{"id":9456,"date":"2018-12-06T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/blog\/?p=9456"},"modified":"2018-12-17T20:38:47","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T01:38:47","slug":"585-altruism-is-irrational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/archives\/9456","title":{"rendered":"585 – Altruism is irrational"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Selfless\"

Altruism is repeatedly confused with charity, and yet the two very differing concepts continue to be used interchangeably to the detriment of both individuals and society at large.<\/p>\n

\u2018Charity\u2019 is defined as: \u201c1. the providing of help to the poor; 2. that which is given to help the needy; 3. an institution, organization, or fund to aid those in need; 4. tolerance; leniency; 5. an act of good will; 6. brotherly love.\u201d (Funk & Wagnalls) These are in fact among the acts and values associated with charity.<\/p>\n

In contrast, \u2018altruism<\/strong>\u2019 is defined as \u201cselfless devotion to the welfare of others.\u201d (Funk & Wagnalls) That\u2019s not charity; that\u2019s activism disguised as charity<\/strong>. It is the Left\u2019s virtue signal for political causes that are far from anything that could be considered \u2018selfless.\u2019<\/p>\n

Warned Ayn Rand<\/strong>: \u201cDo not confuse altruism with kindness, good will or respect for the rights of others. These are not primaries, but consequences, which in fact, altruism makes impossible. The irreducible primary of altruism, the basic absolute, is self sacrifice \u2013 which means, self immolation, self-abrogation, self-denial, self-destruction \u2013 which means: the self as the standard of evil, the selfless as the standard of good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider the contrast in civility when those on the Left debate or confront those on the Right. While the \u2018altruistic\u2019 Left expresses hatred, intolerance, and a refusal to engage with others, the Right instead demonstrates true \u2018charity\u2019 towards those on the Left through tolerance and respect, despite fundamental disagreements. This is no coincidence.<\/p>\n

Far beyond charity, altruism represents a moral code, the one upon which all ideas of the Left are based: sacrifice of the individual to the collective<\/strong>. This is utterly destructive to the process of reason, and to the establishment of values necessary to maintain human life and purpose. And that\u2019s exactly how the Left wants it.<\/p>\n

Explains Ayn Rand: \u201cReason is the most selfish human faculty; it has to be used in and by a man\u2019s own mind, and its product \u2013 truth \u2013 makes him inflexible, intransigent, impervious to the power of any pack or any ruler. Deprived of the ability to reason, many becomes a docile, pliant, impotent chunk of clay to be shaped into any subhuman form and used for any purpose by anyone who wants to bother.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere has never been a philosophy, a theory or a doctrine which did not also preach submission to the power of some authority. Philosophically, most men do not understand this issue to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n

A resurgence and understanding of Ayn Rand\u2019s philosophy would go a long way towards combating irrationality in a way that\u2019s Just Right \u2013 through the use of reason combined with a charitable attitude.<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Altruism is repeatedly confused with charity, and yet the two very differing concepts continue to be used interchangeably to the detriment of both individuals and society at large. \u2018Charity\u2019 is defined as: \u201c1. the providing of help to the poor; 2. that which is given to help the needy; 3. an institution, organization, or fund [Continue Reading]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,596,28,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio","category-ethics","category-ideas","category-latest","category-reason","issues-irrationality","issues-morality","issues-rationality","personalities-ayn-rand","personalities-gad-saad","category-12-id","category-5-id","category-596-id","category-28-id","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9456"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9507,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9456\/revisions\/9507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}