Good post! You definitely point out a real phenomenon. (And I appreciate the tastefully crafted metaphors, like “psycho-Kremlinology”, or “a sustainable hate train which runs on renewable energy”.)
However, your explanatory theories seem to take as a premise that the “bias against altruism” that you describe is a bad thing. But might it not actually be… a good thing? I think that (especially in our current social environment) it rather is a good thing.
The fundamental problem with altruism is unbounded scope combined with lack of feedback.
If you do something for selfish reasons, there are natural limits to the scope of your actions; most of the world does not affect you or concern you, and while there do exist the occasional megalomaniacs who won’t be satisfied until they’ve carved their name into the surface of the Moon, most people—even most ambitious, driven, egotistical people—have no such grand ambitions. They want personal benefit, and simply don’t care about the rest.
And, likewise, if you act out of selfishness, and your actions harm the person they’re intended to help—you—generally speaking, it is not hard to notice this, and alter your behavior. The harm is naturally limited—in the extremity, by your own demise! And if you harm others in the process of benefiting yourself—those others will seek to punish you, and prevent you from repeating the harm. (There are exceptions, of course, but, by and large, we do a fair job at preventing one another from doing harm to our fellow humans—especially when compared with the alternative.)
How different are alruistic actions!
There is no limit to the scope of what you could do to help others, should you find within yourself that motivation. There are always more people to be helped! The world is teeming with potential beneficiaries of your altruism! And if you run out of existing humans to help, then there are always future humans (and not only the already-expected future humans, but all the potential ones whom your actions might bring into existence!).
And if you harm those whom you intend to help? If they are far away from you, or unfamiliar, or the situation is sufficiently complicated (and when isn’t it, in life, in our modern world?)… then you may well never even know it.
On every scale, from the interpersonal to the cosmic, it is extremely easy to think that you are helping, but instead inflict harm. And that’s if you take pains to be honest, and careful! It’s even easier to tell yourself that you’re helping, but be doing harm; just as easy to tell others that you’re helping, but be doing harm.
Our society already has many mechanisms for preventing you from wreaking havoc by selfish actions. If you act selfishly, then we can celebrate you for it, trusting that if your actions do harm, then you will suffer the appropriate consequences for it. But altruistic actions do not have nearly so many time-tested safety measures to hold them back from bringing disaster of unbounded scope. They must be held to a higher standard.
Yes, the altruist must be scrutinized, much more heavily than the egoist. Does this have a chilling effect on altruistic acts? Good! Does it make people think twice about undertaking projects aimed at helping others? Well that it should do so! Do we hold back status from those who merely attempt to help (as quite distinct from those who actually have helped)? We do, and rightly so.
You say:
I just want people to be aware of this phenomenon so that real positive behavior gets incentivized again.
Yet also:
Here’s what I notice: when I declare that I’m doing something selfishly and avowedly, I get praised. When I do something out of altruism, or do something that is coded as altruistic, my motives and true values get heavily scrutinized.
My advice: ignore the scrutiny, and forge ahead, secure in the knowledge that when your altruistic actions have succeeded, you will have your (at that point, well-deserved) status.
You are not sure that your actions will succeed, and so the status you will gain does not, in expectation, suffice to motivate you? You therefore abstain from your altruistic efforts?
Good post! You definitely point out a real phenomenon. (And I appreciate the tastefully crafted metaphors, like “psycho-Kremlinology”, or “a sustainable hate train which runs on renewable energy”.)
However, your explanatory theories seem to take as a premise that the “bias against altruism” that you describe is a bad thing. But might it not actually be… a good thing? I think that (especially in our current social environment) it rather is a good thing.
The fundamental problem with altruism is unbounded scope combined with lack of feedback.
If you do something for selfish reasons, there are natural limits to the scope of your actions; most of the world does not affect you or concern you, and while there do exist the occasional megalomaniacs who won’t be satisfied until they’ve carved their name into the surface of the Moon, most people—even most ambitious, driven, egotistical people—have no such grand ambitions. They want personal benefit, and simply don’t care about the rest.
And, likewise, if you act out of selfishness, and your actions harm the person they’re intended to help—you—generally speaking, it is not hard to notice this, and alter your behavior. The harm is naturally limited—in the extremity, by your own demise! And if you harm others in the process of benefiting yourself—those others will seek to punish you, and prevent you from repeating the harm. (There are exceptions, of course, but, by and large, we do a fair job at preventing one another from doing harm to our fellow humans—especially when compared with the alternative.)
How different are alruistic actions!
There is no limit to the scope of what you could do to help others, should you find within yourself that motivation. There are always more people to be helped! The world is teeming with potential beneficiaries of your altruism! And if you run out of existing humans to help, then there are always future humans (and not only the already-expected future humans, but all the potential ones whom your actions might bring into existence!).
And if you harm those whom you intend to help? If they are far away from you, or unfamiliar, or the situation is sufficiently complicated (and when isn’t it, in life, in our modern world?)… then you may well never even know it.
On every scale, from the interpersonal to the cosmic, it is extremely easy to think that you are helping, but instead inflict harm. And that’s if you take pains to be honest, and careful! It’s even easier to tell yourself that you’re helping, but be doing harm; just as easy to tell others that you’re helping, but be doing harm.
Our society already has many mechanisms for preventing you from wreaking havoc by selfish actions. If you act selfishly, then we can celebrate you for it, trusting that if your actions do harm, then you will suffer the appropriate consequences for it. But altruistic actions do not have nearly so many time-tested safety measures to hold them back from bringing disaster of unbounded scope. They must be held to a higher standard.
Yes, the altruist must be scrutinized, much more heavily than the egoist. Does this have a chilling effect on altruistic acts? Good! Does it make people think twice about undertaking projects aimed at helping others? Well that it should do so! Do we hold back status from those who merely attempt to help (as quite distinct from those who actually have helped)? We do, and rightly so.
You say:
Yet also:
My advice: ignore the scrutiny, and forge ahead, secure in the knowledge that when your altruistic actions have succeeded, you will have your (at that point, well-deserved) status.
You are not sure that your actions will succeed, and so the status you will gain does not, in expectation, suffice to motivate you? You therefore abstain from your altruistic efforts?
Working as intended.