SELFISHNESS IS A CAPITALIST VALUE
The fundamentally flawed manner we view and interpret human behavior.
So I’ve heard one too many people tell me that “people are selfish” or some other variation of this. Everyone is self-serving, or everyone only looks for what they can get. And this sounds so obviously true right? It checks out with our common understanding of human psychology and behavior. Why would evolution give us the drive to seek something that is outside of ourselves, something that does us no good or even worse, does others good at our own detriment.
Altruism is fundamentally unprofitable and unnatural.
But to really think about it, what is selfishness? I didn’t want to use a dictionary definition because that could derail us into semantics and we all know exactly what we’re talking about, but Merriam Webster calls it concern with one’s own welfare or advantage in disregard of others.
Imagining you agree with this, I want to ask you one question that just dislodges this definition from the clear effect of selfishness. What is one’s own welfare?
There are things that are important to us, and things like food, shelter, clothing seem to be the most important, but they aren’t the only things. We need love, belonging, dignity, sense of self and self-actualization. I’d argue these are just as important. How would I argue this? Because just like a deficiency in the ‘fundamental’ physiological needs lead to death, deficiency in these needs could lead to death too- mostly self-termination. There’s also derangement, where a starved body could present in sickness like Kwashiorkor, a starved soul could present in mental illness as well. And we know neither of those are great ways to live.
How does this relate?
Imagine you were a stingy man, you love money, you hoard it like a dragon. But we know no one really loves money, it’s just paper, what they love is what it represents – worth. In this case, belonging and self-actualization. The feelings you get when you’re needed by people, you’re a man. A traditional man, your family can rely on you, the community respects you, your father is proud of you, and hopefully, he loves you. This is all communicated through the mint bank notes in your wallet. So you would never give that away, you love money, you hoard it like a dragon.
You’re at a party, and they start beating drums for you, and you know how this goes, you’re meant to spray money, but you love money right? You hoard it. like a dragon. Why would you give it away?
They beat the drums and compose Yoruba lyrics with your name, praising you, and suddenly, the belonging and self-actualization you got from holding that money in, you now get from giving it away. People are watching, and they see you as rich. That’s what this is all about, those are your real needs, and they are being met.
Suddenly, selfishness is not so selfish. Again, you may ask, how does this relate? And I’d ask again, what is one’s own welfare?
Individualism is a belief that the interests of the individual are or ought to be ethically paramount, and the conduct guided by such a doctrine. This is one of the ideologies that holds up the society we live in right now.
It’s why capitalism ‘works’. In theory, we push for progress so we can be better, individually. And – in theory – since every individual is better, well not like that even matters, as long as I’m better.
That’s the effect of selfishness that my question hopes to dislodge from the psychological and evolutionary necessity of the defined selfishness.
Yes we’re looking out for ourselves, AND since we’re individualistic, that means not looking out for everyone else. If this isn’t my first essay you’re reading, or the title tipped you off, you know I’m about to go off on some imaginary commie society bs, and you’d be so right.
People think that other models other than capitalism don’t work because people are selfish, but don’t realize that all these models (capitalism included) aren’t purely economic. These are ways of life that define us as a race, so it’s not just rules on how to work the market, they come with ideals and philosophies as well, they aren’t going to be exploited by humans, they exploit us. They are interpretations of our basest wants and needs.
They are ways we interpret the bodies we found ourselves in.
In my ideal imaginary world, we have community instead of individualism, essentially, the drums are always being beat. So that feeling you get when you’re needed by someone, comes so easily from helping out the poor on the street. In my imaginary world, it feels good to need someone as well. Morality is built in, why would anyone not be a good person, when being good feeds the ego? Seeing other people smile would make us happier. Seeing other people healthy would make us feel like life is worth living.
Seeing the community, the society grow, that would make us carry on. Not seeing the capital grow, being ‘productive’ would mean creating beauty and cherishing the ever-flowing life around us, rather than producing shareholder value.
We would work because if we worked, hard enough, we could invent something cool, and when I come home from work, and I see a little kid get robotic prosthetics that let him kick poorly made footballs with his friends, I feel good, my life has meaning, I helped create that reality, even if all I did was arrange the data on neuron firing in the spine and its correlation to motor skills – that’s crunching numbers. I would be building the world, my world, because my world would be our world.
My selfishness would be making the world a better place.
Look at me, I’m so selfish, I ensured my palace was filled with gold unlike the slums, except my palace is my village, and my gold is love, and nobody lives in the slums.
I am selfish, but I can interpret that differently.
We are selfish, we are human. We love, and we love love.
