Rant # 1 - Selfishness

This morning I just had to rant about our discussion in English. I didn't know where to put it, so I thought here might do for now. I considered for a while creating a new blog just for rants, but that would mean I would hardly ever post either here or there, and half the things I write here are already rants anyway. So, several hours later, I present you with "Rant Number One."

A rather interesting conversation occurred today in my writing class after having read, yet again, Machiavelli’s The Morals of the Prince. Our discussion began when we commented on the base assumption Machiavelli makes for all his arguments: that mankind is inherently "simple-minded, ungrateful, fickle, liars and deceivers, fearful of danger and greedy for gain." Heidi (who, incidently, is from Germany) boiled it all down to the fact that everything a person does is done for selfish purposes, and the only reason anyone would do something "nice" or "good" (such as holding open a door for an old woman) is because that is what we are taught to do at a young age. Even then, it is being done for selfish reasons. I took interest in this conversation especially, because the issue of selfishness has been a recurring one in my own personal quest for finding the nature of my self (it sounds cliché, I know). I’d have to say I agree with Heidi, at least for myself. Every action is a completely selfish one. How will it better serve me? However, being selfish isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it doesn’t prevent you from being "good". But that is something I will get to later.

Someone brought up the issue that while some things are done completely selfishly, others are not. She brought up the issue of volunteering for different causes. While she admitted that she had done some volunteering simply in order to increase her chances of admission to Truman, or to look good in the eyes of society, there were occasions on which she volunteered out of a pure desire to help others not as fortunate as she. But I am going to argue that no one (or is it just me? am I so selfish of a person that I can’t even care or feel for others?) ever volunteers to help the needy without an underlying selfish motivation. You just have to dig deep to find it. Perhaps she felt guilty that she had things others didn’t, and only by volunteering could she assuage that guilt. Perhaps she had been taught that caring for others was the right thing to do, perhaps it was the thing that would get you into heaven; by physically showing that care she was affirming with herself, with her society, with her God, that she was a "good" person and indeed merited the reward of eternal bliss. As with holding open the door for the old lady. We do it to make ourselves look good, or to make ourselves feel good, or to give meaning to our lives. We do it for ourselves, not the old lady.

But, as I mentioned before, being selfish isn’t always "bad." If you’re looking at it from the utilitarian point of view, it doesn’t really matter why you helped the little old lady, just that you did help her. Even if we do good deeds for our own personal gain, isn’t it enough that we are doing good deeds? (Not for Luther, I suppose). Is it really necessary, then, to have faith in what you’re doing, to actually do things in a purely unselfish way? I don’t think it is even possible. But it always boils down to that, though, doesn’t it? Faith versus good works. Does it count if you do something insincerely? Why shouldn’t it? At least you made the effort to actually do it. If you are making the world a better place by being selfish, then I say it is acceptable.

I wish I had written this as soon as class was over, while my arguments were still fresh in my mind, but I didn’t get the opportunity, seeing as I had more classes to attend. As it is, my argument has faded and is limp and soggy now. But for an hour or so, I felt very passionately about this.