Er mennesket egoistisk?

Jeg leser akkurat en bok av den belgiske psykiateren Paul Verhaeghe om hvordan samfunnet vi lever i former vår identitet.

Han mener at vi har to drifter i oss - en drift til nærhet og en drift til autonomi, og at disse kommer tydelig fram i vår psykologiske utvikling som barn. Vi trenger både å være et selvstendig individ, men vi trenger også å være del av et samfunn. Han mener at alle trenger nærhet og tilhørighet for å være sunne og friske mennesker. Verhaeghe skriver at vårt neoliberale samfunn har formet vår identitet i altfor stor grad mot å jage etter selvstendighet, og at dette har mange negative konsekvenser.

Fra side 236:

"The postmodern individual suffers from a strange type of dissociation, a new form of split personality. We condemn the system, are hostile to it, and feel powerless to change it. Yet at the same time we act in a way that reinforces and even extends it. Every decision we make - what to eat and drink, what to wear, how to get about, where to go on holiday - demonstrates this. We are the system that we complain about.

Protesting by voting for the ultra-left or the ultra-right won't alter this state of affairs. It is not simply a question of making the "other" change; the painful truth is that we, too, will have to change. Instead of being merely consumers, we must once again become citizens - not just in the voting booth, but above all in the way in which we lead our lives.

One of the things we most need to do is to ditch the cynicism that has taken hold of nearly all of us. We have become wearily pessimistic, taking the neo-liberal construction for an exclusive truth. The TINA syndrome ("There is no alternative") shows that the current crisis is also, and perhaps predominantly, a crisis of the imagination, resulting in fatalistic pronouncements such as "That´s just how people are", "We can ride it out", and "Let´s milk the system". There can be no doubt that egotism, competitiveness, and aggression are innately human characteristics - the banality of evil is a reality.

But altruism, co-operation, and solidarity - the banality of good - are just as innate, and it is the environment that decides which characteristics dominate. Frans de Waal´s studies of our closes relatives have taught us that. Th main difference between us and primates is that we can do much to shape our environment. What's more, there is plenty of evidence that doing something for others and achieving recognition for that makes us feel happier. And such happiness is an excellent antidote to the current mood of depressive hedonia."