Are You Transactional Or Altruistic?

On a micro scale a transaction is typically when money is exchanged for goods or services. But the meaning is wider than that. It can include when we do something in order to gain some sort of benefit for ourselves. So I might help you today expecting that you might eventually help me in return. "Quid pro Quo". Or I might do something in order to make me seem a better person. Life is often transactional, there's nothing innately wrong with that. The economy depends on transactions.

On the other hand human relationships also need altruism. The selfless concern for the well being of others. Helping someone at a cost to oneself without expecting anything in return, usually stemming from empathy and compassion, or a sense of duty and moral obligation. For example donating to charity or volunteering. 

In order to survive societies need both. There needs to be a balance. There are always choices between self interest & the good of society as a whole. The choices we make affect not only ourselves, but also others. That is at the level of family & friends, but also our society as a whole & even the wider world.

We each have intellect & an inner instinctive voice of right & wrong to guide our choices. But we also have self interest & the temptation to do something that could harm others but benefit us personally or someone close to us. These micro moral dilemmas happen in macro form on the world stage & have untold capacity for good or harm. 

There is a tendency to be blind to the impact the wrong choices make. There is also a protectionist tendency to convince ourselves that our individual choices make no difference in the "grand scheme of things". We deliberately ignore the impact of cumulative not "putting our head above the parapet". 

On the other hand we can make our voices heard today in ways that were impossible a few years ago. We can affect change. I am old enough to remember taking part in the Ban the Bomb marches & the protests at Greenham Common. We didn't have mobile phones, computers or social media, but we were a force to be reckoned with. 

Now there are so many easy & immediate ways to participate in politics & decision making. There is the possibility of every voice becoming a cumulative groundswell of opinion.

We must use it or it will be taken from us. "1984" is not just a novel, it's a real possibility.