A counselor once asked me what I am doing for myself. I thought of what I do, cooking and doing some household jobs; work on justice and peace issue, like getting 1.1 million from Catholic Church to the poor or stopping Marquette from teaching killing; drive friends to medical appointments; make home visits of our St. Vincent De Paul conference; go out for Friday Fish friends and other entertainment events; researching and writing; gardening; read and watch TV and movies. I am not sure what the counselor was asking but if I look over the partial list above I can saying I truly do all these things for myself, even something that people would call ‘altruistic’.
Some would say that altruism is doing for others not for oneself. But I would argue, maybe from my background in Thomistic, the philosophical doctrines of Thomas Aquinas, that there often is no conflict between doing something for others and for oneself.
I remember watching an interview recently with evolutionary biologist that some of the longest surviving creatures, like bees, insects and humans tend to be altruistic. Simply saying that some creatures, like humans, have crossed a certain threshold where doing for others was doing for self.
So going back to the original question of what am I doing for myself I could say that what I do for others I do for myself and what I do for myself I do for others. I guess Jesus got it right when he said “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Now our American individualistic society would not agree with this way of seeing things. Individualism makes the individual its focus and so starts “with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation. The ’common good’ seems to be low on the list of many Americans especially politicians. They are popular when they call for lower taxes for individuals but not so if the talk about spending money for the ‘common good’, even the poorest and least of society. The socialist that build Milwaukee, the great park system and other services would not make it these days. If a person is not out for themselves they can come under suspicion.
From Buddhism to Christianity to Islam doing for others, altruism is central to all major religions and faiths. Maybe this is why secularism is on the rise in some countries like USA and religious faith is on the way down. Doing for self can be altruism or individualism.
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