Is altruism really a Swarthmore tradition? People associate this slogan with gifts to the school from alumni and friends. Altruism is acting primarily for the sake of another person. This involves self-sacrifice: choosing a lower value over a higher, more self-serving, value. Yet, self-interest does, and should, drive people to act in Swarthmoreıs tradition of benevolence, but without sacrifice.
Why do rational people engage in private, voluntary, mutual aid and exhibit compassion and good will? Supporting an organization whose purpose they value, be it education, research, or community service, serves their self-interest The source of their benevolence is not pity for the recipientıs need, but admiration of recipientıs virtue of struggling to live. Promoting their values gives them pleasure and, by definition of value, serves their own life.
There are also financial benefits to gift giving. According to 1993 & '94 Gifts to Swarthmore College the 1993 announcement of the previous yearıs annuity rate decrease brought $1.85 million from Swarthmore alumni and friends taking advantage of the then higher rates. In this yearıs Gifts to Swarthmore College, the Life Income Gifts and Bequests Committee chairman notes that "Swarthmoreıs complete array to life income gift options gives donors the chance to make significant contribution to the College, save on income tax and capital gains tax, and very often increase their income form such assets as publicly and privately owned stock, real estate, tangible property, and cash." Wait, is he saying that Swarthmore alum would think of their own well being when helping others? While Swarthmore College thrives on receiving voluntary gifts from self-interested doners, its dominant ideology of Modern Liberalism advocates coerced charity (Government welfare) from self-sacrificial tax payers.
A truly selfish person, an egoist, does not sacrifice herself to others, nor does she demand others to sacrifice to her. She asks neither what she can do for her country nor what her country can do for her. She lives for her own sake, and expects others to live for theirs. Egoists hold nothing above their own judgment of truth, and pursue values according to it through productive achievement.
A tyrant demands self-sacrifice, starting with his sacrificing his judgment of truth to those of others. His reality is other peopleıs judgment of truth, not truth itself. He is dependent on the sanction of producers to enslave them, and following their destruction is his own. Such selfless dictators demand individuals to sacrifice their pursuit happiness on this earth (their lives) to non-existents such as a god or the ³common² good. The base of the tyrantıs moral code is altruism. People eat this up, e.g., the Soviet Unionıs ³noble experiment.²
Nathaniel Branden (1970) reveals the root of sacrifice: ³To sacrifice one's happiness is to sacrifice one's desires; to sacrifice one's desires is to sacrifice one's values; to sacrifice one's values is to sacrifice one's judgment; to sacrifice one's judgment is to sacrifice one's mind-and it is nothing less than this that the creed of self-sacrifice aims at and demands."
It is selfish to seek mutual, non-sacrificial, "win-win" relationships based on peopleıs virtues, not their need. Selfish people seek a free market economy and among its consequences: charitable and non-profit organizations.
Would you want anyone to sacrifice for your well being, as the allegedly ideal Jesus Christ sacrificed for all alleged "original sinners?" Would you take pride in your lover sacrificing for you or selfishly deriving pleasure from your virtues? Would you prefer have people voluntarily fund Swarthmore for its virtues, or a have the government coerce them to sacrifice through taxation? The choice is either selfishness, laissez-faire capitalism, freedom (volunteer community service), and charity, or altruism, socialism, slavery (forced community service), and taxes.
Rational selfishness, not selfless altruism, is the root of benevolence and non-profit organizations. Imprinted on Nazi coins was the slogan, ³The common good above the individual good.² In the name of an undefined ³common good,² the Nazis practiced what they preached. Fortunately, Friends of Swarthmore do not.