Selfishness

 Darwin wrote about  survival of the fittest .Compared to animals, which are limited by their brain physiology , we humans  with cerebral cortex development , become faced with a sense of self, reason  and the  existential fact  of mortality. And, we cannot change the fact that our mind and our body changes from growth to decay , atrophy and death. We are fearful, powerless of that reality in spite of  our  illusions , delusions and double talk from the promotional  longevity gurus.

As humans  we are confronted with the major mental and physical  disharmony that exists with our existence based on the inevitability of death.  In coping , we require and create  a frame of reference  based on our  thinking , feeling and behavioral tendencies for this inevitability.

In essence, for our survival , we require and create  strategies .These thinking and feeling cognitive strategies become our devotions, aims, ideas and/ or “god” that allows us to transcend  our dilemma. If "successful"  with our orientation , this allows us to find  harmony , an anxiety reduction in our existence by giving us a sense of meaning in our lives.

Survival  and meaning In a capitalistic  industrial,technological economy, for some, become a devotion  for success, prestige, power, possession , conquest , exploitation and domination . In fact, the intensity of  a devotion becomes a drive or desire that can be superior and supersede  all else, even self-love , morality and even self preservation.

Such devotion suggests that these individuals choose a system that’s based on  their irrationality , narcissism , the worship of power and destruction as opposed to a system with tendencies for humanistic productivity, love and rationality .

Let’s begin with a Biblical quote  “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. “  However, we find that the love of oneself is a sin in Calvin’s theology.  He believed that man is essentially evil , powerless and cannot achieve anything that’s good on the basis of his own strength.  And ,the fondness of oneself ,to like anything about oneself is one of the greatest sins. In fact ,Calvin spoke of self love as a “pest.” If one can not love oneself , how can one love thy neighbor ?  

From a philosophical viewpoint, Spinoza believed that It Is in the interest of man  to preserve his existence by realizing his inherent potential. Self interest is not conceived in terms of the subjective feeling of one's interest, but it is in terms of what the nature of man is objectively . Man’s only real interest is to fulfill the development of his potential as a human being. The ability to love is part of the equation.

Nietzsche believed that a strong individual is one who has true kindness, nobility, greatness of the soul which does not give in ,in order to take,  and  to excel  is by being kind.  To love another person is  a virtue if it springs from  inner strength, but it is a vice if it’s an  inability to love oneself.

A capitalistic belief and  societal reinforcement is that greed is good, be selfish,  keep up your advantage, act according to what is best for you and by doing so you will be obtaining the greatest advantage .And , more than likely,  this  selfishness belief reflects one principle upon which our capitalistic competitive society has been built .

Can one be selfish and still love self and love others ?  Psychologically, love of others and love of ourselves are not alternatives or different attitudes. In fact ,the attitude of love toward oneself has been found in all those who were capable of loving others.  Love is indefensible. Love is an expression of one’s powers  and to love somebody is the actualization , the concentration of this power .However, selfishness is another matter as it is associated with discrimination, contempt  ,power and exploitation .

The following examples were taken from the New York Times, September 6, 2026 and reflect Trump’s selfishness ,contempt and exploitative  policies.1.  How US Widened Effort Against Covid Scientist   As Fauci Was Put Under Public Scrutiny, More Experts Were Quietly Targeted 2.  Plan Would Shift Some Aid Meant for Working Parents to Stay- at- Home spouses.  This move would end up redirecting money away from working parents and their childcare providers, causing some to raise their rates or even close potentially worsening.  What many experts say is a childcare crisis in the country.  3.  In Unparalleled Inquiry, Joint Staff Members Are Given Polygraph Tests.  The Pentagon seeks the source of news leaks on the Iran war.  4.  Latest Clemency Grants Issued by Trump Benefit Union Boss and a Sailor . An executive who served a decade in prison for selling crack was pardoned. 5.  New Tool To Screen Voter Rolls Is Blocked.  This tool would allow states to compare their voter rolls against federal citizenship and Social Security data.  6.  US Says It  Blasted 3 Iranian Oil Tankers.  7.  For Midterms, Trump Controls $ 400 Million To Sway Races.8.  Homeland Security Secretary Asks For  Inquiries Into Voting Machines.  9.  Justice Department Issues, Subpoenas for Voter Data in Nevada.  10.  North Carolina Applies New Restrictions to its Vote- by- Mail Program. And, don’t forget his six bankruptcies; fraudulent University and fraudulent foundation.

