Good greed

1057: 

The more confident we are with altruism the bigger the difference we can make with it.  Or, put another way, a revamped altruism isn’t so much about being good as being confident.  If it does nothing else it gives others the feeling that they want to make a difference.  Put another way, me selfishly wanting to be confident about something is the beginning of optimism, which leads to having faith that we ‘live in a safe universe’.  Instead of buying into the negatives of present day events one can look towards the self-fulfilling future, and help to bring that into being by projecting it. 

If life is really all about having faith, whether in some master plan-for-our-planet or whatever form it takes, it’s should primarily be having faith that things will turn out constructively, the way they’re meant to.  If we have that sort of faith, call it optimism if you like, we won’t allow our doubts to screw everything we do.

It’s doubt that makes it impossible to see ourselves operating more selflessly.  It’s doubt that makes us think altruism’s only about goodness and idealism, whereas it’s more to do with ‘clean dealing’ and motivation, galvanised by an opposition to greed which itself is turned into a greed for others.  In effect, we are transposing it into a greed for a fabulous future for all of us.

You’d be entitled to say, “Dream on Brother!”  And I’d agree that the sticking point is that altruism doesn’t bring happiness immediately – it’s long term stuff.  And the off-putting fact is that whatever we initiate, we might not personally be around to benefit from any of it.  So, whatever level of altruism we engage in it must have a component which is fun, to help us through the back-breaking work ahead.  In all this, certainly the big killer is doubt and pessimism, for doubt plunges us back into this bad habit of gloom and self pity.  Altruism, if it’s about anything at all, is about the joy of attempting to problem solve.

You might say that the enjoyment of challenging oneself is the ultimate exhilaration, which makes altering one’s lifestyle easier.  When we do things without needing to get materially rewarded for doing them, then we switch over to an important attitude that’s powerful enough to transform our own world view.  At which point we have altruism in the bag!