Altruism

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Definition

Altruism is the ethical principle that the values of others should be placed before one’s own. It is the opposite of egoism.

Objectivism rejects as immoral any action taken for some other ultimate purpose other than one's life. In particular it rejects as immoral any variant of altruism — any ethical doctrine according to which a human being must justify his or her existence by service to others. Followed consistently, altruism leads to certain death, since each man must achieve certain values in order to remain alive.

Ethics

The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent. He is a parasite in motive and makes parasites of those he serves. The relationship produces nothing but mutual corruption. It is impossible in concept. The nearest approach to it in reality -- the man who lives to serve others -- is the slave. If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit. The conquered slave has a vestige of honor. He has the merit of having resisted and of considering his condition evil. But the man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man, and he degrades the conception of love. But that is the essence of altruism.-- Ayn Rand

Self-esteem

Nobody respects an altruist, neither in private life nor in international affairs. An altruist is a person who keeps sacrificing himself and his values,which means: sacrificing his friends to his enemies,his allies to his protagonists, his interests to any cry for help, his strength to anyone's weakness, his convictions to anyone's wishes, the truth to any lie,the good to any evil.-- Ayn Rand

Altruism applied to politics

The moral cannibalism of all hedonist and altruist doctrines lies in the premise that the happiness of one man necessitates the injury of another.-- Ayn Rand

The social system based on and consonant with the altruist morality -- with the code of self-sacrifice -- is socialism, in all or any of its variants: fascism, Nazism, communism. All of them treat man as a sacrificial animal to be immolated for the benefit of the group, the tribe, the society, the state.-- Ayn Rand