Look at everything humanity has achieved. Is it a testament to our selfishness or our generosity.
Some days I’m amazed the human race has got this far at all.
Scratch the surface of any institution, any segment of society, and you’ll find that that beautiful and functional young woman is actually a rotting meat sack of worms.
I’m not just talking about Canberra here. (How there’s not more outrage at both parties taking donations almost directly from the Chinese Communist Party, I have no idea.)
But anywhere. My friend was telling me about the power-plays going on behind the scenes at her local tennis club. How even that was a theatre for empire-building and nest-feathering, incest and betrayal.
(Ok, perhaps not incest, but certainly some socially dubious romantic pairings.)
On my worst days I worry that we’re on the same road as Argentina, Venezuela or Chile. At some point in history, they were all prosperous and free countries.
But over time, wealth accumulated into fewer hands. Oligarchs became more powerful. Institutions were corrupted. Rent-seeking replaced genuine productive activity. The parasites overwhelmed the host. Their economies collapsed.
I’m simplifying a lot, to be sure, but I think all civilisation collapses have a root in this don’t they? – the selfishness of the ones who had power.
Is Australia any different?
I think one of the reasons why Super Hero movies are so appealing is because I think we all recognise that the ‘evil’ is unstoppable. Any institutions you develop to put a brake on human selfishness will be corrupted eventually. The courts, parliament, the police.
If you’ve got the money you can get around all of these things, somehow.
And so the only way we can fight ‘evil’ is through mythical god-like beings, who have the power to take the fight to a level that simple and good people never could.
But still, somehow, we get by.
Somehow, despite the rotting meat sack of selfishness and envy that humanity is, we get by.
In fact, we do better than get by, we prosper. Civilisation advances. We become more intelligent, more compassionate and more peaceful.
As I often remind people, in the middle ages you could go to the theatre and watch a cat, tied to a stake, set on fire.
That was a good night out.
“I’ve got a hot date. Where should I take her?”
“Why not take her to the cat torching? You know, it’s romantic, but not too romantic.”
So somehow the world is getting better and better, even though we still seem to be as selfish and as self-serving as we always have been.
I really have trouble making sense of this.
How has our selfishness allowed us to achieve anything at all?
I have two answers to this.
The first is that I’m wrong. The world is not getting more just and peaceful. It’s just that justice and peace have become useful tools in a selfish world.
You don’t need to enslave people anymore. All you need to do is create systems where the plebs’ self-interest aligns with yours.
Give plebs the sense that the world is reasonably fair and just – get them to believe that if they too worked hard enough and meditated on the right affirmations, they could also be gazilionaires, and they’ll be happy to work to make you richer.
And of course the plebs upwardly mobile lifestyle is only made possible by African slaves working in the i-phone mines. But that’s not oppression. They’re poor because they are lazy and backwards.
All Africa needs is to work hard and meditate on the right affirmations.
“I am a beautiful, shining continent. Money comes to me in a free and easy way.”
So perhaps I’m wrong when I think that the world is getting better. It’s jus the nature of oppression has shifted. In the West, we now have a more palatable, more device-rich oppression, while the less-palatable, children-in-mines kind of oppression has been concentrated in the developing world.
We off-shored it.
And perhaps, as a species, we haven’t learnt a thing.
That’s one theory.
The second theory is that we are all both selfish and generous. In any individual there is a tendency to be mean and selfish as well as a tendency to be altruistic and selfless.
In each individual though, the tendency to be generous outweighs the tendency to be selfish.
Humans are intrinsically good… mostly. Sometimes they are seduced into being selfish, but on balance, at any point in time and over the course of a life time, they are more generous than they are selfish.
From there it’s just simple maths.
If each individual is more generous than selfishness, the summing together all individuals into a nation or world will give you a people that are collectively more generous than they are selfish.
We are still capable of staggering stupidity and greed, but on balance our generous peace-loving natures win out in the end.
And so over time, as it all plays out, we create outcomes that are more based in generosity than selfishness. Slowly, we become more peaceful, loving and intelligent. We advance.
Perhaps not in a consistent linear way. But perhaps the arc of history does bend towards justice, as Martin Luther King said.
That’s theory two.
I could flop between the two on any given day, but since there is no way I can know which one is right, I chose to put my faith in people. In my world, everyone is doing the best they can. Humanity is doing the best it can. And bit by bit, the world becomes a better place to live in.
I remind myself that this is one of the best times to be alive, ever. It’s an amazing world, and we are doing amazing things. Bit by bit by bit.
So do me a favour and try not to burst my bubble.
Are we good, or selfish, on balance?
