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Pope Benedict XVI, a man who took a pass on the moniker, “Hilarious II,” has uttered the tired old creed, “self interest will destroy the world!” Further, he reissued the same promises of rewards in heaven, kingdom come, justice, peace, joy and the chance to eat hot dogs on Fridays.
Not to be rude, but self interest is what made the world that said pontiff pontificates in, in the first place. We can deride the present state of world affairs, but, without a doubt, the majority of the world’s population is not Catholic and things seem to have progressed admirably in spite of, or because of, that fact. Violence has been on a steady decline since the 17th century’s regular tongue-pincings, quartering and heretic burnings. We have incredibly technologies that allow us to communicate with each other over vast geographic, cultural, economic and situational differences. We stand on the precipice of self destruction, but our awareness of this sad fact does not mean that this has not always been the case. We also stand at a crossroads where the obvious and correct path are the same path, and we have the ability, as a species, to meet any and all challenges before us.
Self interest is not the problem, your holiness.
Not knowing whom we are has always been our problem. We see dollar signs pasted on shiny objects and we think that working until all hours of the day and night is worth the tiny compensation we receive from our toil, or the pats on the back from those who might envy our capacity to delude ourselves. We are forever opting for littleness when a capacity for being any size, shape or form required to meet the challenges of our lives would be far more constructive, far more helpful to our intended purpose. And yet we hear the sound of change jingling in someone else’s pockets and we think that the wages have been set, the mission is predetermined and all the eyes of the world are upon us.
I have news for some of you: the eyes of the world are quite clearly blind, there is no mission but the one which brings you the most joy and peace and the wages for sin are still death.
In the most general sense of the pontiff’s words, we all agree that self-centered, narcissistic people are the source of a lot of problems in our world. But in the strictest sense, this is not a matter of people who have an interest in advocating and choosing to be who they think are on a moment to moment basis. To suggest that “self” interest, without qualification, is the bane of global health and well-being is to add absurdity to insanity and convert commonsense into pabulum. Dogma hit by karma is a dead dogma.
Instead, come to know who and what you are. Make this your life’s great journey, its great mission. Along the way I am quite confident that you will rediscover and uncover these truths about which the pontiff speaks. I know this because I know and am comfortable with who and what I am, and I know what this must mean about you and whom you are. And, yes, if you were hungry, I would most likely see that you be fed; if you were thirsty I would most likely give you something to drink; if you were a stranger, I would most likely welcome you into my world.
I do these things out of self interest, not out of some insane contest to prove to a hypothetical cloud-being my worthiness to hear more meaningless clichés, more dogma, and be given more problems than solutions in my pursuit of an identity that makes sense for me. Self interest works beautifully when people know whom they are.
Self interest to people who know not what they do is just narcissism of an increasingly malignant quality.
