Of Benevolence and AltruismBy Tusk

Of Benevolence and Altruism
By Tusk

What is it with our culture? I mean, we had a good thing going for a while there, but somewhere along the way we got to be spoiled brats. Ever seen the “No War For Oil” demonstrators leave at the end of the day? They are driving away, single occupancy, in a big fat SUV! Not all of them, to be sure, but more than a handful.

“Hypocrites!” you say? So did I, at first, but then I put a couple of things together. First of all, I don’t believe the majority of these people are bad — in fact I am quite sure they are good-intentioned people. That’s why they are out there protesting what they feel is wrong. But I digress from my main point.

There’s a seemingly disconnected piece of observation regarding the difference between benevolence and altruism. Let’s get one thing straight up front: the Founding Fathers of our country stood for some very simple but specific principles: one of which is benevolence. In our culture, these terms seem to have come to mean the same thing to people, but they are very different — and it is worth pointing out here. I find it disturbing that modern Thesaurus puts the two together! But let’s look at the difference before I get to the main point.

Altruism is all about self-sacrifice, even to the point of suffering yourself so that others may benefit from your efforts. Benevolence is about tending toward kind acts, even generosity. Can you see the difference? If you can’t, you may want to pick up an Ayn Rand book or three and give a read.

So how did it get so chic to be altruistic, a basic tenet of cultures that are the antithesis of our somewhat selfish one? My theory is that we’ve had it so easy the past 50 years that we feel guilty as a culture. This comes from the same place as the need many seem to have to be apologists to the rest of the world on behalf of our nation. While I am not a big supporter of the Catholic faith, at least they have the guilt/sin/confession mechanism to help alleviate this tendency.

Americans are basically GOOD people, we want to be liked, we want to help the world see the benefits we’ve discovered through our system of government. But we go about it in the wrong way enough that we feel bad. Don’t feel bad, just re-focus yourself on the very simple basics the country was founded on — revolutionary ideas at the time and taken for granted or ignored today in favor of concepts like altruism and apology.

Let’s review those simple yet revolutionary tenets of the individual. The words are: Freedom, Enlightenment, Peace, Good Faith, Benevolence, and Justice.

It’s sad how these words are so overused and abused and twisted today. Well-intentioned as well as self-serving powermongers throw them around out of context and without conviction (the altruism/benevolence thing above is one example). In my mind this is paramount to heresy of the highest order if you claim to be an American. You may agree or disagree, or correct me if I’ve made an error, but here is a little more on each of these words we should all hold sacred, American or not.

Freedom — of body, mind, spirit. No one argues this one, the meaning is clear. I should be able to choose what I do and how I do it in any realm of my existence within the reach of my own powers, PROVIDED I do not cause others to come to harm or rob them of their freedoms.

Enlightenment — related to education, it wasn’t that long ago it was considered revolutionary that every person should not only have the right to seek it, that ever person should be ENCOURAGED to seek it. This is a common thread throughout all of these powerful concepts. It isn’t enough to “approve”, you should actively be seeking these things.

Peace — not only in the context of wars and physical fighting, this word encompasses everything about an individual. Very much like the other terms, particularly Freedom, Peace is something you should have a right to and should work to achieve.

Good Faith — no, this isn’t necessarily about religion. “Good Faith” has a meaning much greater than the sum of the two words taken separately. This means you live your life in good faith to yourself as well as others, your actions are done in good faith, as well as your spirituality. Freedom gives you the choice of how far you want to go into the mystic realm, be it Christianity or some other faith. What most concerns us is how well you can show and live by Good Faith in the earthly realm.

Benevolence — not only a tendency to be kind to yourself and those close to you, this applies to all your acts and how you apply the other principles. A good example is taking some time to help another gain extra enlightenment or peace.

Justice — last but certainly not least. We have a lot of noise about Justice in this country and rightly so. Unfortunately, like Benevolence, this principle is twisted regularly by taking it too strictly out of the context of ALL these principles.

In fact, let me make something perfectly clear. NOT ONE of these principles is worth more than a dime if you try to exclude the others, or even neglect the others. And take a guess what happens when we pervert or twist these as a group or one at a time. That’s right, it simply doesn’t work. Like a chain reaction or snowball rolling down hill, it’s all too easy to pay lip service to these principles to server our own ends.

Doesn’t ultimate freedom mean I am free to abandon any or all of these principles? The answer is no, you can’t do that any more than you can argue that you weren’t a witness to a crime if you looked the other way on purpose. Once enlightened, there is no going back. All else is denial and will only come to a bad end.

So next time you feel compelled to be altruistic, think about benevolence instead, and remember the other five principles that go with it.

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