Robert Villegas - The Age of Selfishness

The Age of Selfishness

By Robert Villegas

The Age of Selfishness

By Robert Villegas

Copyright 2015 by Robert Villegas

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any way without written permission from the copyright holder.

ISBN-13: 978-1517540371

ISBN-10: 1517540372

Library of Congress Control Number 2015919607

Published in the United States of America

Dedicated

To

William

Acknowledgement

The author of this book would like to acknowledge a philosophical debt to the works of Ayn Rand whose philosophy Objectivism has been the subject of years of study. However, the author takes full responsibility for any ideas or conclusions expressed in this book. He is neither a spokesman for nor representative of the ideas of Ayn Rand.

Table of Contents

Genesis

There are two reasons why someone might pick this book to read. First, the reader might think the title implies a view about how selfishness harms modern society. By this view, you might want to learn how mans acquisitive nature causes him to devastate the lives of others. You may want to know about pride, greed and profit-seeking in order to convince yourself that the problems in our world are due to selfish actions. After all, this is what most people think.

Or secondly, you might want to investigate the conflicting views about mans nature as a being of action. You may seek to learn about what is wrong in this world and about how selfishness is involved. You may even be wondering what all the fuss is about; why do people hate and discriminate against pride and selfishness?

This book is written for the second person, not the first. It is written as a declaration for selfishness. I would actually like to see men convert to a new mindset that could make the coming years into a new Age of Selfishness that inaugurates a new peaceful style of living. Some people might think this is a preposterous notion, but I submit that most people dont understand what it really means to be selfish. I hope to show them a different perspective on selfish living.

My purpose is not only to declare that selfishness is superior to altruism, the philosophy of anti-self, but to declare a more correct view of self-love as the proper source for morality. My goal is to declare, that altruism has had its day and has been found wanting and that it is time to consider a paradigm shift away from altruism and toward new moral premises and political systems. Altruism is dead and it is time to try selfishness. It is time for the Age of Selfishness.

It is time to sweep aside the traditions of anti-self, anti-greed and anti-mind, and declare that these views are wrong and deadly. They are responsible for millions of minor injustices every day as well as for many major calamities, most of which were falsely blamed on selfishness.

Why not try a new system of morality? What do we have to lose? What devastation could possibly be as bad as what we are experiencing? Wasnt the idea of self-sacrifice the very idea held by the people who murdered people in the millions? Wasnt self-sacrifice the idea behind our massive and burgeoning debt; behind excessively high taxes and unemployment? Why not try the only idea that created the greatest nation in the history of the world? In fact, our nation is great, not because of altruism, but because of selfishness, because of freedom and the pursuit of happiness and property rights.

Most people think they see a direct link between selfishness and some of historys major catastrophes. I submit that these catastrophes did not happen because of selfishness but because of a lack of selfishness. Millions of men throughout history have been told they had a duty to sacrifice for others and it is these very men who joined the lines leading to the killing fields and death chambers. They were told the Big Lie that sacrifice was good; and their believing this lie caused their unnecessary deaths.

In fact, the practitioners of sacrifice wrote the history books and the one issue they refuse to consider is that the murderous atrocities they write about happened, not because of selfish men, but because of men who sought to force sacrifice for the common good.

Tellingly, the one thing they refuse to criticize is the idea of sacrifice. They look at the atrocities and damn selfishness; yet the atrocities sought to eliminate selfishness. They damn individual rights, they damn self-sufficiency, they damn reason, they damn capitalism but they never consider the possibility that it is altruism that caused the atrocities.

Their solution to the senseless slaughter? They tell us that men must sacrifice so this does not happen again. The idea that caused the murders is then given as the solution to stopping the murders. Even today, we hear the spokespeople of irrationalism declare that mans goal in life should be to live for others. Soft, peaceful sounding voices declare love for man and tell him that the way forward is to be self-sacrificial, love God, love man, love life and love sacrifice. This soft voice mesmerizes people, causes moral transformation, changes lives and moves people to walk dutifully into the next line toward the proverbial furnaces. Agree with altruism and you become the next sacrificial victim who leaves a spot open for the next sacrificial victim.

The genesis of this book is the election of 2012. In that year, the leader of our nation had been given a mandate, he thought, to further enslave the productive citizens of our society. In the subsequent years he has taken many actions that had terrible consequences for independent individuals. Each of us has had to ascertain, not only how to survive, but also how to thwart oppressive government. There is much that can be done; but the effort against the oppressive state takes more than blind activism; it will take a philosophical battle for the right principles, an effort to develop the intellectual arguments that will save human lives and enable people to be happy.

Recently, another event made me realize that the last 2000 years have been the Age of Altruism. This event was the visit of the Pope to the United States of America. With this visit, I saw the crude primitivism of human sacrifice offered as a panacea to a society created on a foundation of individual rights. To me, this visit was an atrocity.

I watched television and saw the spectacle of politicians and average citizens clinging to ancient ideas gleaned from ancient texts. I noticed the glazed-over eyes and the transfixed expressions of people and it reminded me that we continue to be overwhelmed by the same anti-mind, anti-greed and anti-self ideas that have brought much evil to the world. We cannot have a proper future building our government on spirits and incense floating toward the sky. Magic just wont do it and believing in magic will only create minds incapable of understanding the consequences of their ideas.

Indeed, the Popes words were deceptive. He ignored the damage and destruction that have been imposed upon the true saviors of mankind, the intelligent, productive and independent individuals who pursue their rational self-interest.

Indeed, the Popes words were uniquely political. A politician tends to tell you only what he thinks you need to know and, like a politician, the Pope did not openly criticize sinfulness. Instead, he brought a newer, kinder altruism that is bereft of the anger and vitriol that past altruists have expressed toward reason and individualism. Had he been an old-style altruist he would have rained down criticism of selfishness and its evil wherever he went. This time, he only talked about the majesty and glory of sacrifice for others. A true politician knows you cant bite the hand that feeds you.

In response to the unquestioning acceptance of altruism in todays world and in the hope of averting another historical disaster, Im almost tempted to ask believers to continue being faith-based and emotion-driven but to stop only the baseless demands for sacrifice; to give self-interest a try for at least 100 years to see how that works out. After all, they accepted altruism, mysticism and collectivism without a semblance of reason; why not accept self-interest on the same terms just to try something new for a change and to see how that works.