Everyone would like to think they are brave and selfless but everyone always has someone else who perceived themselves to be better than them and consider them selfish. Even those who consider themselves selfish have a certain degree of pride that makes them feel like they are doing the right thing which in essence… is altruism.
But what do you consider selfish? Let’s say there exists a group of people that do not exhibit altruism in your definition of the word. They lie and steal and kill each other for what you perceive as petty things. But why? If they do not possess the capability to be altruistic, then obviously they are promoting better quality of life by being selfish because if one person from that group is selfish, is he really worth dying for? So you see, what you may perceieve as subjective terms, aren’t really subjective. All of life works together, even though we may exterminate other life forms. It is to promote the best genes. Every single thing every life form does is for the promotion of better genes.
So we take genocide of the armenians for instance. The people who committed that atrocity are selfish, in my eyes. But they are also altruistic, as they themselves are promoting the best genes. It doesn’t matter who wins, because it’s not about pride. The truth is the objective and so someone who is perceived as selfish will really only do the bidding of the altruistic.
Now, it doesn’t have to be so chaotic. What we can all do is just stop being so fucking paranoid of each other. And this (the internet) is a good way to do that. We need to learn how to respect each other’s weaknesses and strengths, as they are the same thing. Life just wants to live and promote the best quality of life, so either with war, selfishness, altruism or just plain old understanding of each other, that’s what’s gonna happen. So there is no reason to think that understanding each other and respecting each other will make any difference in the quest for… understanding each other which means promoting the best genes.