Altruism

Ayn Rand on Page vii of her ethics book, The Virtue Of Selfishness, defines altruism and characterizes all the problems and difficulties that this misguided ethical system has brought upon all humanity: "Altruism declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action is the only criterion of moral issue--and so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself, anything goes." My response: Rand is a purist ethically and is too pro-egoism and too anti-altruism, but she is correct more than not. Altruism is eviler and than good, and egoism is better than evil. Altruist motives must be secondary and fewer in number, and egoist motives must be primary and more numerous. On the same page, Rand goes on to lay out a laundry list of the wicked results of altruist ethics, hurting people, and it is a doozy: "Hence the appalling immorality, the chronic injustice, the grotesque double standards, the insoluble conflicts and contradictions that have characterized human relationships and human societies throughout history under al the variants of the altruist ethics." Satan is an altruist and joiner and rules this world, so the ethics of hatred can only sow seeds of violence, injustice, suffering, cruelty, poverty, war and injustice.