Altruism vs. Service

December 8, 2009
I have spent the last few days discussing, o.k. debating the nature and value of service with Chris aka Mr. Baggins. These conversations have brought me back to previous thoughts on the subject of altruism and service. When I was at university we were presented with the idea of altruism as a personality trait. This definition of altruism says it is a person who gives and does for others with no regard for self-interest. I reject even the possibility of such a thing. Serving gives everyone something, even if it is just a warm fuzzy feeling. The person being helped really doesn't care what our motivations are as long as we are giving from the heart. It isn't kindness or service if your gifts are conditional upon something from the receiver. Then it ceases to be a service and becomes barter, again there is a place for such things. “Will work for food” was common in the 1930s… these days many clients at soup kitchens and shelters volunteer for clean-up and food prep. It allows us (clients) to give back and reduces the burden on the facilities. Dropping toonies into a busker’s guitar case isn’t charity, but it is kind, you didn’t solicit that particular service at that time but you paid for it anyway.
Returning to our topic of altruism, if we look at the great humanitarians we see that there is always self interest in the decision for their service. Mother Teresa believed she was acting on God's will for her life, Albert Schweitzer was repaying a debt to… you guessed it, God. What can I say among so many other Supremes, God is the supreme motivator. Again God’s love is unconditional, so don’t be motivated by fear, be motivated by the bible’s example of perfect love. If our individual and collective commitment to give ourselves to helping others is service… then what is altruism? Altruism is an event… a moment in time when a perceived need is met a perceived ability to fulfill that need. In that regard so is heroism… the person to races into the burning building does so with the sincere belief they can successfully return with the rescued party. There is no time in that moment to think about self-interest, any resulting reward was unsolicited…and well deserved. An example of altruism was the dress Flora gave to me in the blog Generosity (which posted last summer)… She was not looking for approval, gratitude or anything else, I ran into her several weeks later and she didn’t even recognize me LOL. She saw I had a need which she believed she could fulfill and took action.
A kind heart or an empathetic nature are the personality traits which allow us to see the needs of others. Possessing those traits does make certain people more inclined to service, both as a career and voluntarily as with Chris and I and countless others. There are so many different populations with so much need right here in Canada that every one of us can find a cause to support, with time, money or both. Youth, elderly, sick, poor, disabled, hospitals even neighbours; do something for someone else (maybe just one thing each day) and you will be amazed what it does you. ;-)