Selfish? Or just plain human?

So, I’m in my third month of living on the green island of Ireland, and I must say, I feel like a completely different person than when I arrived here in January.  I mean I’m still the same me; but some of my perspectives on life have changed considerably, and it’s getting harder and harder for me to decide how I feel about my future.  But that’s for another time, another day.  Just wanted to update you on why it is this is my first post since December! I know, shame on me.

 

What’s been scratching at the back of my mind the past couple of days is a discussion that I had in my Organizational Behavior class.  The topic for the day was power – intended, unintended power; negative and positive power; all types of power.  We got on the issue of a well-known man here in Ireland, Niall Mellon, who started the Niall Mellon Township Trust which helps build houses for the poor in South Africa (read about it here).  It was brought up that someone thinks this man has a considerable ego, and that he just gets a kick out of basically being a celebrity among these people of South Africa; the fact that he was mostly doing this for the publicity and to feed his ego rather than to actually help people.  The question is: does it matter why he’s doing it, as long as he’s doing it?  Does it matter if he parades around knowing that “he’s the man” as long as he is actually helping these people?  In all reality, I doubt there are many people anywhere that do anything without some personal motive, because otherwise, let’s face it, they wouldn’t care enough to do it.

 

This led me to wonder, is anyone really so selfless that they help others completely because they just want to help others?  Or is self-enhancement just part of human nature?  Is it impossible because we are humans to help someone purely because we know they need our help?  Or in the back of our mind are we always wondering how or what we will gain from the event?  It is naïve to claim that there are absolutely no selfless individuals in this world, and that we are all greedy, greedy people.  However, this is not my point at all. My point is to question the relationship between wanting to enhance ourselves and human nature.  Is being a little self-seeking just part of who are as a human race?  And if so, should it matter that we may have ulterior motives when doing good as long as we’re doing good?