In Reply to: Re: Selfishness and capitalism posted by Ashley Lavelle on May 13, 1996 at 19:39:22:
It is nice and cosy Disneyland stuff to speak of selflessness,
but the truth is that we, as human beings, are all
self-serving and driven by our need to survive and
find our place in the group. That does not mean that
We are not capable of loving acts, but such acts are motivated by what
we get out of them. And that is good. We are all selfish,
but we are also survivors. If our selfishness
conflicts with others, then our survival is compromised.
So we negotiate and find a middle ground that
gives us the most of what we need.Your ideal utopian socialist state is just pie in the
sky stuff. In practice, socialism has just been
a way of removing the negotiation phase of our selfishness.
It is just selfishness for the few.