Concept of Self (from 2/28/2004)

Total Self vs. Total Humanity:

What makes man do good?  Are we inherently good or do we learn the concept of kindness?  I believe acts of kindness and goodwill are something we learn and are thought.  Man, in it's natural form is selfish and self centered.  The concept of the well being and needs of others is not a dominant factor in what drives his way of life.  In his natural form man is animalistic.  It is worried only by it's survival.  What separates us from other animals is the ability to reason.  With the ability to reason man has taught himself the concept of humanity.  Man has raised itself a level above animals in this manner, but in order to grasp the idea of true humanity, man must be guided.  Being able to reason allows us to be guided toward the concept of true humanity, but by the same token, being able to reason allows us to be guided in a direction away from true humanity.  

As I stated before, being able to reason has allowed man to reach the concept of humanity.  In the process of becoming civilized, man has interacted, understood, and reasoned together.  

The fundamental idea's that make up our world, life and death, were given meaning not only to one's self (selfishness) but also to those around one's self (selflessness) through the process of civilization.  Man came to an understanding that his actions and ideas have an effect on others. By interacting, understanding, and reasoning together man has given thought to the effects life and death of others has on his psyche.  By doing this it has allowed compassion and humanity to take the place of the void left in us by the vacancy of our selfish ideas.  When born, man is totally selfish (a state of total self).  Only concerned with the survival of itself.  As it becomes a part of society and begins to interact with others, compassion and humanity begin to slowly drive selfishness out of the concept of self.  This replacement is of course only partial, but it has begun. The question from this point is, how far will the concept of self manifest itself to the form of total humanity and away from total self?  The answer to that lies in how man is guided.  

Man can be guided in many ways.  When one's state of being and state of mind is in a mode of total "self" fulfilment, they have lost control over their desirous.  They can no longer control their animalistic characteristics.  What I mean by animal characteristics is their selfish tendencies. They give in to their sexual desirous, they give in to greed, and they give in to their hunger for power.  Now, I am not saying these desirous are evil or harmful to mankind.  Quite to the contrary, they have played a part in mankind evolving and becoming civilized.  But when one becomes totally consumed by these wants and needs they lose track of their humanity and become vicious.  One's environment is a leading cause to having one's mind take the form of total self.  One's environment is made up of one's family, friend's, associates, and in the aggregate one's society.  I do not believe that we are predisposed to be guided toward one way or another. Through experiences and events one comes across in life we are able to determine what type of re-action certain activities will foster from us.  In this country it is said that children who are brought up in abusive homes, broken homes, or single parent homes maybe more likely to partake in activities that can be deemed more selfish than selfless.  However, in certain countries where abusive and domineering parenting is the norm, such behaviour is not the result of such parenting.  The main reasoning for this in my mind is that those societies have accepted this from of parenting.  Those societies have also limited all avenues available for one to escape such an environment.  Here in the US freedom is abound.  For the most part one can do as he or she pleases.  More freedom can lead to increased selfish behaviour.  One must develop a deeper consciousness of its surroundings in order to not become a slave to our wants and desirous, and in essence a slave to our own selfishness.  I will discuss the my concept deeper consciousness in a future post.