Sonia’s title of her latest post: Compassionate Selfishness (and the post, but mostly reading the title after reading the post) reminded me of a scientific theory around evolution.

It talked about how the best way for an ecosystem to thrive was for each creature to be selfish.  It seems counter-intuitive, but it makes sense when you think about how it would work.  More rabbits = more food for foxes.  More foxes = more dung for plants, etc. etc.

Yes, eventually there’s too many foxes for food and they start to die out, but that’s where intelligence comes in.  As thinking beings we can be aware of this pattern and work, in our own best interests, to improve the lot of other species on whom we depend.  As we get better at realising we depend on so many, we get better at looking after the planet as a whole.  Not because we suddenly love every living creature but because we realise that if they die, we die.

Compassion is selfish.  There’s no such thing as altruism.  Again, these are not new ideas.  People do good because it makes them feel better, happier, more alive and connected, etc.  They do good because they hope to spread a culture of helping those in need, in case they too are in need one day.  There are other better, less cynical sounding, and probably longer explanations.  But this is one way of seeing the world that has yet to reveal a great flaw in it’s logic to me.

Want to see more? Try one of these posts:

• Living in the past
• Giving myself permission to be tiny
• My Tribe