The Role of Objectivism in Community Service

One of my greatest fears in life is doing things for the wrong reasons and thus not getting what I want from them.  I'll give you an example to show you what I mean.

Last February in a Physics class, I was having a discussion with two classmates named Ayn Peikoff and Leonard Rand about how community service plays a part in high school and college admissions (their names have been changed for the sake of anonymity).  We were all in agreement that everyone is selfish in some way, and that it is impossible to perform an entirely selfless act.  That's when Leonard said: "Who cares if it (community service) is only done to make résumés look good? It's still getting done, and people still benefit."  It sounds perfectly fair, right? But if you were to run a transcript of my thought, it would look something like "Wellll..... maybe you're oversimplifying it a bit there."  It was hard to decide whether I quite agreed with the statement at the time.  I tried to subtly protest by implying he that was taking it too far.  In fact, I was so subtle, that they didn't even catch on, and Ayn just kind of said "yeah... what?", frowned at me, and turned back around.  After that, I continued to work on my physics problems.  

I knew it was impossible for someone to do something out of wholly selfless intent, as it makes one feel good about themselves when they help someone.  I still could not help but feel inside that people may not always be doing things for the "right" reasons.  I know I'm not really anyone to make this judgement, but often, is it not the intent under which we work that controls what we do, and in turn what that eventually leads to?  Wouldn't true passion and eventually success in community service therefore originate from an actual love in helping others?

Leonard Peikoff

Ayn Rand

The school of objectivism was developed by Russian philosopher and writer Ayn Rand.  The most prominent supporter of objectivism and heir to Rand's estate was named Leonard Peikoff (yes, that's where I got the names above).  Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged is a gargantuan novel in which she develops this theory by telling the story of a dystopian America.  Atlas Shrugged involves many literary genres such as science fiction, mystery, and a tinge of romance.  Even though I have not read the novel (come on: it's 1159 pages!) I think that its vague, multifaceted, and complex nature goes to show something about the theory of objectivism itself.  It shows that the theory of objectivism is rather all-inclusive in its implications and thus impossible to escape.  It isn't meant to be taken lightly, so it isn't something you can just throw out there and forget about.  Once it's said, it's said, and it fills the room with the stench of ulterior and misguided motives.  

Atlas Shrugged

If you want to apply objectivism to this Immersion, just read my first blog entry, Great Expectations.  I am going to be completely honest here, and I am not writing this entry to anyone, or for any kind of digression.   Like I said, once you say it, it's said, and you have to say all of it.  It is as if something is calling me to tell you this.  So now we're out in the open.

In my first entry, I talked about what I wanted to attain from this community-service based Immersion.  Look at the underlined words: does that even make sense? I largely talked about my own quest for wisdom, and you, the reader, were mentioned almost as an afterthought.  I even wrote, "those are all selfish ideals." in regards to the wisdom.  What's more: the schoolchildren off of which this Immersion is based weren't even mentioned in that entry.  In fact, they weren't mentioned until I wrote about going to volunteer at the school two entries ago.

Dale Carnegie

I bet a lot of you didn't even notice any of this.  My adding of you to the entry as an afterthought sufficed, and I'm guessing many of you didn't think of the school either when you read it.  The self-improvement writer Dale Carnegie said to talk to people about themselves, and arouse in them an eager want, and that's what I did. And it worked, because you're selfish, too. 

But to look at it from another side, I believe objectivism is just as true as its converse.  I believe it is just as impossible to commit an entirely selfish act.  At first, it's easy to think it isn't, but that's because everyone who's ever lived, even the Dao himself, is capable of failing to see that we're all connected.  Everyday, we draw arbitrary lines to designate individuals.  Even the cold loner who goes completely out of his way to be by himself solely bases his actions on getting away from other people. Without the existence of those people, his actions would not have a purpose or intent.  So what are we, really? Selfish or selfless? Well, we are the first, but we are attracted towards the second because we are bothered by what we are.  I apologize if I'm confusing you here: just bear with me.

True

I'd anticipate that there are many people who really do not care about helping others, but they do it anyway for their own motives, like college admissions or money or recognition from the people. They admit this too, and when pressed, they use what Leonard thinks as an excuse: "I'm doing it, and it's working, so who cares?" They are on auto-pilot, and they've been lucky up to this point.  Auto-pilot is like using duct tape to cover a hole in the wall: it will work for sometime, maybe even a long time, but it's no real substitute for plaster.  In something like community service, eventually, your lack of integrity will catch up with you if you don't genuinely care about what you're doing.  You won't be good for long after that, inwardly or outwardly.  If that doesn't convince you, I'll appeal to an inner motive of yours.  Soon, your inner mentality is going to bleed outwards to your actions, and then once people find out, your credibility is going to go down the toilet. People may be selfish, but they always seek out true selflessness, because they are bothered by the inescapability of objectivism. They try to escape from something they can't escape from by looking for any counterexample to it, whatever that may be.  And once they find out you are even a bit of a liar about your compassion, you're done.  Just ask Greg Mortenson or Jeffrey Skilling.

Being wholly altruistic is impossible, but for all these reasons, I see it as an ideal to strive for.  The UN's ultimate goal is world peace, and they may never achieve it, but they do not use that fact as an excuse not to try.  It is their ideal which keeps their organization moving, as it is their heartbeat which keeps their blood flowing.  Likewise, a scientist knows science will never discover the whole truth, but the search for 'truth' is the reason anything ever gets done.  Thus the only way to really be 'good' is to strive for these ideals, even if you never get there. The journey is more important than the destination.

How does this all apply to the Immersion? Well, the key word here is 'Immersion'.  A selfish person does not immerse in his surroundings: he looks at them like a scientist does a colony of ants.  Meanwhile, a selfless person does immerse his surroundings.  When I wrote about walking into the schools, I described the experience to you in a very detached manner, which is selfish.  But then, I made an effort to be selfless by saying I am of my surroundings.  Here, I am trying to immerse.  That doesn't mean I will succeed, but I will try.  In my process of doing this, it really is the win-win situation that Leonard described.  I am getting my Great Expectations fulfilled, and children benefit.  If you don't even attempt to be selfless, everyone loses.  It is the intent which comes first.

This might have been a little hard to follow, so I'll summarize the main idea of the blog post here. The role of objectivism in community service is inescapable, but we do our best to try escaping it anyway.  And from that trying, we help.  We do a true service for the community, and everyone really does win.

Yours truly (or not),

   Ahsem Kabir

  

Images From

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peikoff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Carnegie

http://www.growthguided.com/another-level-of-connection-discovered/
http://www.sogoodwill.org/donate/financial-gifts/planned-giving/