Levee Camp Moan

Hey, I haven't blogged in like a Mercurian year. This doesn't mean I haven't been doing things, though. Hm... I don't blog about the things I do anyway, right? Should I?

Well, I will tell you that I found something that was lost, or I'd thought was lost. Is the object lost, or just the person? The object doesn't wonder where it is, or when it'll be found. It's the person that's confused about its whereabouts. Anyway, I didn't know where the thing was for a very long time, and now I do. My slide was on the floor next to my stereo. Not even under it, just lying on the floor, in a very visible place.

I also thought about if altruism exists. I thought probably not. Then someone might talk about the guy that jumps on the grenade or whatever. But that guy could just be helping to avoid the guilt he'd have to live with if he hadn't helped. Now I started thinking altruism isn't ruled out just because the helper feels good about helping. Rather its exclusion depends on two other things: 1. Did the person know he would feel good about himself afterward? and 2. Did the person help because he knew he would feel good about himself afterward? If the answer to either of these questions is no, then the action was altruistic.

Now the harder question is probably this one: 3. How do you know the answers to 1 and 2? Well, if the helper helped accidentally, then he definitely didn't know that what he was doing would make him feel good about himself, and since it was an accident, he didn't do it because he'd feel good. But if it wasn't intentional help, it still isn't really altruism.

So what I'm thinking right now is that the only altruism (if any exists) can only come from a very young child. And if I am right, then we have all been altruistic in one moment in our lives: the first time we did anything helpful. At this point we had no idea that it might make us proud of ourselves afterward, even if we did. 1 is satisfied. And certainly we could not have helped for a reward (pride) that we weren't aware would be given. 2 is satisfied.

Unfortunately, I doubt any of us even remembers that moment.