Lexi Freiman -- 'The Book of Ayn' and Understanding Narcissism Through Satire | The Daily Show
May 8th, 2024 at 7:04AMReality > Reason > Selflessness > Rights
Why does (almost) everyone miss the self-interest part? It's not in my best interests to act in others' best interests but it is in my best interests to not act in others' best interests? It's nonsense. No one (almost no one) acts that way, consistently sacrificing their wants and needs for the sake of the wants and needs of others. We wouldn't survive for weeks without acting to further our own survival. There'd be nothing to sacrifice and no one to sacrifice for. If everyone acted selflessly, no one would benefit from anyone's selfless acts. So when I choose to act selflessly, say simply to just give something away, first I had to act selfishly to acquire it and then I had to evaluate that act as bad and choose someone to receive it who is choosing to act selfishly and I'm choosing to both help and condemn at the same time because helping someone you really want to help wouldn't really be a selfless act. Anyone who believes in selflessness, then, should think rights are bad, that they're something forced upon us, that rather than protecting our freedom to act selflessly and sacrifice whatever we have for the sake of helping and condemning others they're actually others acting selflessly and sacrificing whatever they have for the sake of helping and condemning us. Rights force us to be selfish...