HI JONNO,
AT THE RISK OF BEING SEEN AS ABSTRACT I WILL TYPE TODAY’S EPISTLE IN CAPITALS FOR ‘V’ S BENEFIT. APPARENTLY HE/SHE THOUGHT I WAS WRITING POETRY WITHOUT PUNCTUATION, WHICH FACT I TOLD HIM/HER TO EAT MORE CARROTS.
EVERY HUMAN BEING IS BORN UNSELFISH, EXCEPT FOR WILD OUTBURSTS WHEN TRYING TO SUCK ON MUMMY’S BREAST AND NOT BEING SATISFIED(MY DAUGHTER WAS TAKEN OFF IT AT 15 MONTHS!!) ITS THE BEHAVIOUR THAT IS WONKY SOMETIMES. WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS THAT BY BEING SELFISH OR UNSELFISH, IT IS THE BEHAVIOUR THAT IS THE PROBLEM. TAKE THE DONALD : OUTWARDLY HE IS A GOON OR BEING PORTRAYED AS ONE YET HE HAS AN EXTRAORDINARILY HIGH ‘IQ’ AND POSSESSES REMARKABLE SKILLS AND RESILIANCE IN MANY AREAS. HE IS A VERY BRAVE MAN TO BE ‘UP THERE’ BEING POTUS WITH THE RISK OF ASSASSINATION EVERY DAY(24/7?). IS HE SELFISH? IS HE UNSELFISH? MY TAKE ON IT IS THAT HE IS A VERY UNSELFISH MAN TO PUT HIMSELF UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT EVERY DAY AND SOMETIMES NIGHT FOR THE PAY HE GETS : US$400K. NOW YOU AND I KNOW THAT AT THAT FIGURE YOU WOULDN’T GET OUT OF BED TO EARN THAT PIFFLING SUM!! OUR CITY MANAGER AT MELVILLE CITY COUNCIL GETS AROUND AU$376,000 P.A. PLUS PERKS.
IT IS STILL A ‘DOG EAT DOG WORLD’ AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN. ITS SURVIVAL. SURVIVAL MEANS ACQUISITION AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS, TO FEED YOU, AND OF COURSE YOUR FAMILY.
EVERYWHERE AND ANYWHERE YOU SEE EVIDENCE OF BOTH SIDES. ON THE ROADS MOST PEOPLE GIVE WAY, BUT THERE IS ALWAYS THE ‘IDIOT’ WHO WANTS TO BE THERE FIRST, DESPITE THE DANGER. ARE THE ‘HAVENOTS’. MORE SELFISH THAT THE ‘HAVES’? I AM READING A BOOK RIGHT NOW TITLED ‘HACK ATTACK’. ITS THE STORY OF HOW ‘SIR’ RUPERT MURDOCH WAS NOT PUT IN JAIL FOR SOME OF THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS AND BASE ACTIVITY KNOWN. YET HE WAS ‘TOO BIG’ TO JAIL. (LIKE BANKS WHICH ARE TOO BIG TO FAIL). MAYBE THE SOLUTION TO ALL OF THIS IS TO MAKE THINGS VOLUNTARY. WITHOUT STRINGS. JUST DO IT. LIKE POLITICS. LET US HAVE VOLUNTARY POLITICIANS WITH OF COURSE ALLOWANCES FOR TRAVEL, MEALS, ACCOMMODATION ETC. ALL PROPERLY ACCOUNTED FOR. “OH DEAR BUT YOU WOULDN’T GET THE BEST PEOPLE” THEY CRY, THAT IS, THE EXISTING POWER GOOTS. BUT LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE GOT NOW!! MUMBLING MALCOLM, SHITTY SHORTEN, FISH AND CHIPS HANSON. ETC. ETC. ETC. NOT TO FORGET XENAPHOBIA XENAPHON.
MY OBSERVATION IN OZ IS THAT THERE ARE MANY FINE PEOPLE HERE. MAYBE AS VOLUNTEERS, THEY COULD STEER OUR SHIP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. NOVEL? SILLY?
WHO KNOWS? ITS NEVER BEEN TRIED BEFORE. SO MAYBE WE COULD DEFINITELY HAVE AN ANSWER TO THE UNSELFISH OR SELFISH QUESTION JONNO!
CHEERIO FOR TODAY,
RON
Look at the pride of lions. The pride carries on but within the pride things need to change. New blood needs to be introduced for the pride to survive. Old blood is killed or chased away from the pride for the good of the pride. For the survival of the pride.
Good and bad exists in every living thing not just humans.
It is the reason for evolution of the species. It is survival of the fittest. To survive you need to be good to yourself by being selfish. You need to procreate to continue to move forward.
To be good there must be bad but the good will persist or the world dies. Therefore there is more good than bad at this moment in time.
I equate the world with the lion pride which needs to change internally to continue. If no change then death to the pride.