Donald believes that he is acting in his self interest  in his pursuit of money which he equates with success.  It’s what he possesses, that defines himself .  In trying to gain and accumulate all that wealth he has lost himself with an absence of truth, justice, freedom , morality , respect,integrity and love of self .

Is Donald selfishness identical with self-love or is it not caused by the very lack of it ?  If it’s a virtue to love my neighbor as a human being , it must be a virtue and not a vice to love myself since I’m a human being too.  As an object of feelings , attitudes  toward others and toward ourselves is not contradictory but basically conjunctive . And importantly, love of others and love of self are not alternatives .

Genuine love is an expression of productiveness and implies care, respect, responsibility, and knowledge.  It’s not an affect in the sense of being affected by somebody but an active striving for the growth and happiness of the loved person is rooted in one’s capacity to love. Essentially, if the individual is able to love productively, he loves himself too.  If he can love only others he cannot love at all.

A selfish person , like Donald ,is interested only in himself , takes everything from others for himself,  does not feel  pleasure in giving, but only in possessing. His outside world is looked at only from the standpoint of what he can grab for himself; he’s without empathy and does not respect  the dignity and integrity of others.  He can not see beyond self and judges everyone and everything by its usefulness to him. Thus, Donald is emotionally unable to love but only to take.

It is apparent that selfish persons are incapable of loving others and they’re also not capable of loving themselves either.  In the past 300 years or so self interest has become identical with selfishness, pursuit of material gains, power ,exploitation and success.  Selfishness is not virtue but synonymous with conquest  and has become engulfed in the thinking,feeling and actions of many .

Trump's pursuit of self interest is the supreme activity of his existence.  His  motivations are clearly  based on his interests which are  money ,power, status and success .His concept is” I am what I have", and “what I possess.”  Check out where he places his name. He’s essentially  a transaction  commodity . He has brilliantly sold his false self  or mask to the public with  fake publicity and that inauthentic television program.  His narcissistic neurosis  has been on constant display  especially for the past 10 years.

Trump’s exploitative self interest can also be characterized as one that prides on his ability to grab and take from others.  His physical and sexual assaults on women; invading and “taking” Venezuelan oil and  rhetoric regarding doing the same to Cuba, Canada, and Greenland are other examples. His attitude is associated with hostility and manipulation.  Recently he’s said something - that if Republicans remain in power in the House and Senate  that American  adult citizens would receive $5,000. Of course, that remark is simply manipulative to say the least. And , people are judged and viewed according to him as their usefulness to him as  recently illustrated by the $45,000  cash gifts to 3  of his White House aides' sycophants.

From a biblical , philosophical  and psychological point of view, the ability to productively love oneself and others is not a sin but both healthy and humanistic .This  selfish 80-year-old man in the White House has exploited , tarnished and marred  America’s reputation both at home and abroad. His persona does not conceal  his extreme selfishness. He’s an  immature  neurotic  who lacks integrity, empathy , dignity  while being a satanic leader.

Reference 

Fromm, Erich.  Man For Himself   An Inquiry Into The Psychology Of Ethics.

Stunted Morality

 This essay’s topic  relates to an article written by a history professor titled “We’re in a New Era of Class Warfare.  History Points to a Way Out.”She  compared and contrasted the early history of  unions  and the  violent conflict  with companies and government  with four recent acting out characters .

 The professor suggested that in the earlier times, anarchists and trade unionists who committed acts of violence did so in the hopes of effecting change and bringing about better conditions for working-class people.

