Why Should You Be Altruistic?

    “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness” (Martin Luther King Jr.).  Why should you be Altruistic?  Is life merely a walk in the park or will you face obstacles in your path?  These are a few questions we can ask ourselves when we think about altruism.  What is altruism exactly?  Many say it is a myth, but if you look up the meaning it goes like this- an unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others.  I myself believe altruism exist; “you can’t help it! It’s human nature to respond.”  Growing up the older sibling I faced situations daily where I had to be the ‘big brother’ figure to my younger sister.  Did I want to protect her or was I just born to do so?  You can say a little of both, me being me, I would never let anything happen to my sister and under the meaning of altruism, that states the obviousness of why it does actually exist, giving my being up to protect another.

    This past Monday, the 14^th of April I attended the lecture topic having to do with Altruism spoken by Dr. Dan Worthin, the co-author of the book.  Interesting enough, Dan was not actually a pure author he was actually a psychologist whom worked with pigeons.  Andy Flescher the main author was unable to attend so Dan stood in and took his place.  It all began with a brief description of the topic that was going to be discussed, and to be quite honest I really had no idea what the word altruistic even meant. 

    I was enlightened by Dan when he used examples of animals in his descriptive talk to bring us closer to the meaning of altruism.  “Sacrifice yourself for the benefit of others,” he said.  Why would one want to do this I was thinking to myself?  The first example Dan spoke upon was that of bats.  Yes the blood thirsty bats.  The question involving the bats was, is it altruistic to suck the blood of other animals to satisfy yourself?  Dan agreed this was in fact altruistic. Why?  Because it showed through studies that bats not only get blood for themselves but also share blood with other bats that never got blood.  This is showing that they sacrificed themselves to help out family members or the ones they remember that helped them previously.  Dan called this “Reciprocal Altruism (You share, I share).”

    The second animal brought into conversation was ‘The Squirrel.’  The main point brought up about this was that squirrels sound off alarming other squirrels that are nearby when predators are near.  The interesting thing about this is that alarming squirrel actually puts themselves in more danger because predators are attracted to the loud noises.  He called this ‘Self-Sacrificing.’

    ‘Genes,’ what are they? Dan asked us.  “They are selfish,” he said.  Genes make copies of themselves.  Without being selfish it shows they are unfit and won’t be in the future situations, they will just die off and be forgotten.  This to me was a real eye opener, I never put into perspective that we are what we were raised to be.  Of course our parents or guardians taught us the ways they wanted us to go about our lives.  This is what Dan was explaining to us, without genes given from our parents we would never have become who we are today.

    I am very glad I attended this talk because truthfully before I went I had no idea what altruism was and now I can look at my life and see why and what I do and how it affects others around me.  No way can it be a myth; you see it now?!