As Long As You're Wishing...
After doing my route this morning, I stopped at the old 7/11 to pick up my goodies (unlike the phony barber at the circumcision place) for breakfast. I'd had a bootful of xanax last night, and I was feeling rather chummy, so when this clerk (who I don't think ever served time, but maybe had some mental work done) started talking about nothing, whatsoever, I talked back. Usually, as you know, I prefer to growl at my clerks, but prescription drugs are so uplifting.
So I stood there as he rattled off his subjects, then I started asking about the different lottery cards under the glass. The butts who run the lottery here in Virginia think they're pulling a fast one, raising the price on the cards, and lowering the winnings on the grand prize.
It used to be if you bought a 10 dollar ticket, the prize was usually a million or no less than half a million. Now they try to suck us in on these big 10 dollar tickets and pis out a 25 or 75 thousand dollar grand prize. They make all the smaller prizes a little easier to get, but if you're not too stupid, you don't play the 10 dollar cards to win a hundred or five thousand dollar booty. I want my million dollars!
The clerk told me he would give 1/3 to charity, 1/3 to his friends, and 1/3 to keep for himself. I said, as long as you're wishing such good fortune for his friends and his favorite humanitarian causes, why not just wish that they win the money directly, bypassing his loving altruism. I didn't put it exactly like that (he's a nice kid, but stupid) but I think he had a rather indistinct understanding of what I meant, as he gave out a nice belly laugh at my comment.
What I meant, of course, is that even so called "altruism" is a subset of selfishness, although held in a perverted and contorted belief system. Even the altruist, who believes that sacrifice for others is man's highest and noblest duty, wants the recognition and credit for his deeds. That HE is the one who wished you the million dollars and one should look to him for goodness. Didn't he, after all, make all your good things come true? It's all about him, not the recipient.
If the confirmed altruist really cared for the well being of others above his own power, he would prefer that all good things be a result of the achievement, or even luck, of that individual involved. But, no. The altruist is in on the deal for his own glory. At the expense of the free state of the other.
Isn't that too bad?
Joe Postove
So I stood there as he rattled off his subjects, then I started asking about the different lottery cards under the glass. The butts who run the lottery here in Virginia think they're pulling a fast one, raising the price on the cards, and lowering the winnings on the grand prize.
It used to be if you bought a 10 dollar ticket, the prize was usually a million or no less than half a million. Now they try to suck us in on these big 10 dollar tickets and pis out a 25 or 75 thousand dollar grand prize. They make all the smaller prizes a little easier to get, but if you're not too stupid, you don't play the 10 dollar cards to win a hundred or five thousand dollar booty. I want my million dollars!
The clerk told me he would give 1/3 to charity, 1/3 to his friends, and 1/3 to keep for himself. I said, as long as you're wishing such good fortune for his friends and his favorite humanitarian causes, why not just wish that they win the money directly, bypassing his loving altruism. I didn't put it exactly like that (he's a nice kid, but stupid) but I think he had a rather indistinct understanding of what I meant, as he gave out a nice belly laugh at my comment.
What I meant, of course, is that even so called "altruism" is a subset of selfishness, although held in a perverted and contorted belief system. Even the altruist, who believes that sacrifice for others is man's highest and noblest duty, wants the recognition and credit for his deeds. That HE is the one who wished you the million dollars and one should look to him for goodness. Didn't he, after all, make all your good things come true? It's all about him, not the recipient.
If the confirmed altruist really cared for the well being of others above his own power, he would prefer that all good things be a result of the achievement, or even luck, of that individual involved. But, no. The altruist is in on the deal for his own glory. At the expense of the free state of the other.
Isn't that too bad?
Joe Postove
posted by Mr. Liberty at 5:56 PM
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