ANNANIAS: Your discussion of emotions is excellent, but I have a question. If emotions are the result of prewired "survival" instincts, why has the highest form of human endeavor always been the denial of self?
*********************************************************************************************************
Wow!
That is one of the most powerful questions you could ask; and it is vitally important to understand.
The only way to control people is to overcome their defense against being controlled. The main line of defense a human has is their rational mind. The rational mind judges facts by comparing data with reality. To protect ourselves we have to have concern with ourselves. We don't guard what we don't value. Consequently, by disarming the "concern with self" a thief and a slave master use the same strategy: disarm our concern with self.
SELFISHNESS is painted with the black brush as evil. Religion disables our concern for self by disabling our rational mind and planting an evil twin: obedience that leads to paradise. The next step to mind-control is to subsitute CONCERN FOR OTHERS in place of concern for self.
ALTRUISM declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is GOOD, and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action becomes THE ONLY CRITERION of moral value--as so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself, anything goes.
Don't miss the point that this leads to slavery. Our personal value becomes chained to SERVICE TO OTHERS. Our approval depends on that evaluation of our service BY OTHERS.
ALTRUISM leads to immorality, oddly enough!! How? We gain nothing personally by serving our own interests under altruism because we are declared selfish and unworthy. By turning ourself into a sacrifice on behalf of others we gain value under such a system. Is it any wonder that the only way to survive and prosper under Altruism is to become a hypocrite? You must go underground to meet your own needs. This splits a person off from their declared values (Service on behalf of others) and forces them to violate their values in order to survive.
Religion makes man unworthy except when he serves. But, by giving up himself, man destroys his value TO himself. He must CHEAT to win.
History bears this out.
Jehovah's Witnesses are prime examples of people who only have "value" if they continually give themselves up to service and self-sacrifice. It devalues them educationally and financially and in terms of self-esteem. Consequently they either implode or they live double lives: one apparently "moral" and the other hidden and "immoral".
Altruism leads to cynicism because nobody can live without self-esteem. Altruism leads to guilt because men cannot dare reject it lest they be marked as "evil". Altruism leads to hypocricy because man must benefit himself "on the sly".
The tyrant, the witchdoctor, the priest, the slavemaster all use Altruism equally! Serving the needs of the group; of the cause; of the nation; of the faith substitute for serving the needs of the self and it is used to make slaves of men. They dare not disagree or they will be shunned in one case or executed or imprisioned in the other.
MAN MUST BE THE BENEFICIARY of his own moral actions or he is fragmented into a hapless brute at the mercy of a master who will use and abuse him by enslaving him in service.
To attack so-called "selfishness" is to attack self-esteem in reality.
We are trained to be sheep from almost the moment we are born and few escape this slavery.
We are taught not to be loyal to our own selves but to be loyal and to serve:
1.The family
2.the Faith
3.The Nation (patriotism)
4.The party (political philosophy)
We are taught to be servants to OTHERS and not to ourselves. We are ridiculed and ostracised if we think for ourselves. The price of becoming an INDIVIDUAL among sheep is a high price indeed and only the strongest and most sane of men ever succeeds.
And that, my friend, should answer the question:Why is the highest form of human endeavor considered to be denial of self?