Nothing could be further from the truth concerning selfishness and its true antipode, as I stated in my OpEdNews.com article "Illuminating Dichotomies" in September of 2008.
Conservatives often try to claim that their self-interest is "enlightened;" that they sometimes set aside immediate reward for some probable (and more substantial) long term personal benefit. They use this to justify their own more generous or seemingly altruistic actions, as well as others acts of generosity or mercy, claiming that they are truly neither. Altruism, according to conservatives, is contrary to human nature--which is that of a self-absorbed brute who does nothing except for personal reward or self-gratification. Conservatives leave any possibility of a possible contradiction in the dichotomy between self-interest and altruism to those of us who are liberals.
I say contradiction, because in reality, altruism is no more the opposite of selfishness, than love is the opposite of hate.
Viewed in a practical sense, love is when you deeply care what happens to a person or creature in a positive or constructive sense. Hate is when you deeply care what happens to a person or creature in a negative or destructive sense. This makes hate nothing more than love that has been turned inside out. The real opposite of love is apathy, where you do not care what happens, in either a positive or negative sense, to a person or creature.
The same is true of selfishness and altruism. Selfishness is when you place your needs ahead of everyone else's. Altruism is when you place everyone else's needs ahead of your own. In other words, altruism is selfishness turned inside out. The true opposite of selfishness is fairness, where you desire to see that everyone's needs are met, to the greatest extent, in terms of justice--or if you prefer, even handed treatment--for all concerned.
This idea of fairness becomes especially important when we begin discussing children, and their place in any society.
"With the eyes of a child
You must come out and see,
That your world's spinning 'round
And through life you will be,
A small part of a hope
Of a love that exists,
In the eyes of a child you will see."
"Eyes of a Child (Part One)," The Moody Blues
To Our Children's Children's Children (1969)
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