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Me Sobra Tiempo

@mesobratiemp0

-26- Costa Rica
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mesobratiemp0
eddieriggs
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miles-edward-obrien
void-kids-stuff-deactivated2021 asked:

If I do something good because it makes me feel like a good person, is that technically selfish?

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miles-edward-obrien answered:

no, only if you're choosing to make others suffer to make yourself feel good

enjoying making other people happy is a great thing

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oudenonoma

There is a Jewish story about a wealthy man who came to his rabbi and said “I have decided to build an orphanage, can you put me in touch with the relevant people”  

The rabbi was delighted to do it, and introduced the man to some charities.  After a few weeks, the man came back to the rabbi.

“I have decided not to build the orphanage,” he said.  “I realised that I was only doing it because I wanted to be admired as a philanthropist, my motives were selfish.”

The rabbi answered, “do you think the orphans will care what your motives were?  Build the orphanage!”

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mikkeneko

I think there was a similar anecdote about Abraham Lincoln and a pig, but from the other direction

The Fable of Abraham Lincoln and the Pigs
Once Lincoln was traveling in a mud-wagon coach along a swampy, rural area. His fellow passenger was his good friend and US Senator Edward Dickinson Baker, who later lost his life in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff at the onset of the American Civil War.
While they were conversing in the mud-wagon coach, Lincoln remarked to Baker that in doing good and evil, all people are motivated by selfishness. Just as Baker challenged Lincoln’s assertion, their coach crossed a rickety bridge over a slough (a large swampy marsh.)
Abruptly, Lincoln and Baker glimpsed a mother pig making a terrible squeal because her piglets were stuck in the swamp, couldn’t get out, and were in danger of drowning.
As their coach started to head away, Lincoln yelled, “Driver, can’t you stop just a moment?” The driver replied, “If the other fellow don’t object.”
With Baker’s approval, Lincoln jumped out of the wagon, ran to the slough, lifted the piglets one by one out of the swamp, and carried them to the dry bank of the swamp.
When Lincoln returned to the coach, Baker remarked, “Now, Abe, where does selfishness come in this little episode?”
Lincoln replied, “Why, bless your soul, Ed, that was the very essence of selfishness. I would have had no peace of mind all day had I gone on and left that suffering old sow worrying over those pigs. I did it to get peace of mind, don’t you see?”

anyway I think the idea that good needs  to be externally motivated and that the giver isn’t allowed to benefit from it, even inside their own head, is extremely puritanical and nature and can be discarded

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a-method-in-it

Listen! The fact that other people's suffering affects us and makes us feel bad is a sign that we as a species ARE pretty good actually. Your good deeds are not "selfishly motivated"; they are motivated by 5-6 million years of evolutionary pressure towards caring for our fellow humans. Doing good things for others because it makes you feel happy and not doing cruel or neglectful things to others because that would make you feel sad is not a sign you are selfish. Its a sign you are a good person, because those structures that do those things still exist in your brain, like they are supposed to.

mesobratiemp0
kickassfunny

Moulay Hassan, Crown Prince of Morocco hates it when you try to kiss his hand.

mistamarqui2u

Thas the fastest snatch ever

This is all traditional in Morocco. The royalty are supposed to reject hand kisses as a show of humbleness.

It’s kind of like when someone bows to royalty and the king goes, “No no, no need to bow”.

It’s not that the prince is a snobby kid—it’s just what he’s supposed to do.

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jamesstandrew

I’ve seen this post before so many time but never before with that last addition. The added context definitely changes things