Does altruism exist or is it just a word?

[ebor]

Is it altruistic to be a blood donor? a bone marrow donor? a kidney donor (willing, not some drunk sucker in a Mumbai hotel bath-tub full of ice)

Who (anyone who is a parent) wouldn't trade their life for their child?


Altruism exists, one just has to drill down to weed thu' the daily ____ to find it.

 

[thenammagazine]

 

[devilof76]

I really should get more sleep.

 

[thenammagazine]

I really should get more sleep.

Yup, you'll need something to reminisce about once you have kids.

 

[ebor]

Yup, you'll need something to reminisce about once you have kids.

Every sperm is sacred ...now where is that GIF from Monty Python????

 

[devilof76]

Altruism exists, one just has to drill down to weed thu' the daily ____ to find it.

Altruism isn't just doing nice things for other people. Altruism is acting in a manner that benefits others while not benefitting yourself. It is radical selflessness (and by radical, I mean 100% consistent). To practice it fully, you'd have to commit suicide.

 

[devilof76]

The family is in a sad state, and I blame the self-first attitude for it. Even if you call it rational self-interest to imply a difference with run-of-the-mill selfishness, it still teaches people to be ass holes.

Calling it rational when it's not doesn't make it rational. In fact, you can't separate the concepts. Rationality is selfish. Irrationality is self-destructive, thus not a means to pursuing self-interest.

The commonly accepted meaning of selfishness is a contradiction.

 

[thenammagazine]

Altruism isn't just doing nice things for other people. Altruism is acting in a manner that benefits others while not benefitting yourself. It is radical selflessness (and by radical, I mean 100% consistent). To practice it fully, you'd have to commit suicide.

Suicide isn't altruistic either, as it hurts the ones you love, and annoys those who have to clean up after it.

 

[devilof76]

But if the ones you loved were altruists, they wouldn't be upset about losing you.

 

[thenammagazine]

But if the ones you loved were altruists, they wouldn't be upset about losing you.

The odds of that? And regardless, there're still those that have to clean it up.

 

[devilof76]

Altruism is impossible to practice consistently. It's at complete odds with biology. Saying that people aren't 'good enough' to be selfless doesn't go far enough: life is evil according to an altruistic standard.

 

[thenammagazine]

Altruism is impossible to practice consistently. It's at complete odds with biology. Saying that people aren't 'good enough' to be selfless doesn't go far enough: life is evil according to an altruistic standard.

Yup, and I'd argue that for every person you find willing to sacrifice themselves to save the life of a child, you'll find someone willing to push a child into harms way if it means saving their own.

 

[ChunkyZergling]

This conversation is getting mucho hilarious. I think the only way you could truly be an altruist is to bang your head against a wall until you pass out then give a baby a gun and have them shoot you in the face. You should also have pre-paid a cleaning crew $10,000 a person to clean up the bits of your skull. Am I making sense? Not sure about that.

 

[thenammagazine]

This conversation is getting mucho hilarious. I think the only way you could truly be an altruist is to bang your head against a wall until you pass out then give a baby a gun and have them shoot you in the face. You should also have pre-paid a cleaning crew $10,000 a person to clean up the bits of your skull. Am I making sense? Not sure about that.

 

[devilof76]

Yup, and I'd argue that for every person you find willing to sacrifice themselves to save the life of a child, you'll find someone willing to push a child into harms way if it means saving their own.

Which is murder, and any person who would do it no longer deserves the child they saved.

 

[thenammagazine]

Which is murder, and any person who would do it no longer deserves the child they saved.

Huh?

 

[devilof76]

Oh, I see what you're saying. Altruism exists because there are people who will sacrifice others for their own sake, and then justify it by saying they were only thinking of their child.

Right? Or what on Earth were you talking about?

 

[thenammagazine]

Oh, I see what you're saying. Altruism exists because there are people who will sacrifice others for their own sake, and then justify it by saying they were only thinking of their child.

Right? Or what on Earth were you talking about?

That it exists and at the same time gets canceled out. While someone can be selfless and sacrifice themselves to save the life of a child, there are those who are selfish and will sacrifice the life of a child to save themselves.

 

[devilof76]

There's nothing selfish about murder.

 

[King Darkness]

What if I'm killing for my pleasure?