The Line Between Selfishness and Self-Interest is Aggression

All businesses aren’t bad, just the selfish ones
Anthony Freda Art

In the midst of the massive financial heists that we see on Wall Street and the wars of conquest that we see from Washington, it is only natural for us to become dismayed with how some people are hurting and manipulating others for their own personal gain.

We all experience self-interest to a certain degree; this seems to be some natural defense mechanism that keeps our bodies moving. This is nothing for anyone to be ashamed of, and it has nothing to do with the destructive behavior that we are talking about here. However, a line is crossed when someone makes the decision to employ force, fraud, coercion or manipulation to achieve their goals.

This is where it seems that the line between “selfishness” and “self-interest” should be drawn. If someone is not using aggressive, manipulative tactics to meet their needs and achieve their goals, then it is safe to say that no crime is being committed, no harm is being done. Every organization throughout history that has exploited people and made a mess of civilization has relied on violent and deceptive means to carry out this exploitation. Every menacing corporation that we see today has not risen to prominence on account of their contributions to society, but rather their ability to prevent their competitors from succeeding. Likewise, every despot and monarch on the face of the earth has been able to subjugate millions on account of the violence or manipulation that was used by themselves or their ancestors.

It seems to me that this way of doing business is not a result of human nature, but simply a consequence of our current establishment. These corporations typically get their way by using the arm of the State to tailor the marketplace according to their needs, which is why all of the biggest corporations always have armies of lobbyists. This is not only a deceptive maneuver, but it is also a violent one because all state demands are enforced under the threat of violence. Thus, allowing dominant corporations to maintain their dominance by legally paying a third party (government enforcers) to make trouble for their rising competition. This is why entrepreneurs have so much trouble competing with bigger corporations, regardless of how much value they offer the community.

The aforementioned actions are without a doubt selfish, as they show the blatant use of force, fraud and manipulation. However, everyone that starts a business with hopes of fulfilling their own self-interest is not behaving selfishly. Obviously, I’m sure that these aren’t the oxford English definitions for these terms, but I felt that they would be perfect in describing how the ethical value of actions are dependent upon the use of aggression or manipulation.

It is extremely important that we make this distinction because self-interest is harmless and exhibited by most if not all human beings, while selfishness is defined by violence, fraud and other rare psychopathic behavior. By removing aggression and manipulation from our encounters with other people, we can actually create a world where win-win encounters are the standard for human interactions.

Win-win encounters are possible, but are unfortunately extremely rare, because our culture is only built to support win-lose encounters. Hitting people over the head and forcing them to do things is the only conflict resolution technique that is presently being used in our civilization. The only thing that ever changes is who’s holding the club.

This is not the only world that is possible, though, I’m sure you can think back on plenty of win-win encounters that you have had in your everyday life. It is completely possible for this to become the norm in society, but it’s only going to happen if we set a standard of non-violence and hold every human being on this earth accountable to the exact same rules.

When there is anyone who is exempt from the rules that everyone else is subject to, a situation is created where those who wish to hurt others will gravitate towards those positions of exemption or “authority”. This creates a chain reaction, wherein other people observe the double standard set by those in authority and are then able to justify their own aggressions against others. If aggression wasn’t exhibited by those in authority as it is, then your average person would have a much harder time rationalizing this kind of behavior when they start to see it in themselves.

To say that the world’s problems are rooted in the self-interest of individuals is at best a red herring, if not blatant disinformation. This seems to be just another defeatist trap that is designed to discourage people from attempting to change the status quo. After all, if we believe that the deplorable state of our civilization is a natural development, then we will have no motivation to create a better world.

J.G. Vibes is an author, and artist — with an established record label. In addition to featuring a wide variety of activist information, his company — Good Vibes Promotions promotes for electronic dance music events. You can keep up with him and his forthcoming book Alchemy Of The Modern Renaissance, at his Facebook page. AOTMR will be released this spring, thanks to Leilah Publications. This project features nearly 100 different essays, just like this one, that cover a wide variety of topics. These essays give historical and philosophical insight into the many important issues that our generation faces. From banking cartels and alternative currency to eugenics and the drug war, AOTMR offers a complete and comprehensive breakdown of the counter culture’s struggle.