A few of her examples included: 1. Western Pennsylvania Irish miners killed at least 14 mine officials between 1860 and 1870 2.  In 1899, Western Federation of Miners used dynamite to destroy company property.  The governor of Idaho  then imprisoned about a thousand workers in response.  In 1905, after the  governor left office, a bomb killed him at his home.  3.  Pres. William McKinley was assassinated in 1901 by an anarchist who  lost his job during an economic crash.  4.  Two union members dynamited the offices of The Los Angeles Times, perceived as anti  organized labor in 1910.5. There was a assassination attempt against the general manager of the Homestead PA Steel Mill of Carnegie Steel during the Homestead strike of 1892.  Andrew Carnegie  replaced the factory workers with hired strikebreakers and the  town of Homestead rose up in revolt.  Public opinion supported  a young  anarchist  who shot and stabbed the general manager but did not kill him.Carnegie wrote that the answer to class rage was for the rich to invest their money in philanthropic projects.

This historian gave a few more examples that included the association between government and companies: 1.  In the 1930s, many corporations stockpiled gas equipment and guns to resist rebellion. 2 Ford  security forces fired on unemployed workers at the Ford Motor company in 1932  who were participating in a hunger strike  3.  Police officers killed strikers on the San Francisco waterfront in 1934, sparking a general strike 4. In Chicago  in 1937, a police officer shot and killed 10 prolabor marchers. 5.In the Memorial Day massacre , Ford security guards  savagely beat up United Automobile Workers union leaders, including Walter Reuther.

Clearly, these  examples depict the power struggle going on between labor and management. The battles were brutal and resulted in killing on both sides.  However, anarchists are defined as persons who believe in anarchism, a political philosophy that seeks to remove all forms of government authority and forced social hierarchy.Nowhere in this definition is a mention of murder.  One can believe in any number of things but that belief is just a belief and not an action.  In other words, one could be an anarchist and be motivated by a number of additional factors not associated with murder.These examples  are clearly related to union membership but without support for them being anarchists .

All these violent actions were horrific ,dreadful, lawless , inappropriate and a reminder of the inhumane treatment between Homo sapiens .The government is supposed to enforce laws, keep people safe , and provide services and not kill its citizens .And the work force is  supposed to be and do what  to ?

The following are recent characters acting out in horrific ways: 1. An arson causing more than $600 million to a Kimberly-Clark warehouse by a man who worked for a distribution company servicing the warehouse.2.  An individual  threw a Molotov cocktail at the mansion of Open AI Sam Altman . 3.  Man charged with the Palisades fire. The jury didn’t reach a verdict that he was motivated by class rage 4.Man that shot the United healthcare chief executive portrayed as an avenger of all those wronged by private health insurance. 

These four recent examples are clearly examples of neurotic individuals.  Yes, we are in a time of economic inequality, anger,and hate.  Two of the four were Involved in arson which presents a very different psychological profile from a broad daylight murder In Manhattan and a person throwing a bomb.Obviously, these four individuals are mentally ill and  a societal threat .Perhaps economic discrepancies play a part, but are not the only contributing motivational factors of one’s character structure .

In previous times the history of labor unions versus government and corporate control was riddled with savagery and discrimination between the haves and have-nots. The role of government , politics and oppression  should not surprise anyone. The history of this country is associated with discrimination, exploitation , capitalism, control and power.

Our history professor reminds us of the dark times affecting Union development in our Republic.  The organizations of labor unions were seeking better pay, benefits, and safe working conditions with their employers.  All this seems reasonable.  The opposition of companies and our government ( inherent evil of the elite) was based on greed, domination , exploitation , power and profit.” What do we the people “  mean to those companies , the government and  acting out characters from a moral point of view ?

The history professor added that the extreme division between the wealthiest and the rest tends to be politically unstable.  And ,inequality makes it impossible to sustain the feeling that we are all part of the same political project, so it makes it hard for people to believe that democratic government is possible .Small numbers of people with great fortunes come to exercise disproportionate political power. Also, in highly unequal societies , become ones in which the very rich fear the rest of the world.

