I wrote: "Donating organs, giving blood, helping the poor, going to the aid of another - are in no way examples of altruistic behaviour, as they are instead examples of selfishness."
DA Morgan replied:
[QUOTE]Hardly. When you donate a kidney you put yourself at risk. In fact you are not allowed to be a donor without having the risks explained to you. This is definitely true with bone marrow. [QUOTE]
Yet to refuse to donate organs, or give bone marrow may bring more ?risks? than if you had. For example: if you live in a culture, family or couple where the other member/s value donating a kidney, etc, and you decide you don?t want to take the risk of becoming ill or dying; you may find yourself shunned by your culture, disowned by your family, lose the love and respect of your partner ? and all because you went against their values.
Most people would prefer to risk death, than to risk losing the love and respect of their loved ones.
[QUOTE]But then I doubt you have any personal experience with living in a tribal society so I wonder upon what basis you would make such an absolutist statement.[QUOTE]
The ?tribe? I was referring to was ?Society?.
[QUOTE]Had you read this thread from the beginning you would have seen the statement that altruism, at its heart, is self-serving. Self-serving but not egotism. Few altruistic acts involve sitting back and carefully calculating the celebrity that will come if one rescues a drowning child. And having worked as a lifeguard for a few years I find your comment laughable. The only celebrity I received from 5 or 6 rescues was a sunburn. [QUOTE]
Egotism, which depends entirely on the emotions for its existence, is so tightly and intricately woven into the fabric of Society that most people consider it as ?normal behaviour?.
People serving the community in ways that Society values, rarely get public acclaim. What they do get is the deep emotional satisfaction that comes from also holding these same values. Some people find emotional pleasure in raging against the values of their community. By doing this they gain happiness from being ?different? and ?individualistic?. Either way, both are acting according to their egos.
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Sue
