The uncle I was telling this to is politically very far to the right. Not a Nazi, but a one-time John Bircher who bought into many of that reactionary group's beliefs about Communism and one world government. I told him that I had found my study of Karl Marx over the last four years to be interesting, especially Marx's predictions concerning the destructiveness to society of laissez-faire capitalism. My uncle opined that Marx's theories had a fault that was impossible to surmount: Marx never took into account that man is motivated solely by selfishness. I pointed out to him that this is not true. For example, I said look at all of the volunteers at the World Trade Center after September 11th. He then corrected himself and said that in matters of economics, men are motivated solely by selfishness. I decided to not press the matter further (he will be eighty-three at the end of January and had a serious coronary a few years back), so I had a bit more chit chat with him and said goodbye.
Selfishness as the primary motivating factor of humanity has been the starting point for the conservative view of why we humans do things for centuries. I believe that selfishness is the sole motivating factor for those human beings whose psyches are damaged, underdeveloped, or who are mentally ill. I believe that those who attempt to put forth such a viewpoint are invariably trying to justify their own misanthropic ideology and actions to the larger world.
My uncle was partially correct in his observation about Karl Marx and his economic philosophy. Marx never fully understood what motivates the healthy members of the human race to strive for and achieve great things. It is not a desire for wealth, per se, that drives us to excellence, although wealth is a part of the equation. It is our desire for recognition, by both our peers and others in our lives. A mentally healthy individual seeks recognition that is proportional to our achievements, not some grandiose vision of ourselves. This in turn drives us to work harder, and improve our existing skills, to achieve additional recognition. Bottom line, what we most desire for our hard work is fairness, both in terms of recognition by our contemporaries and monetary compensation for the work we perform; wealth is only its monetary expression.
Many conservatives seem to think the answer to poverty is for everyone to start their own business. They do not understand that not all of us are suited temperamentally to successfully run our own business. This is not a fault, any more than not being temperamentally suited to being a teacher, a physician, a legislator, a soldier, or a priest is a fault. It is the diversity of humanity that makes us strong as a species, and permits innovation from unexpected sources.
As I stated in my January 3, 2013 OpEdNews article "Human State," human beings are the animal that chooses, and it is in the limiting of those choices, without just cause, that tyranny is created, and our basic human rights are most immediately and directly threatened. It is our duty to participate in our government and its functions, to help guide our elected officials in their duty to serve the public. Because ultimately, to quote President Theodore Roosevelt, "The government is us; we are the government, you and I." (Speech, September 9, 1902, Asheville, North Carolina.)
The choices which we make as citizens are among the most important we will make in our lifetime. When we limit our participation in the nation's governance, by not voting or by only voting, we have inflicted a form of tyranny not only on ourselves, but on our neighbors and fellow citizens. Choosing not to vote, or participate more fully in our nation's political process--even if for health reasons it is only writing articles for OpEdNews.com--is not a choice, it is willful negligence.
I.F. Stone, in his last and, in my opinion, best book, The Trial of Socrates (1988, pp. 47-9), wrote of what is possibly the founding myth of democracy, given here in paraphrase [Corrections and amplifications of quoted materials are in brackets.]:
"But the great lawgiver Solon had given the right to vote in the Assembly to all of the citizens of Athens, after deposing the aristocratic archons. This was done to insure the continued freedom of Athens' citizens, and place a check on her aristocrats. The sophist and teacher Protagoras (in Plato's dialogue of the same name), has Athens' democratic institutions tossed in his face by Socrates, who points out that while questions such as shipbuilding are limited to answers by shipwrights and seamen, questions of a more general political nature are allowed to be stated and answered by any citizen at the assembly, whether they have either training or experience in the matter at hand.
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