Todays thoughts.

Every action, no matter how altruistic it might seem, has an egoistic or biological motive (except involuntary actions, of course).

While egoistic motives are always focused on us and our good, this is not always the case with biological ones. There are situations when nature "betray" us. In war, for instance, our nature might force us to sacrifice ourselves for the bigger group of brothers in arms.

These are two soldiers I found, who threw themselves on the enemy machine-guns to protect other soldiers (in Russian language):


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I think this kind of behavior is directly related to hormone called [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and is triggered to protect the evolutionary more important individuals (similar to mother-child bond). "For the greater good".

In other words, nature, on the contrary to what most people think, concerns only about the survival of the species. An individual is of second importance and is important only because it is a part of the species.

Another example of this is [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. It is a common phenomenon in nature which shows that if it adds to the good of species, fit individuals might eat sick, young, small or simply - inferior ones. This not only feed the superior ones, but also increases the probability that those disadvantageous genes won't appear in other generations. If only this could be applied in human context. Che.

Nature is so indifferent.

Do...or die.

The identification with otherness is the central part of the social instinct.
Many call it selflessness, because the self is transferred to something outside the brain's willful control.

In its purest form it makes parental sacrifice possible.
Later it develops into a genetic commonality: tribal.

In heterogeneous modern unities, such as ideologies and nationalities, the identification is with an abstraction.
The self turns from a gene to a meme.
This immersion of self within a multiplicity is experienced as a relief by the individual so diverted or one who has had his self-consciousness stunted early on, not allowing it to separate and to distinguish itself in a generality/simplification.

For such a stunted in its development mind the loss of self, of self-knowledge (know thyself) is compensated by this abstraction.
Since abstractions can be fantastic, ideals that contradict reality, detached form the world, the mind can give itself to a concept that dis-harmonizes with its natural self, which still remains attached to the past through genetic code.

A psychological schism is formed and dealt with by using compartmentalization.

This disharmony is nihilism.
It can only survive within environment that protect it from the natural environment it contradicts or remains ignorant of, or denies the reality of.
The organism has now become institutionalized: cocooned within artifices outside of which it is incapable to go on.

To deal with this psychic disharmony the system offers alternative methods to expunge natural tendencies without having to deal with then consciously.