Weekly Short-Shots

Eric T.1) I do not think that people are truly alusrittic, people are simply responding to social incentives. People, at least in our North American society, simply do good deeds for a sense of pride or goodness, because they know that others will hold them in a higher regard. Our society sees people that commit good deeds and help others as saints or as people with good morals and values. People respond to this social incentive of having a good image and do good deeds accordingly. I do believe that people strive to be alusrittic. However, because we have learned from a young age that we are rewarded for good behaviour or doing good deeds and should feel good about ourselves, it is difficult for us to act in purely alusrittic ways.2) I think the reason behind any action, positive or negative, is important. Although the actions they are showing may be positive, they may have less impressive motives. Just because one person does something helpful for another does not mean that they doing it selflessly, they could simply be thinking that the other person is now debt to them. This reasoning is very important, no one wants to constantly be reminded about a time they were helped and that they are responsible for returning that favour. If a good deed is done simply for the sake of doing it then the reason does not matter, because there is none, but that is not how things work in the real world.