Unreciprocated favours

I talked about the currency of favours previously where people contribute their time in exchange for a personal benefit of some type. I recently came across a piece or research from the University of St Andrews that demonstrated this characteristic in orangutans (see here for the article). So in short, and cynically, humans are no different to monkeys.

Is there such a thing as selflessness in human conduct? The Machiavellians would say no. The Daoists would say yes. I would say ‘I hope so’ (then I have also raised the debate about altruism which is something similar). One principal difference between these ideologies is that of active calculation. The Machiavellians undertake certain actions in the knowledge of the immediate consequences to their benefit. The Daoists undertake certain actions according to the belief that nature takes its course and the consequences will be what they are – by forcing nothing, nature yields to the will of the inevitable and nature inherently exists to benefit (or enlighten) people who follow ‘the Way’. The end result yields personal benefits but the means of achieving these benefits is very different – as is the underlying set of personal values.

I have also talked about our cultural transition from ‘knowledge’ to ‘wisdom’ (see here) and how we must evolve our attitudes towards society from one of fact and solution to one of insight and responsibility. So the currency of favours is nothing new: Machiavelli wrote The Prince in the early 16th Century and the Dao De Jing was written in 500 BCE (give or take). So the question is whether we are happy to share the characteristics of monkeys in a quantitative, calculated Machiavellian approach to engaging in societal endeavours or embrace our responsibility to give selfless, unrequited favours with courage and vindication for the greater benefit of our communities.

As Barack Obama said, we are entering an era of personal responsibility. As the Buddhists say, everything is cyclical. I propose that the time for Machiavellian thinking is over and it’s time to embrace the tenets of the selfless philosophies. So let the currency of favours be implicit not explicit. Let the intent behind favours be unrequited, safe in the knowledge that nature deals in a currency that will see personal investment repaid. So let the expectation of repayment be passive and let the will to help others be active and selfless. Let us be humans not monkeys.