ALTRUISM AND POLITICS

I recently concluded that we could define a major error or flaw of modern party politics in terms of altruism. Everyone sees the ultimate practice of selflessness in motherhood. We not only see it but also expect it. It is bestial and innate, which is why we do not have to teach animals as well as new humans mothers how to behave toward their newborns. Of course, we all know of cases where new mothers who did not care for their newborn. In that case, the outcome is obvious, which is why other people, usually females, are willing to step in and care for the baby. We often see touching pictures on social media of cross-species references to this kind of behavior, a mature dog cuddling a baby kitten or an adult monkey hugging and carrying a newborn puppy. These surrogate mothers are willing to sacrifice their time to care for an unknown infant. We also know, men in these circumstances often urge women to engage in this type of activity meaning both genders are altruistic and it crosses not only family barriers but also species barriers. We can superimpose our normal maturation sequence on this picture to extend the concept from birth to death. As a child grows and develops, he or she goes through puberty. This transition is from an age of dependency to an age of independence. If we continue to follow the maturation process, we observe that mature adults eventually enter old age and once again reach a time of dependence. We accept this and provide the expected care; again, we often cross not only family barriers but also species barriers to providing this care. Those who can work we expect to fend for themselves. The application of altruism relating to the maturation process seems universal; however, survival of the fittest applies to animals; we humans care for our newborns and our old people but animals leave the old to the jeopardy of life. I see this pattern imperfectly reflected in our politics. The platforms of both Democrat and Republican Parties reflect the basic pattern; however, the Republican Party does not make provision or accept deviations from the basic pattern. Republicans expect a person between the age of childhood dependency and old age to work, with few if any exceptions. Once a person grows old, Republicans expect a person’s children to care for them. The alternative is during their working years they should have made provisions to pay someone to provide care for them. We see this expressed legislatively as no food stamps, no care of dependent children, no old age assistance, etc. Most people recognize that this simplicity does not apply to real life. Many unavoidable circumstances come into play, which is where Democratic altruism comes into play. Although everyone knows the truth of it, Democrats are more willing to accept the idea that things happen while Republican are not. For example, a Republican will agree to pay welfare if they are the one to decide someone needs welfare. Obviously, this is impractical in a country of 330,000,000 people but it is why there is such a deep conflict between the two philosophies. The extremes are easy to handle. Few are people who are so cold hearted they would let old people die for lack of food or let a newborn baby remain unattended in a gutter, but they do exist. On the other hand, there are few who are willing to give money to a lazy person who simply does not want to work. Of course, there are those who are lazy and do not want to work even if they are hungry. Welfare has to be on a selective form of class or group basis; this specific old person, or wounded veteran, or paraplegic, or this newborn child, needs support. First, they have to be what they claim and second, they have to have no one who can take care of them, which comes from a deep innate distrust of people. People will live off the public dole, steal from taxpayers, or look for handouts if they possible can. Republicans have an obsession that once a person is living on taxpayer money, they will have children who will do the same. Again, this is true enough to make it a real threat. The point of this post is to understand what altruism is and where it fits into the overall scheme of things. For Republican to ignore it, they are making a grave error but on the other hand Democrats can never be too cautious about who is getting welfare. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated