With regard to man's preferences and priorities in life, many philosophers, altruists and philanthropists state the following:
Man's priority should always be society, He should live for society. Well being of society should be his highest ideal. Society should always be his preference in conflict between him and society. Man should inculcate the dignity to accept the universal fact that, anything good for society is obviously good for him. People judge man's character on the basis of his contribution to society. Man is considered moral only when he thinks about the good of society and is selfish, if he thinks about himself. Man is a social animal and his greatness is measured on the basis of how much of his life has he dedicated to society. Man should be kind enough to donate his earnings to society and thereby contribute in building a prosperous society. man should continuously and anxiously think of new ideas that would benefit the society. He should not commit the sin of giving preference to his own desires, when desires of his fellow human beings are left unfulfilled. YOUR HAPPINESS LIES IN THE HAPPINESS OF YOUR NEIGHBOUR. After all, it is in society man grew up. It is the society that is responsible for what he is now.
But are you really born to live for society? If you are continuously and anxiously thinking for the betterment of society, what about yourself? Above stated personalities say that preference should be given to others' needs than your own desires. Then, who takes care of your NEEDS and DESIRES? More importantly, the question is, who decides what your needs are and what your desires are? By what right, does this person or a group of people claim that they have an authority to take a decision regarding your personal emotions?
How do you define the statement " YOUR HAPPINESS LIES IN THE HAPPINESS OF YOUR NEIGHBOUR". If you think that this statement is a profound truth about life which takes lifetime for many people to understand, then are you ready to work extrahours so that you earn livelihood for your neighbour too.If your neighbour's happiness is the pre-requisite in PURSUIT OF YOUR HAPPINESS, then start serving your neighbours the way slaves in ancient Greece did. I don't say you both are same. I am not insulting the slaves. I respect them. I know what it takes to be a slave. You both are entirely different. They are forced to act against their will, where as, you are doing it willingly because of your unquenchable need ( or is it desire? who should judge?) for your happiness. For them, no other option is left. For you, no other desire is left, other than your happiness, which you are searching in others ' happiness. But, will society try to keep u happy, in its own pursuit of happiness?
If society makes man, then I say
" If society gave birth to great men, then the same society gave birth to criminals and psychopaths"
This is a contradiction. So I rule out the statement that whatever I am today, is because of society.
So, In whatever direction you travel, whatever path you choose, you end up coming across the same question:
If I live for society, who lives for me?
Society can't live for me. If I am jobless, society doesn't feed me. If I love listening to music, society doesn't buy me a music player. So, who takes the responsibility of my happiness, my needs and my desires while I am busy with the needs of society? Knowing answer might be sufficient to answer the question. But not sufficient to question the reason for question. So, most of the time, realising the answer is more important than knowing the answer, which the present situation demands. Answer to the question is " I " .
Only I can live for myself and I can only live for myself. Whatever I do, wherever I go, in the end only " I " matters to me. What type of contradiction is this, when you can't live for yourself, but you live for others and others, who can't live for themselves, live for you? Who can live my life better than myself? Who can be the right person to judge my thoughts, my needs, my desires and my actions?
I may cheat many people saying " i love to help others", but can't cheat myself from the fact that, by helping others, I am just satisfying my emotions. It doesn't make me ALTRUIST, it makes me SELFISH. At the end, I am not an altruist. I am selfish and I am proud of what I am. Only my satisfaction matters and only " I " matter to me.
I am living in a society. It just means that I have the responsibility to make sure that my actions do not disturb its peace. It doesn't mean that I should live for society. If satisfying my desires is a SIN, then I am committing a bigger sin by helping people satisfy their desires.
Whatever I earn is the result of my hard work and my hard work is my private property. It preserves the integrity of my character. I cannot DISRESPECT myself by giving away my private property to those people who doesn't know its value. Whatever I give, people may know its value, but they do not how valuable it is to me. They even fail to realise this fact. Because, according to them, society should always be my priority, but not my private possessions.
But, in the end, how I treat myself matters, not how others treat me. How well I respect my " I " shows my DIGNITY.
Whatever I am today, is the result of hard work of my only two possessions. My MIND and my BODY. Whatever I do, I do to satisfy these two. I have the responsibility of taking care of these two, as they are the only possessions I have, or as a matter of fact anyone has. Everything else is the outcome of the usage of these two. So, I decide what I want, what I need. I decide my priorities. As a responsible citizen, as long as my possessions are not ill treated, I will not interfere with the society. I cannot INSULT myself by stating that I am an ALTRUIST and that my life is dedicated to society. I dedicate my life entirely for myself. For me only "I" matters. I do not want others to live for me and I do not live for others.
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