Have you ever heard of the Samaritan paradox? Some \u2018scientists\u2019 find samaritanism (just doing something for someone else) a very weird phenomenon because it doesn\u2019t fit the so-called biological premise of me-first (including we-first for a group). They look upon any derivation of me-first as either having a hidden agenda or being an aberration, something like a disease. Me-versus-anything is all they know.<\/p>\n
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Of course they are right to a high degree. There is a lot of me-versus in humankind, including in regard to what is mostly called \u2018altruism\u2019. Some examples. I do for you because then you do for me. I do for you because I see \u2018me\u2019 in you. I do for you because then I feel good. I do for you because one way or the other people are looking. I do for you because then I will go to heaven. I do for you because it\u2019s good for my \u2018karma\u2019 in a next life. I do for you because then I am better than he. I do for you because I should. Etc.<\/p>\n
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Does it seem like I\u2019m becoming a grumpy old cynic?<\/p>\n
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Ah, but I still feel young\u2026 even \u2018forever young\u2019. And there is something in this that is very important for this Sticky. \u2018Me\u2019 starts being young, then comes midlife crisis, then comes getting older and maybe grumpier every year. \u2018Me\u2019 gets frustrated for losing youth, then losing life. \u2018Me\u2019 wants to grab and hold. \u2018Me\u2019 readily becomes \u2018me-versus\u2019.<\/p>\n
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But \u2018me\u2019 is not what a human being is. There is much, much, much more to it. The \u2018scientists\u2019 from the beginning of this sticky only see \u2018me\u2019. Well, they are completely short-sighted. Literally. Or even with a better word: short-attentioned. The moment one opens one\u2019s attention, another world appears.<\/p>\n
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The \u2018other world\u2019<\/p>\n
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The boundaries of \u2018me\u2019 do not so much as disappear, but they become irrelevant somehow. There is no \u2018doing for me\u2019 anymore. There is also no \u2018doing for you\u2019 anymore. There is no \u2018me-versus\u2019. There is just \u2018doing\u2019, which is in the end always a \u2018doing for\u2019, just like that, which in the end is always a \u2018going forwards\u2019.<\/p>\n
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\u2018If someone slaps you on the cheek, then turn the other cheek.\u2019<\/p>\n
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This is no pacifism, nor weakness, nor calculation in order to get some other advantage in this life or the next one. Also, it is certainly not a lack of reaction. The \u2018other cheek\u2019 might even come down rather hard! It\u2019s also not a rule-to-follow, but a description, namely of what I just came to in this Sticky. \u2018Me-versus\u2019 gets slapped on the cheek and wants to burn down the city for that. To the forever young one however, it\u2019s as if he himself did the slapping. His next action is in sync with this, nothing more. There is no revenge, although from the outside it may look like it. Likewise, there is no altruism, nor egoism. There is only this: a complete human being.<\/p>\n
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