11 November

Try this - we should all be much more selfish. We see selfish as evil, and its apparent opposite - selflessness - as good. But isn’t it obviously another false dichotomy? To me this all comes down to one basic misunderstanding. That the self is a separate thing. If you believe that, then of course you end up with a binary between me, and everybody else. And looking after you will seem selfish, and looking after others noble. And by extension we’ll see society as individuals, and groups, and those as two separate things. And then we ping pong between those two idealistic fantasies, of selfish individuals and self-sacrificing groups. If you, your self, is already a social thing, then all of that ping pong goes away. Looking after you and looking after others is the same activity.