I had a Sociology lecturer in Sixth Form who believed there was no such thing as altruism. She was also my Psychology Lecturer and in her opinion Pervo-Extraordinaire Sigmund Freud was the be-all and end-all as far as Behavioural and Developmental Psychology was concerned, so it's easy to see why I never really valued her opinion. For the sake of posterity, and also for the fact that I can't remember her bloody name, she shall remain anonymous.
We got into an argument about altruism once (coincidentally, we also got into an argument or two about Freud, but that's a different matter). As a counter to her statement about the non-existence of altruism I told her of a time I felt I had shown some. Here is that story:
One day I was in line at a cash machine, waiting to draw some money out. The Lady in front of me got to the machine and, after pushing a few buttons, began to look flustered. She moved hurriedly inside the bank, presumably to complain that the machine wouldn't pay out, and I stepped up to the ATM. I was about to place my card into the machine when a bunch of money popped out. I'm not even kidding, there must have been close to £300 there. I headed straight into the building, located the woman and handed it to her.
Needless to say the Lecturer wasn't really impressed, and started trying to pick my story apart. She said I was after gratitude, but the lady didn't thank me, nor did I expect or want her to. Thinking on it a moment she then asked whether I'd thought of taking the money for myself... Well of course I bloody did! I'm only human, but then sympathy, empathy, morals and selflessness kicked in. The Sociology Lecturer who's name escapes me called these "social conditioning". I was stumped, there's no argument for that.
I was thinking today about Altruism and it's relation Superheroes. If superpowers existed, would those bestowed with them use them for good? Greed and self-gratification are more common human characteristics than selflessness and heroism, so there'd certainly be villains aplenty, but would anybody step-up and save the day? I found myself thinking "What would I do"? That's when I remembered back to the altruism argument, and the cash machine story. I like to think that if I were super-powered I'd do the right thing; that sympathy, empathy, morals and selflessness would kick in. Isn't that what altruism is anyway? An inherent desire to do good? Plus it'd be pretty cool to have a costume, and the fame and the gratitude would be nice...
Okay screw it, altruism is a load of BS, but Freud was an incestuous freak!
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I have had this argument, though not with a sociology teacher.
ReplyDeleteThe number of Christians who see me and for some unexplainabe reason want to save me increases yearly, and the most recent one was (I kid you not) a member of the Jesus Army. I was sat quietly in in Nottingham city centre, watching families play in the fountain. It had started to rain a little, but Spooky was in the comic shop on the next street, I had nowhere else to be, and the kids hadn't noticed the change in the weather, so I continued sitting there, only with my hood pulled up.
This petite red-haired woman approached me to ask if I was alright, and , I decided to give her a couple of minutes (it's something of a rule with me to at least listen to anyone who's standing around in the cold, for unselfish reasons and obviously believes they are helping someone). This woman asked me about my beliefs. Now,as well you know, Dan my dear, my beliefs are not what she would want to hear, but why lie? I said I did not live my life in fear of a higher power, I did not believe there was a god who would punish me for my sins when I died, but I endeavoured to live a life that was selfless, fair and kind for myself, and the people I could help. Not because I was looking over my shoulder ready to kick my ass for not doing, because as soon as you become god-fearing, a good act is no longer good for goods sake.
A lot of the things people do could be considered gratitude seeking, but that is never to say that we wouldn't do them without the gratitude. Thankyous are not catalysts, they are by-products.
The woman, incidentally said I could never hope to be good because humans are born sinful and that if I wasn't baptised and taken into the Lords holy busom I'd burn for all eternity, then prayed on me in the middle of a city centre, but altruism is sound.
freud was the man!!
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