Thursday, April 28, 2011

The ant in the sink

90-91:
Altruism usually means putting-in first. It needs some effort and that’s inconvenient. It’s made easier (‘being’ altruistic) if it’s done as easily and naturally as we breathe fresh air. It shouldn’t be too planned nor so casual that it goes unnoticed.
Say we choose to act unselfishly, in the best interests of our own child. That feels very altruistic and natural. Say we now try to apply that to everything else, not too ambitiously but perhaps quite rigorously. In our next decision, say finding an ant in the sink, we act altruistically.
It might go something like this ... Me, acting compassionately. Me, being inconvenienced (it’s so easy to turn on the tap). Me, ready to decide its fate. I’m irritated “damned ants”. I don’t want it there. I don’t like ants. I’m thinking of drowning it. I’m resisting the temptation (to turn on the tap). I’m switching from self interest to ‘the interest’ of the insect. I’m saving it, my hand is reaching for a sheet of paper to scoop it up onto dry land. I’m learning to deal with a familiar ants-in-the-sink situation a new way.
By making this choice I don’t so much solve a problem (of the ant in the sink) as recognise the lesson in acting non-violently. My nose should twitch at every temptation to be selfish, twitch at the chance for some opposite-thinking, of NOT taking the line of least resistance.
Why not treat the ant with the same consideration as the child? It’s kind, yes, but it takes us on a great journey - we draw closer to the ant’s world. We open our imagination, to get closer to that world. It’s an unknown world, which has its own reasons to remain outside human understanding.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Signing back on to this blog

Altruism and veganism

87:
Vegan principle
I’ve got a friend overseas I write with and he dislikes the idea of veganism - the ‘ism’ bit he hates. Perhaps he’s right. Isms sound religious and really ‘vegan’ isn’t anything other than a principle which combines wisdom with compassion. Vegans leap at the chance to introduce all this, to want others to have access to what we’ve ‘picked up’ - it isn’t a wish to boast ... but that’s the trouble here ... in how we perceiving new things - non-vegans see going vegan asall discipline and hardship, whereas to us it’s just benefit.
It’s very hard to shine a light on something without looking glitzy yourself. If what I do looks like altruism I’m necessarily showing off, because it nicely contrasts with selfishness, which is always ugly. It’s very hard not to look smug ... about combining wisdom and compassion. The omnivore will giggle at the strictness of it all. And dismiss it. Vegans and people considering it may look at it quite differently, seeing satisfying food plus a more interesting goal-for-life - looking out for others, and not only other human beings. Again, does that sound smug? Difficult? I suppose it’s boredom with self interest and ‘the soft life’ - a greater interest forming in life becoming more robust and adventurous. And ... there’s the added bonus of inadvertently making others’ lives better by practicing harm-reduction.
Maybe being vegan life is a bit edgier. We push ourselves at a greater pace for learning on a more multidimensional scale. Smug again eh? At some point the tip-toeing over the perception misnomers has to stop. And if ‘altruism’ sounds corny, let it sound corny ... and if we ever get a chance hasten to redefine it.

88:
Relative altruism
If we are vegan and can’t understand why others are not, it may be worth considering why vegans are willing to give away a lot of benefits in life for the sake of saving animals. Well in fact they don’t ... they’re the same old selfish bastards as everyone else is. They do it, we do it for ourselves, eat serious food instead of crap, stop associating with social norms which are unethical and feeling good about that. There’s nothing more selfish we do than feather our own nest - in some ways like me, by not getting married and having children, being able to stamp my own principles on my own life without having to consider other people having to live like me because I’m vegans, that level of self-determination could be very selfish. But, it is about the animals and there’s no denying the sacrifices vegans are willing to make, for them.
Why do vegans think so seriously about animals and then translate that concern into their daily lives? Is it because vegans are more altruistic or because they’ve found something more interesting than anything they’ve previously found?
Is altruism relative?
Altruism is beyond reproach, because it considers other (peoples’) interests before one’s own. But I’d agree with Nietzsche, that this definition is demeaning. More particularly, it’s unrealistic because it is the kind of purity no one can keep up. We’re survivors - we have to be selfish thinkers and self-interested … we have to look after our own first. Charity starts at home, etc We can extend our love to others ... afterwards.
Selfish is good. As survivors we are trying to be better at surviving to stop being squashed. We don’t need saints, or goody-two-shoes ... but we probably do need a modifying factor, something to stop crashing into shameful selfishism. Perhaps we need some relative altruism.
We like life? Life likes being lived - we should be able to enjoy unashamedly. And it may just be that one often feels good inside when one is doing something for others. It’s especially good-feeling if being generous without blowing a gasket.
There’s a lot of giving-out needed today. Give here, give there, I get a phone call most nights ... to ‘ give’. All the more reason why we shouldn’t neglect our own interests which, let’s be honest, we all think about often.
Selfish is like incoming energy. It seems opposite to altruism (which traditionally is giving energy away) so the balance is arrived at when altruism feels most self rewarding. If it isn’t ... well then, why deplete yourself for it?
Doing good all over the place, without getting some recognition back, forces us to boast. We badly need praise. Without it we become resentful. I give a birthday present, I expect a thank you, it doesn’t appear, I’m less inclined to bother buying you anything next birthday.
Whatever we do, even if it’s a paid job, we need something extra, a lubrication for our altruism to work. It’s vital. It makes us want to give more, to recapture that feeling, being generous … better than being pinched. I need to feel energetic and energised rather than giving the bare minimum expected.
You know what it’s like … at work … you’d do everything high-quality if you could but that won’t turn the profit, there’s another ethic which makes money and makes the cogs of life go around. But there’s no more satisfying work than adding quality to it. We all like the feeling of ‘doing’ quality. At work, especially at home, we like giving quality to our relationships.
By being vegan we give quality to our own life and at the same time to the lives of the animals we save from being reared and killed and eaten. No ones trying to be Mister perfect here. Just living a life of relative altruism.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Signing off on this blog

A friend of mine in England, who I correspond with regularly, emailed me and said it was strange that I hadn't signed off on the blog, but just stopped it on March 11th. He's right. So, that's what I must do now.

I've been posting this blog, every day, for two and a half years but not getting response assumed no one was reading it.

I've enjoyed writing the blog - it's been completely exhausting of course but it has certainly helped me clarify my ideas. I quite suddenly decided right out of the blue to end it. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. These past six months I've been sprucing up about 600 of the blogs into book form and will be for another few months yet. It did seem sensible to stop the daily postings. Once the book is finished and 'on-line' (I can't afford to print it)I may resume it.

I'm not concerend if anyone reads it really, although I'd be interested to know if anyone ever has. Mainly it's been such a stimulating thing to be doing. It has been its own reward. Having put out probably over 200,000 words on this subject, over a couple of years, I think I've probably said enough anyway.
Best wishes
David Horton