Selfishness

Selfishness is the basis of all moral values. Because selfishness is almost universally construed to mean something evil, some people like to replace the term selfishness with rational self interest. This is actually a redundant expression, however, since irrationality far from being selfish, it is actually self-destructive. The mistake is the result of confusing selfish with subjective, two words which are actually contradictory. Subjectivity surrenders the reason, man’s only means of making right choices, to the feelings and passions, which are non-cognitive. Subjectivity, in some form, is the source of almost all irrationality and human evil.

The opposite of selfishness is altruism. Since the basis of all moral values is selfishness, that is, moral values are determined by what is good for individual human beings as a human beings, altruism is the subversion of moral values. Altruism is the anti-moral value system that makes the ideal value the good of some mystical, “others,” to which all values and individuals may or must be sacrificed.

Altruism reverses the true nature of values. The altruistic view is that that whatever is good for you is not good. It is based on the absurd and evil view that what is truly good for an individual is or can be bad for other individuals. Altruism codifies the evil principles that there are contradictions in truth and that evil is a positive.

Altruism is always presented in the negative form. (There is no positive form of altruism.) It is best expressed as, “all selfishness is evil and all evil is selfishness or the consequence of it.” Selfishness, in the view of altruism, is any act or intention to achieve or acquire what is good for one’s self. In other words, anything you do or aspire to, because it is good for you, is selfish. You are virtuous only if your actions and aspirations are for the good of others.

Who are these others to whom and for whom everyone is expected to sacrifice themselves? Others are everyone but you. But, do not suppose that others are any particular individuals, especially not any important to you, like the members of your own family. Sacrificing yourself for your wife or parents or children is merely selfish. Others must be impersonal, without any particular value to you. Others are anyone and everyone in society, in the world, in fact, except those that matter to your own selfish interests.

If this seems incredible to you, you are not yet aware of what your children are being taught in school. This is the dominant moral principle of our day and it is not exaggerated in any way. It is also the basis of collectivism (see Commentary on Organization), which almost everyone has embraced without understanding the altruistic principles behind it.

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. —Oscar Wilde

There is something essential immoral in settling for anything less than the best. “Good enough,” is not quite good, so it is a little bad. Whether producing a product or performing a service, to do less than your best is a kind of cheating, an attempt to get away with something, and since your customer expects the best possible, it is an attempt to get something for nothing, that is, payment for the best without providing it. When acquiring a product or having a service performed, to accept less then the best is to participate in a fraud, accepting as the best what is not, thus encouraging the fraud, and compromising your own integrity.

“You’re just selfish!” The ultimate argument against anything anyone wishes to prevent you from doing. Here is a secret. Whenever someone calls you selfish it’s because there is something you have which that person wants but which they have no moral claim to. If you point out it is just as selfish for them to have it, they will claim they don’t want it for themselves, their desires are “unselfish,” and for others, and it is true. They really do want to give what you have to others. If they are able to cajole or threaten (swindle) the desired thing from you, and do give it to the “needy,” guess who will get the credit for being the great benefactor of the needy. That’s their secret selfish desire. It makes them believe they are worth something.

This is the entire trick of the government. The government produces nothing, creates nothing of value, and performs no service, yet it takes credit for every penny it spends or doles out. It convinces the majority of the population that whatever good they enjoy is a benefit made available to them by the government. The government’s only actual affect on individual enjoyment is to diminish it, and, the more they diminish it, the more they publicly gloat about honor and pleasure it is to be of service to their fellow man.

“No man is an island,” is a lie. An island is exactly what a man is, what every man is. When someone uses this quote as an argument, be sure he is preparing to invade your island, and if he is successful, the bells will surely toll for thee.

(Reference: Meditation 17 (1623-1624) From Devotions upon Emergent Occasions by John Donne)

Your thoughts and feelings are entirely private, and while you may tell others what you think and describe to them what you feel, no other individual can ever directly know what you experience. Everything you are conscious of is part of a unique private world, your world, and all that can ever matter to you is what happens in that world and to it.

You are free to share or keep private as much of your world as you wish, but however much you share, that private island which is your consciousness, can never be approached by another, and you can never approach theirs.

The only one way another can affect your private island is to destroy it, that is, to kill you. This correctly describes the ultimate intention of anyone declaring, “no man is an island,” as a claim on the life of others.