The modesty of altruism

Altruism lets us realise that the best things are done on behalf of others. Any benefit accruing to ourselves is incidental. Imagination brings us to the doorstep of this ‘outer world’, nudging us towards the ‘good stuff’ and helped along by self-discipline and self-motivation. So what if we feel held back by ‘frustration’?
We don’t like frustration. We hate being thwarted! But frustration needn’t have such a bad press. With frustration comes tension, and tension means activity, and that stops us seizing up. Is this why we mull over old problems, grind on with the same old thoughts about them, not so much to solve things but to prevent us coming to a dead stop? Frustration stops us giving in or giving up. When we have to exercise the brain on problems we think them through and talk about them to keep the brain working.
But in discussing values we end up damning people who don’t share our own - we make value judgements about them so that we can contrast our own (vegan) compassion or if we’re an omnivore we also show off about other things to emphasise the contrast. And in showing off and denigrating we give rise to consequences – we boast, we look ugly for boasting, we talk idly, we gossip righteously about serious matters, we assassinate the personalities of one or two ‘wrong-doers’. All this moves us so far away from the ideal of modest altruism that we create a certain image for our self, thus adding to the negative image people may already have of people like us, whatever it is that we ‘stand for’.
By developing an attitude of modest altruism we can cut a swathe through any amount of dodgy motives; by avoiding damage-talk we can steer a more direct course towards what we are really trying to establish, namely the ideals, the principles, the food and everything we approve of and try to live by.