Altruism and Service

"Our understanding of our role in the world tends to be placed on the spectrum of "selfishness" and "selflessness" -- egotism and altruism. Although these poles exist, they are not useful for understanding ourselves or our social obligations.

"We are all individuals -- social individuals to be sure -- but individuals nonetheless. Thus some things will always remain private. We can share our food and water, but we cannot consume it for each other. Likewise, we can talk about our thoughts and ideas, but we can never share them first hand. What we share is by nature not original; acts of creation are private acts.

"In terms of a contribution to society, what is more valuable? Devoting your life to the service of others or working towards being an integrated and fulfilled individual? It is the latter to be sure. What is of more valubale? A library full of original works of literature and science, or a library full of reviews of other reviews and their authors? If we only define ourselves in terms of what we mean to other people, we contribute nothing to the cosmic evolution of our society.

"This sounds like "selfishness". It is not. The more profound an understanding of ourselves that we come to, the more we understand how the best interests of other individuals contributes to our own. We come to the understanding that being a strong creative individual supports other strong creative individuals, and they support us in return. We develop develop strong communities through the bidirectional, contractual nature of that support.

"We cannot celebrate humanity without acknowledging the driving creative force -- the humanity -- in ourselves."