its hard for all of us to know what that means, to us, not simply by a dictionary definition.

How do you feel about altruism? Do we choose to be altruistic, or does it come naturally? In modern day society, is it worth being altruistic at all?

Look forward to hearing from you,  you know where to find me.

Yours, DR.

Random motivation picture.

altruism

Altruism