1371:
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 they want to make a difference, attracted by the idea of being
confident, attracted to the optimism contained in that feeling. Confidence is launching a boat that will
float, having faith that things will turn out well, indeed faith that we ‘live
in a safe universe’.
If life is really all about
having faith, whether in some master plan-for-our-planet or whatever form it
takes, it’s a faith that things will turn out the way they’re meant to. If we have that sort of faith, call it
optimism, we won’t allow our doubts to screw up everything we aim to do.
Doubt makes things look
impossible. Doubt makes it impossible to
see ourselves operating more selflessly. And if that’s true, then it’s ‘doubt’ that
makes us think altruism’s only about goodness and idealism, whereas it might be
nothing less than a good business deal. Maybe it’s like ‘clean dealing’, that is motivated,
and galvanised by an opposition to greed - turning it on its head, and making
it a greed for others, a greed for a fabulous future for all of us.
You may say, "Dream on
Brother!"
The sticky point here is that
altruism doesn’t bring happiness, or not quite as one might expect it, anyway. It's suitable for long term plans which we
might not still be around to benefit from. Altruism means back-breaking work for a while
longer, requiring (developing) patience. But the killer is doubt and pessimism.
Doubt plunges us back into
this bad habit of gloom and self pity. Altruism,
if it’s about anything at all, is about the adventure of problem solving. It's the stimulation we all need to challenge ourselves,
which ultimately makes altering our lifestyle easier. When we do things without needing to get
materially rewarded for doing them, then we have altruism in the bag!
No comments:
Post a Comment