Objectivism

Who Princess

I'm not sure humans would have lasted this long if we only helped others because it benefits us. Some people seem to be wired to be altruistic, although I'd rather call it nurturing, compassion, and caring. Infants are born completely helpless and totally dependent on their parents and most parents respond by nurturing and protecting their children, out of love and not because it's particularly gratifying to change diapers or clean up food thrown on the floor. If I drive a sick friend to the doctor's or help an elderly neighbor take her trash cart out to the curb, I'm not doing it for any anticipated reward or even for warm fuzzy feelings. I believe it involves empathy. Some people never learn that concept and some people have a greater capacity for it than others.

I've spent most of my career working either at nonprofit organizations or government agencies. I'm what some people would call a do-gooder. I'll agree that people go into the so-called helping professions for a variety of reasons, some of them selfish. But unless you're going to be a doctor or a nurse, most of these positions don't pay all that well. I like to work on problems, understanding how things happen, learning what changes can be made. My job allows me to do those things, so I like it a lot. I suppose you could call that my self-interest but I call it job satisfaction. Most helping professionals aren't trying to save the world. Neither am I. I work on things that I can accomplish and also try to take care of myself and my family. Not that I'm the perfect example of altruism, but I can say that I've known many people who are natural helpers and caregivers without any great concern for how they'll benefit.

To the OP, I'm not at all familiar with Objectivism and I've never read Ayn Rand. But your description reminds me of the Reagan-Bush (the elder) era. The whole Mo(u)rning in America outlook that would supposedly keep government out of our everyday lives and allow charities and faith organizations to take care of all the social problems. That's not very practical in execution, at least in a large country like the U.S. Financial resources and populations vary from region to region and would make it very difficult for a hodge podge of organizations to take care of other services. Also, when businesses take over government services, I tend to think they do an even worse job of it and have very little accountability. I don't know if Objectivism would work more easily in a smaller country such as Ireland.

PJ_Soul

jeffbr said:

PJ_Soul said:

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

I remember my brother who is a decade older than I when I was 13.
He had that ginormous (to me) paperback Atlas Shrugged. He advocated it so hard at the time and it seemed that at the time everyone was reading it.
The look of the book was so obtrusive I never picked it up.
Never have I heard it talked about in an open concept until this thread.

edit - I could not be myself without this adlib

I am all for a good huge dose of reason, but I am not at all taken by egocentric self-interest, and i tend to pretty much despise anyone who is.

I'm not an Objectivist, but I do believe that we are all motivated by self-interest. I don't believe pure altruism exists. We help others for generally self-interested reasons, unless we're being compelled by threat of force. Perhaps we help because of how it makes us feel inside. Perhaps we help because we like the accolades. Perhaps we help because we know if we give a hand up, that person will then reciprocate and make our community more livable, thereby benefiting us. Perhaps we help others because of some belief in rewards in the afterlife. Call it enlightened self-interest. We do things because of the benefit (perceived or otherwise, in whatever form) we derive.

I didn't mean that I think people are altruistic. But there is a big difference between normal, everyday self-interest and Objectivism IMO. Objectivism is about pointed self-interest.... basically the kind that assholes practice.