31: Altruism

Altruism is an ego defense by which an individual professes higher motives for his actions - specifically, he claims to be benefitting others while his primary motivation is to gratify himself. Serving the needs of others enables a person to place himself above those who need his help, satisfying his craving to be powerful, capable, and important.

(EN: I recall a casual observation that the people most active as volunteers in charities are not the wealthy, who donate out of a sense of guilt but do not give their time, but instead those whose are in lower stations in life, such as blue-collar workers, whose fervent support of charity helps to compensate for their lack of power, status, and autonomy in their daily lives.)

Nietzsche considered acts of charity to be acts of pith, but a selfish and self-serving form of pity in which an individual gratifies himself by identifying those more pathetic than himself and feels a sense of power and purpose in helping others.

Given that those who engage in acts of altruism are unable to admit their self-centered motives and their need for status and power, altruism is an act of self-deception.

This argument of whether altruism is always self-motivated has been debated to a stalemate: given that the motives of an individual to engage in altruistic activities is uncertain and his ostensible reasons may be misrepresented, it is not possible to determine for certain whether altruism is truly an act of love or contempt for one's fellow man.