The young lions always need to exist for the pride to continue and that is good.
yes gm..its a dog eat dog world still, survival of the fittest. no matter how many people try to be good, the no gooders triumph. lol something has to be bad for something to look good, a sort of contrast. history is replete with dominant men, sometimes women and tribes. the heartless over the mindless.
and its never gonna change. so be tough as hell and do the job, but play a straight bat. cheers, ron
oops! an extra serve. the current r/e market looks like a bubble in search of a pin. debt, debt, debt. and more debt covers the globe. governments essay promises that are not resourced : researched to see if they are not overburdensome, but eye catching and vote catching. then we wail, where are the jobs, why is electricity more expensive? can’t the government do something? sure they can. they can just get out of the way..permanently. usa got burdened with a ‘hidden’ bill of some US$780 bn recently, to do with ‘new regulations’ under obama. government? pigs arse, (john elliot).
I’ve lived and worked all over the world and came to the conclusion long ago that most people are good people. I’ve lived in places that many people consider dangerous but never had any problem.
However there are too many people around now who have become too greedy and are prepared to wreck the world for their own selfish benefit.
Trouble is if you make the world a wreck then you go down with the wreck.
Yin Yang.
Try Animal Farm.
A small percentage of the population are psychopaths who skew the balance towards evil.
Socialising losses while concentrating profits to the elite/capitalists just indicates how government serves the ruling class in a sham democracy.
I too have traveled and worked in many countries. I would say 90% good, 9% bad, 0.5% saints, 0.5% pure evil. Unfortunately the small percentage of evil people get 90% of the headlines, thus skewing our perception of humanity.
That sounds a bit
negatively biased Roger.
Over millions of years,
our primate ancestors developed as social animals, with a pecking order which
would change from time to time as younger individuals developed and the older
deteriorated. Physical discipline was used to educate the young to be
respectful of the powerful. The position of alpha male was the ultimate
pinnacle of society. However, there were always upstarts and dissidents not
happy with their appointed positions and ever on the lookout to upset the apple
cart. Those who were able to adapt and accept the status quo lived to pass
their genes on for posterity. Those hardwired for damaging the tribe were
eradicated before passing on their genes – ‘Survival of the Fittest’, (fit for
purpose). This is why Roger is able to
say that less than 10% of people are no good (actually far less, I suspect. Ten
percent is ‘one-in-ten’. I think humanity is better than that, like 0.1% or
less). However, this gene pool cleansing
process has now ended, because modern society protects the right to life of
even the ‘Undesirables’. Similarly, Humanity’s progression to more successful
reproduction is under threat. As one of my Zoology tutors pointed out at a
public meeting, a certain widespread religious insistence upon using the Rhythm
Method will result in an ever increasing proportion of women with irregular
periods.
With mankind’s
attainment of self-awareness, and the development of speech, the social
structure was rationalised. Whatever was beneficial for the troupe as a whole
was deemed to be GOOD. Anything deleterious was EVIL. In essence this principle
persists today.
The development of
agriculture and cessation of the nomadic lifestyle allowed individuals to have ‘private’
property. This in turn encouraged resourceful individuals to accumulate more
and more, as a protection against the ravages of inclement seasons. Having
reserves gave these individuals power over their less well resourced clan
members. In the enlarged social groups,
the role of alpha male was replaced by a coalition of those powerful ‘Haves’.
To protect their assets
across time, social structures were established, with rules drawn up by those
same powerful ‘Haves’ to protect themselves, their positions of power and their
assets from the ‘Have-nots’.
Ever since, there has
been a dynamic pas de deux between communal accord and private aggrandisement –
socialism and conservatism – Labor & Liberal.
The bully alpha males
are always threatened by the upstart Gates, Bransons, Zuckerbergs and Musks of
this world, consistently popping up, threatening the establishment.
Throughout all of this
ongoing drama of youth outsmarting the old order, of common good versus
personal gain, there are always far more ‘Good’ people than ‘Evil’ ones.
However, it only takes
one Mr Kim to get under the skin of one Mr Trump to blow us all off this bounteous
blue orb.
I think of it this way:
We see how quickly and easily things and institutions can be destroyed and how much energy, time, commitment and stability it takes for things to be created. This very fact must make you wonder why we have anything at all and is evidence that the forces for good must be many times stronger than the forces for destruction. Why the good in humankind is hidden from us in plain view is that our psychology naturally gives weight to the sensationally bad, because fear is a stronger perception than effort over time. It is hard for us to acknowledge the unsung heroes of everyday life. That is why we learn history through wars and conquests rather than the countless generations of fair traders that kept life alive and continue to do so. – I have hope, yet 🙂
Theory TWO. I need to believe that!