The historian also pointed out that the rich are facing threats as more people blame them for economic duress.”Luxury homebuilders are incorporating a vast array of new security features into  the mansions they construct from safe rooms to retina scanners to guard towers and moats.”

Personally,I remember overhearing my fathers conversations regarding the difficulty when dealing with management.  My union president dad fought over instituting healthcare benefits ,sick time , working conditions etc. I  even have a photograph displayed, of my dad , taken in 1939 with Luren Dickenson, governor of Michigan signing into law  protection for letter carriers against attacking dogs. Also, in the late 1960’s , I was the administrator overseeing a  collective bargaining maritime election, on board a vessel, to determine whether or not they wanted to  unionize .

Lawrence Kohlberg’s research described moral development. He found that many adolescents had difficulty proceeding morally by becoming less influenced and other directed (consensus) as to what is perceived as “good” and “right.” In fact , only a minority  were able to formulate and be guided by abstract,ethical principles appealing to logical comprehensiveness, universality, reality and consistency.  This means that “good” should not be considered only if it's adopted by all other persons . Instead, it’s  morally important to have developed consistent ,internalized moral standards . And, an individual doesn’t have to conform  because of fear of self-condemnation.

Importantly, Kohlberg’s  research found that about 10% of young people over age 16 showed clear principles of  formal operational logical thought and that human life or  man’s welfare is above financial gain.

Further, briefly authoritarian ethics is based on the belief that what is good for man is determined by the irrational "authority"determining laws and norms of conduct. He knows what’s best,good, and true alone. However, in humanistic ethics, man is both the norm giver , the subject of the norms, their formal source, regulative agency and their subject matter.And, humanitarian ethics  is not incompatible with rational authority . It’s with continuous evaluation , scrutiny and criticism .

Morality can be defined as the set of rules that tells us how we ought to treat other people.  This means actions like telling the truth, sharing, being kind and helping others are considered good as in the Golden Rule . However, the 10 Commandments identify inappropriate actions like stealing,swearing, lying, adultery and murder. Therefore, from a moral point of view, human life matters more than financial gain- humanistic ethics . Unfortunately, in a capitalistic based economy results in the elite  with an authoritarian ethic and associated with greed,power ,status, discrimination , domination , exploitation and immorality .And  those elite  authoritarians  believe obedience and submission are virtues and rebellion is a sin irrespective of causing anxiety,helplessness,misery,inequality and alienation . 

Reference

Fromm,Erich. Man For Himself an inquiry into the psychology of ethics.

Kohlberg, L.  Moral education in the schools: A developmental view .

Illusions and Charlatans

 

Homo sapiens history can be characterized as illusionary because of  emotions , needs and  irrationality.Therefore, humans have been easy victims as numerous individuals have exploited the human weakness  and strength of these  emotions , needs and wishes . There have been  an exorbitant number of Pied Pipers with too many to name.  My critique of an article titled “These Workouts Build a Competitive Mind-Set” found in the July 12, 2026 edition of the New York Times follows .

Recently, a fitness company called Xenom was founded by an individual who previously was a cofounder of a publicity firm  promoting fitness races in Germany.  His current venture promotes “it’s about making you feel like a superstar, like the athlete you know you are inside.”

 Xenom is derived from the Greek word Exos and translates  as strange or foreign  . Participation in this two day program  includes 10 events  - barbell lifts, a 3 km run, gymnastics ,handstand push-ups and pull-ups .  According to the article, nearly 2 dozen men that included software engineers, salesmen, retired police officers and dads in their 40s took part.

This company uses many of the workouts from CrossFit, an official partner.  The founder raised 15 million in capital , primarily from the technology investment firm operated by the former Disney chair Jeffrey Katzenberg.  At the moment, about 2 million people work out in CrossFit’s worldwide network of almost 10,000 gyms and another 2 million readily put themselves through CrossFit inspired workouts according to the article .

