7th grade spelling bee competition. I get the word Altruism and misspelled it. The proctor gives me the definition of selfless concern for the welfare of others and told me “you will never forget this word”.
Well she was right in that respect although I still maintain that I did spell it correctly. I’ve tried living my life altruistically as possible in all aspects. In some aspects perhaps too much in other aspects perhaps too little but overall I think I’ve done a decent job of it.
I haven’t done this in expectation of rewards. To me this just seems the way to live my life. Volunteering for something, donating to a charity, or even just giving a couple of bucks to some beggar on the street. None of it really benefits me in any way yet I feel the compunction to do it.
Several years back I read up on George Price’s work on the Price equation which seem to suggest that altruism was in reality a long-term evolutionary tactic developed to insure species survival and increase the odds of reproductive success.
Interestingly enough Price himself spent the remainder of his life trying to disprove this theory by looking for examples of truly altruistic behavior.
Is it really all just an elaborate tactic that we all play? That on some deep sub-conscious level we plot and strategize to increase the survival of the species and we try to insure our own reproductive success or improve the lot of our offspring?
Can we find that one example that turns this all into a lie? Can you look in your life and find that one true altruistic experience?
Recent Comments