Saturday 23 March 2013

Altruism and Free Will - Sundays with John Ball

It is better to give than to receive.
Yet in modern times people think it is better to receive than to give. They want more and more and more. Altruism is thought to be something commendable, if slightly odd.
Self interest is thought of as something normal and sane.
Back in the fourteenth century altruism was normal behaviour. Self interest was regarded as sick, insane, anti social.
Indeed, in these present dark times, when there is an epidemic of mental breakdown, everywhere we see worshipped the Holy Trinity of the Madman;  I, Me, and Myself.
People used to give because giving was what they did. They gave from their abundance. They competed in the giving of gifts.
In their weakness, in their paucity, they would take. But they knew that, when strong again, they would give once more.
They gave because to give is to live.
However, those who have sold themselves to the hierarchy, the bureaucracy and the military, adhere to the notion of free will.
Free will has always been a favoured doctrine of the Roman Church, a church which is the embodiment of hierarchy, not Christ, whose main concern is submission and obedience to the hierarchy.
Nowadays, even Protestant churches 'offer' salvation, teaching poor sinners that they have the 'free will' to refuse God.
In a world of reward and punishment, of deals, of take, people consider that they have a choice, to be good or bad, to be obedient or disobedient, to be moral or immoral.
People stop just giving, and consider what is in their best interest.
This selfishness they call free will.
So instead of giving from their natural abundance, those blessed with free will only choose what is best for themselves.
So, giving is confined to a minor sphere, a peripheral action exceptional and rare, and what was once seen as perverse selfishness becomes the norm. The sick are regarded as healthy, the healthy are thought of as crazy.
Free will traps people in the hell of themselves.
People stop giving.
Society collapses.
Each person is at war with their neighbour. 

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