Subconsciously, in one way or another, we are constantly searching for the optimal solution. In family, with friends, at work, in business, in politics – everywhere and always man seeks comfort for himself! But in order to do so, he must consider the interests of his environment and negotiate with it. In some ways he is inferior, and in some ways the opposite side is inferior. As a result, everyone comes to a balance of interests. The ancient Greeks called it “compromise.”
It would seem that everything is great, everyone is happy. However, not everything is that smooth.
For some reason, over time, the agreement ceases to satisfy us. Gradually, dissatisfaction leads to a rupture: again the crisis, again it is necessary to negotiate, and maybe even to fight to the bitter end. What’s going on? What is stopping us from honoring the agreements?
Another kind of compromise can shed light on this – compromise with one’s own conscience! Here I have to negotiate with myself, to hate myself, to despise myself. And there’s no one to blame!
Who is she – my conscience?
A person’s conscience is formed under the influence of the social and psychological moral foundations of society. The word “conscience” comes from the Greek συνειδος, “consciousness. I.e. conscience is the conscience of the one who has consciousness, who defines the place of his self in this world.
Consciousness is built by two forces of nature: selfishness and altruism. Egoism represents my body (from the Greek εγω “I”), and altruism (Latin alter “other,” “others”) represents concern for society, for the preservation of the species.
Animals have no consciousness and no conscience, because the forces of selfishness and altruism are in harmony, in balance. A cat, when it steals something, is like saying to you, “That’s my nature!” And the dog starts apologizing and swearing his love. In humans, however, selfishness (caring for oneself at the expense of others) far exceeds altruistic qualities.
It is getting to the point where man is massively destroying himself as a species, while still taking sadistic pleasure in doing so. Subconsciously, of course, a person understands that other people need to be taken care of as well, but his ego comes first. He says to himself, “Who else is going to take care of me if not myself? If I have any free time left, then I will devote it to society. Only trouble is, there is absolutely no time!
Imagine that there are almost eight billion more like him. He cannot fully support himself. He is obliged to come into contact with society and receive from it everything he needs to live. Involuntarily man is obliged to enter into numerous compromises on various occasions in order to ensure his existence.
In this way, through compromise, he engages the altruism firmly asleep inside him. But, at some point this balance is no longer satisfactory to him: whether the salary is not worthy of his efforts, or his wife does not make a tasty soup, not to mention the treaties between states. You can, of course, blame it all on experience. The taste is sharpened, there are a lot of weapons accumulated – much more than the enemy, etc.
The reason lies in the constant development of selfishness in Nature. The element that continues to evolve in the universe is man. It is an unbalanced system, which forces it to evolve. From Nature we constantly get an “additive” of selfishness. It manifests itself in the form of increased aversion and estrangement from other people. I feel like I’m not appreciated enough, etc. And if this is transferred to the interethnic, social, or interstate level? With compromise, we try to suppress newly emerging selfishness, if we think it is appropriate. And if not? Then revolt, revolution, war!
Nature does not “plant” selfishness on us so that we can suppress it or turn it into hatred against other people. It develops us, it wants us to enjoy using it, not suffer from it. For this, we have a natural attribute in us, altruism, designed to cover with love, like a blanket, the gift of Nature and to turn it for the good of society. Just imagine that the thermonuclear war hanging over us like the sword of Damocles is nothing more than our selfishness getting out. If we can cover it with great love, what joy and happiness will descend upon the earth!
Looking at the animals, we see that man, as a species, is not yet complete. The ultimate Homo sapiens will appear when we come to the harmony between selfishness and altruism, when we realize ourselves as Man. We have everything for that: Nature gave us reason and speech. So far we are using them for enmity, but we must use them to come to unity. We will pay a huge price, but we will still have to resort to the natural property of altruism.
We still have a chance!
