Chapter 8. Everything is Ready (for Life’s purpose). Society’s Approach to Altruism
Building an altruistic society will be widely supported by the public, since we all like to think of ourselves as good people who share other people’s misfortunes and are helpful to others. This is how we are built. Theoretically, there is nothing to stop us from declaring that we are egoists and do not want to be considerate of anyone. But none of us is proud of his or her egoism.
Society naturally appreciates those who contribute to it. Hence, every person strives to be seen as such. Every person, society, public personality, or government wants to present itself as altruistic. Moreover, no individual will encourage others to be egoists, because that would be disadvantageous to one-self. For this reason, even the greatest egoists present themselves as altruists, not only to win society’s appreciation, but to benefit from the altruism of others in return.
While it is true that there are highly unusual people who declare themselves egoists, they are not implying that they are proud of being detriments to society, but rather want to say, “Look at me, I’m special.” With such a statement, they are merely trying to win society’s attention.
Thus, no one openly objects to the expansion of altruism in the world. Some people will support altruism more actively and some more passively, but no one will be able to oppose it. Deep within, we all feel that egoism is killing everything and that altruism is a positive element that gives vitality and liveliness. This is why we teach our children to be considerate of others, even though we ourselves are egoists.
A NEW GENERATION OF CONFIDENT, HAPPY CHILDREN
Each of us strives to give his or her children the best tools for life. This is why we intuitively bring them up to be altruists. In fact, educating the younger generation has always been based on altruistic values.
We bring our children up to be kind to others because we subconsciously know that being unkind to others eventually hurts the unkind person. We want to give our children security, and we feel that we can succeed only by means of altruistic education.
Thus, a person’s confidence does not depend on the individual, but on the environment. Because one’s environment reflects a person’s attitude toward it, all harm comes to us from the environment. However, by promoting altruistic values, we will increase the chances that society will not harm us.
Each society, in each country, throughout history, has wanted to impart altruistic values to its children. Only a very powerful individual, such as a tyrant whose army stands ready to enforce his will, can afford to teach his children to be ruthless, inconsiderate, and merciless. But the children of such people will need great protection to survive. They will have to stand guard against everyone else, and protect themselves through the force of arms.
A good attitude toward others imparts a sensation of security, peace and calm that is second to none. For this reason, we try to bring up our children with these values. However, and this is an important point, in time our children see that we, ourselves, are not behaving in this way toward others, and so they become as egoistic as we are.
Proper education is based on good examples. Are we showing our children an example of altruistic behavior toward others? The answer is probably negative, although we do bring them up to be altruistic when they are young.
A child who sees that his or her parents do not “walk the walk, but simply talk the talk,” senses that their words are empty and false. As much as they will try to show their children the preferable way to behave, it will be useless.
The crises we are in today, and our perilous future, impel us to make a change. Thus far, we have been teaching our children to do one thing, yet did not follow our own advice. But now we have no choice. We must change our own egoistic attitude toward others.
As more and more people begin to behave altruistically, the reality that our children will be born into will change, and they will easily grasp what was difficult for us to understand. They will recognize that we are all part of a single system, and that accordingly, our relationships should be altruistic. There is nothing better that we can do for our children and for ourselves.