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Collectivism as a corollary to altruism

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Tyco

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This is a simple idea which is perhaps already stated quite succinctly in Objectivist literature, but nevertheless one that struck me with a sense of novelty/revelation. This was my line of thought:

A fundamental logical problem with altruism is that it's nigh-impossible to put into practice. As many people have observed, there is no end to the selfless good deeds one could commit. In the present world, if one tries to alleviate terrible suffering whenever one finds it, say in some oppressed nation, even upon success in one instance, another gruelling trial would always await you. No one, not even some cross between Mother Theresa and Jack Bauer, can overcome this. Altruism will simply drain away everything.

Yet, as Rand observed, altruism is the dominant ethical system of our time. Dominant but simultaneously impossibly impractical - how can this be?

The answer, I think, is that most people deploy some sort of collectivist bulkhead against the drain of altruism. In other words, they choose a set of people (usually one they identify with), and limit their altruistic endeavours/convictions to actions/ideas that benefit members of this collective. Eg. Nationalism. They are then able to actually practice altruism within this context (even when it leads to atrocious cruelty towards others, eg. Nazism).

Not everyone, I suppose, chooses some such collective - the only rebuttal here is that they are not really applying altruism either, just paying it lip-service (see: your typical Westerner who hates industrialization/capitalism but slyly enjoys all its benefits).

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A fundamental logical problem with altruism is that it's nigh-impossible to put into practice. As many people have observed, there is no end to the selfless good deeds one could commit.

- there is no end to the selfless good deeds one could commit.

I don't know about the "good" part, but that's not exactly the problem with Altruism. There is no end to the selfish good deeds one can commit either.

The problem of altruism lies in that it regards and human as tools to serve some cause other than his own life. This morality defines whatever actions taken for the benefit of others is good and any actions taken of the benefit of oneself is evil. That's it. It doesn't tell you who to sacrifice to or what you should sacrifice.

Depending on how consistent a person adopts this morality he becomes either in part or whole a sacrificial animal who will give whatever others asks of him.

When you got a society/group full of sacrificial animals with their morality telling them nothing about who they should sacrifice themselves to, only that they should, that's where collectivism among other things kicks in.

Religion will tell altruistics to sacrifice to god. Collectivism will tell altruistics to sacrifice to their race, class or state..etc.

Altruism makes people ready to be picked, Collectivism among other slogans picks them.

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I don't know about the "good" part, but that's not exactly the problem with Altruism. There is no end to the selfish good deeds one can commit either.

I was not trying to point out the problem with altruism, just a problem. Also, there is an end to the selfish good deeds one can commit - you can define it by your own standards and not feel your efforts are inadequate in light of the problem's scale.

The problem of altruism lies in that it regards humans as tools to serve some cause other than his own life. This morality defines whatever actions taken for the benefit of others is good and any actions taken of the benefit of oneself is evil.

To practice this the most basic requirement is deciding what an acceptable benefit to achieve would be (the default beneficiaries would simply be the entire human race). Essentially any significant benefit, however, would mean practically endless effort to help all people in need. Even if this was somehow universally achieved, the next logical step would simply be to raise the benefit/standard and start all over again. The morality in its purest form gives you no mandate to say, 'OK, I think I've done enough.'

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there is an end to the selfish good deeds one can commit - you can define it by your own standards and not feel your efforts are inadequate in light of the problem's scale.

You can accomplish a selfish achievement, feel happy, and then know there are still endless more achievements you can move on to. I get what you are trying to say, but the way you are saying it doesn't logically fit.

To practice this the most basic requirement is deciding what an acceptable benefit to achieve would be (the default beneficiaries would simply be the entire human race). Essentially any significant benefit, however, would mean practically endless effort to help all people in need. Even if this was somehow universally achieved, the next logical step would simply be to raise the benefit/standard and start all over again. The morality in its purest form gives you no mandate to say, 'OK, I think I've done enough.'

Not so, the notorious beauty of true altruism lies in the fact it tells you that the act of sacrificing is an end in itself. What kind of benefit and on what scale your sacrifice might result to others is irrelevant as far as this morality is concerned. What it concerns is ultimately how much the sacrifice takes away from you, the more the better. (e.g. A person sacrificing his life for a cause and accomplishing relatively little would be placed on a higher plaque than someone who sacrificed little but achieved a much greater deal)

This morality in the end is all about how much you give, not how much you accomplished.

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