The real purpose of this company is to deceive ordinary workout characters   and have them believe they are  pros .The illusion is to have them thinking they are Olympians or gladiators, if only for a couple days. This promoter spent more than $1 million for his illusionary  charade  that was held in Frisco, Texas.The cost to participate was $500. Promotionally, a number of people received their entry fee in a giveaway.  One Air Force Senior Master Sgt. said, “I think I'll do it again, but I’m not sure I'll pay 500 bucks.”

According to the article, there were two CrossFit  individuals competing in an elite division.  There was no mention of  the criteria for an elite division or other divisions . Were there  divisions according to age, gender and /or weight ? 

Clearly, the  company’s profit motive is supreme.  For the participants, they might have  met their ego needs of exhibition ,achievement, abasement and affiliation.  Hopefully , their  mental and physical health and pocketbook  won’t suffer in the process. Working out  and   participating  with their definition of a “pro” is supposed to do what ?

The promoter is appealing to Individuals that are  supposedly wishing to boost their self-esteem needs within their narcissism.  Participating in this  two  day competitive exercise program with strangers is supposed to boost what?  If you think you’re going to become a superstar ,because of entering this event ,you’re deceiving yourself .It’s just another  illusion.

Illusions  are  wish fulfillments that  are  compensations for childhood or infantile  emotions of  weakness ,insecurity and/or helplessness  .Thinking  that you are receiving narcissistic satisfaction  and believing you’re a superstar  in this venue is nonsense .

Illusions are  attempts at compensating for one’s inadequacies.  They are not based on fact , scientific evidence or  in this case Self-concept research.  Self-esteem is based on a number of factors during  development and experience.  Goals, expectancies ,level of aspiration , achievement and success or failure contributes to self-esteem development. One isolated experience ,in adulthood ,does not modify one's self-esteem.  Of course, one  can very easily  be duped by some external source  that intends to take advantage of an individual’s emotions , impulses, needs and  weakness .

 For instance, an amateur or CrossFit “Pro” running on a track with Jakob Ingebrigtsen  would  not only be embarrassing  but would also be  a threat to hIs self-esteem  and reinforce his inadequacy as would  attempting to keep up with Brenen Thompson of the San Diego Chargers.

Attend any sporting event with the parent and their son.  Watch the unnecessary involvement , body motions and verbalization taking place as their son participates. Parents have been known to verbally and physically attack the referee while supposedly protecting their son from some  call.  And, parents  pay exorbitant  amounts for their children’s pay to play for club sports along with their own enmeshment. Essentially,the parents are  reliving and attempting to compensate for their own inadequacies when they were competing participants.  They’re just projecting and displacing their emotions inappropriately.

This promoter’s statements about making one feel like a superstar is a promotional  illusion.  He has no evidence to support that erroneous statement.  Is his motivation purely greed or is it a combination of greed and ignorance?  With capitalism and its promotions , it is not unusual to detect the real motivation.  In capitalism ,the motivation is profit.

Additionally, intrinsic motivation is more healthy than extrinsic motivation.  For example, when I ran  The Western States 100, I was not competing against Scott Jurek, Tom Johnson ,Jim Howard or Tim Twietmeyer.  I accepted the challenge and was competing with myself. My self-esteem  and self-worth was developed as a consequence  of previous achievements,mastery ,self-confidence ,status ,dominance and recognition.  I essentially  was pleased and clearly  added another achievement or another medal to my collection.

A more realistic claim about competing in an  athletic event  is to state that proper nutrition,strength training and aerobic activities are associated with numerous benefits that include enhanced immune system, improved memory and cognitive function, enhanced sexual functions, Increased rate of healing as well as  living a more productive and healthier life .  In fact, I provided seven prescriptions for a better lifestyle in”It Has Nothing To Do With Age” that was based on the stories of driven athletes competing in extraordinary sports and who were at least 65 years of age and older.

Reference

Coopersmith, Stanley.  The Antecedents of Self-esteem.