An ant or a bee does not have a choice. It does what it is built to do. To be a good samaritan, to sacrifice! And yet, their community, the bee hive, the ant hill is almost always prosperous, with enough for everyone to eat and all that. Man has a choice. He can sacrifice! he can be a good samaritan, do all that is necessary for the good of others, he can submit his will to the will of the collective and become another ant or a bee. On the other hand he can do what is best for himself. He can pursue the best. He can keep him self at the centre of his attention.
The question is, which one is the better option for humans? I think the question is absurd. The moment you ask that question to yourself you know that you are looking out for yourself. You have already taken the second option.
To elaborate : since man is as he is.. an animal with the power to reason and conceptualize, there are bound to be differences in what different men think is best for the group if at all he agrees to put the group before himself. BUT WAIT.. I think I have committed an error in my reasoning here.. Actually given the same dataset (though this might be impossible, given that our "euclidean" perceptions differ from person to person) and the same decision making deterministic algorithm (reasoning skills, here again some people have better skills than others), the result will always be the same (might not be, for reasons look at the text in the brackets). So if the reasoning is right and the information is available for all, all men will make the same decision eventually. So does that mean that the first option is a valid one? If putting a group above oneself is pragmatic, then yes.
Now coming to the 2nd option. Is it possible for us to put ourselves above everything else? forgetting others completely? For example your kidney might not be working, if you are selfish you will probably pull out someone elses kidney and install it in yourself. BUT, then again a rational person will not? Is it because he abhors sacrifice. Either his or someone else's? you bet. This morality is crucial. That you will not sacrifice another for your gain. And only then is selfishness viable.
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2 comments:
Its all about whether you like watching people run the race, or actually running the race, or winning the race or lastly do watever it takes to win the race.
You can always find enough instances of the last two options, entirely up to you to choose between the two (presumably first two options are worthless for a comptetive mind)
ironically most of those who win the race, are not even aware that they are winners.
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