X-Message-Number: 17052
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 22:07:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Badger <>
Subject: Re: What is a selfish act?

Lee Corbin challenges me to explain the apparently
selfless act of letting someone into traffic and
limits my response as follows: 

"I do not want to hear lame, unrealistic answers like
"well, I might do it, but it would be for a selfish
reason---if I'm nice to that person, then he or she
will be nice to someone else [faulty logic!], and 
eventually it would get back to benefit me".  No, as
I said, you are in a very, very large city that you
never intend to visit again (sorry to be so thorough
here)."

OK, I won t use that one. Even though there s some
truth to it, it s not the best argument. Lee goes on
with:

"Also very feeble is the reason, "Well, I did it in 
order to feel good."  Well, duh!  EVERYTHING that
people do could be written off with such reasoning, "

Exactly!! By George, I think he s got it. J

Actually I would suggest that random acts of kindness
and acts of civility are rather easily explained.
People differ with respect to the degree to which they
are willing to make personal sacrifices for the
benefit of others   from letting someone into traffic
to sacrificing one s life. Those differences are a
function of multiple factors, but primarily reflect an
effort to meet one s social needs (i.e. I feel better
about myself when I satisfy my sense of responsibility
or my sense of obligation to the welfare of others).
For some, this means joining the peace corps, for
others it means dropping a quarter in the Salvation
Army bucket. It boils down to behaving in a manner
which is congruent with and which reinforces one s
(perhaps idealized) self-image. IOW, I like to think
of myself as a kind, generous, and thoughtful person.
Consequently, to behave in a contradictory fashion
would cause cognitive dissonance while performing an
act of kindness tends to support/reinforce my belief
system. Again, I m not denying that people behave in
kind, generous and thoughtful ways. I just don t think
they act in "self-less" ways.

Lee then summarizes by saying:

"Nothing is more comical than to hear libertarians try
to rationalize every genuine act of kindness they do,
as something committed for their own self-interest.
The excuses they make!  The hoops they jump through!"

Well, I consider my argument to be neither comical nor
of the hoop-jumping variety. To me, it seems that you
are the one who is stretching to find an example that
cannot be reasonably explained by my hypothesis. In
addition, I have yet to hear your hypothesis for how
it is that self-less acts occur.

I m enjoying the debate though.


P.S. I had not heard of the email hoax either, and I d
like to think that I would ve checked my sources
before posting such a message. OTOH, some of the
cryonet replies struck me as overly critical of
Natasha. Suggesting that she and the organizations to
which she belong are now suspect as a result is just
taking it too far. After all, tolerance and
forgiveness may just be in your best interest? J

Best regards,

Scott Badger

"Vita Perpetuem"


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