Not so selfish?

One of the NZ Herald's best columnists is Tapu Misa.   She doesn't seem to write on a regular basis, that is, you won't find one of her columns in the same place each week.   However, when she does write, she always has something worthwhile to say.   (Would that the rest of us could follow suit!)

One of her most recent columns has been entitled Courage, Compassion make nice change, which doesn't sound like Misa.  It has the ring of some subeditor who didn't read the article very carefully and dumped a few quick words on top of it.   (Of course, I could be wrong.)

In this piece, Misa points out that selfishness, in spite of what we've been told, isn't necessarily the norm for human beings.   People do put themselves on the line for others, even give their lives for others.  She cites a few examples in recent NZ news, (and there are a surprising number of heroes in our recent history) and notes that Sue Gerhardt, the author of The Selfish Society, "does much to dispel the myth that we humans are relentlessly self-centred, self-interested beings who do good only when it serves our own ends."

Check the article out.   It's always good to read good news. 

The idea that we have an obligation to society beyond the demands we ourselves wish to make of it is
becoming unfashionable. Utilitarianism – the greatest happiness (or welfare or benefit) for the greatest
number – is a philosophy now held in severe disrepute.
Individual endeavour is adulated, as is personal autonomy. Utilitarianism might deter the huge efforts, for
huge gains, of the talented entrepreneur. Thus society looks less at the welfare of the whole, and more at the welfare of the individual. And the intervention of the state is seen as less than desirable, and often less than benevolent to boot.
Meanwhile, the old sense of mutual obligation, somewhat fostered by war-time, has taken a battering. We are into understanding ourselves, into selfimprovement: improving our homes, our looks and our minds. And our view of faith is also increasingly individualistic. We choose the elements of faith that suit us – we may go to church, synagogue or mosque. Individual salvation is part of the appeal of the evangelicals. Personal salvation is the carrot held out. But the requirements our faiths put on us to consider and care for others may get less than their fair attention.
We look at ourselves, not beyond. And despite all the surveys demonstrating widespread belief in God,
despite the huge readership of religious books and the increasing attendance at evangelical churches, our
views about social solidarity, evening up the inequalities and making a difference to groups or individuals who suffer, have taken a battering.

From Unkind, risk averse and untrusting – if this is today’s society,can we change it? - the latest (Sept 2008) report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's series on social evils.

Indifference

When we have learned indifference, when we are really skilled and determined at the business of ignoring others, of putting our own well-being, our own options, first--of thrusting our own ego into life, as the ideal form of life itself--we may be quite certain that at that point, life has become hell. We need be no more thoroughly damned.

Daniel Berrigan
Consequences: Truth and...