So why is this an important distinction? Because what is of greatest value about any man is that which defines him as human, as a member of his species. What makes a human valuable is not the same thing as what makes a mackerel or a wombat valuable. The most fundamental aspect of any living entity’s identity is that which is the definition of the entity’s species.

For those species who possess it their consciousness is what defines them. Man’s unique mode of cognition, his human mode, is rationality, his capacity for self-originated thought [Aristotle].

This is pivotal to any argument for individualism, egoism, whatnot. For any living entity end, means, and its defining nature are conflated. In Aristotle’s lingo final, efficient, and formal causes are what’s conflated. So what’s the formal cause or defining nature of man that determines the nature of his ends and means? His mode of cognition, which is his first-cause or free-agency, his capacity for self-originated thought, with an emphasis on “self.”

As Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself. Implied is that love of self is prior to love for others. That’s the message of the egoist ethics of Aristotle, too. Indeed, psychologists tell us that we cannot love others if we do not love ourselves first. They’ve found that people who harm others operate from a lack of love for themselves.

I’m convinced that all the evildoers, e.g., Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Himmler, Roosevelt, Johnson, Carter, and Obama, are motivated by some form of self-hatred and self-alienation, which is why the harm they do to individuals means nothing to them. As the self-hating, and therefore power-lusting, Hillary Clinton replied to a reporter’s question about small businessmen complaining that the costs for them to comply with her proposed national health care scheme during her rapist husband’s tenure in the White House would bankrupt them, “I can’t be bothered about small businessmen who will go bankrupt because they’re under-capitalized.” A real charmer, she, such a paragon of Christian compassion. NOT.

And that’s not the only instance her indifference to the harm she perpetrates on individuals has been on display. Remember her famous rejoinder to Republicans’ questioning her about the death of the Ambassador to Libya at the hands of Muslim terrorists because of her poor judgment in not sending more security personnel to protect him as he had requested? “At this point what difference does it make?” God Almighty, help us if that cold-blooded female is elected President to indifferently wreak suffering on others on a national scale.

Love for and concern in promoting the interests of self, egoism, is not wrong. On the contrary, it’s the foundation of love for others. But don’t confuse rational egoism with self-indulgence. One’s true self-interest is not tantamount to indulging one’s desires willy-nilly, sacrificing others to one’s ambition, climbing to the top of the heap while stepping on others’ bodies. Authentic self-interest, as Aristotle points out, is actualizing one’s HUMAN nature, which means gaining values only by means that are human, that is, by exercising one’s own agency, not grabbing values from others, the whole point of the Tenth Commandment against covetousness. That means that it’s not in one’s human interest to act like a predator or a parasite vis-a-vis other people, whether as a mugger in a dark alley or a member of a voting majority electing politicians who promise to act like a mugger in a dark alley on a national scale by deploying the coercive power of the state as an expedient means of extorting wealth from the producers of society to be redistributed as largesse to the parasites, of course, in the name of compassion for “the poor.”

Except the compassion-mongers on the Left haven’t a clue about authentic compassion, which is a free gift of the Spirit and eschews coercion. Indeed, if charity is a moral virtue, and moral virtue can only be achieved by a free will, by definition of morality, if coerced virtue is an oxymoron, then the “compassionate” service of distributing largesse to “the poor” by means of the coercive power of the state through one or another redistribution-of-wealth scheme can’t possibly be morally virtuous. So much for the Left’s social programs. Leftists are the most unChristian people on earth, all the while portraying themselves as the heirs of Christ because they’re all about “helping” the poor. Yeah, right.

Wrapping up, a human’s authentic interest amounts to actualizing his human mode of cognition, his free-agency, all values gained only by means of its exercise, never gaining values by the means used by a predator or a parasite or a “progressive,” that is, by initiating the use of physical force against one’s victims. Love is our automatic psychological response to another who embodies what it is to be an actualized human, a rational, independent, autonomous agent who gains all his values by the exercise of his own agency and doesn’t act like a predator or a parasite or a “progressive.”

It’s in one’s rational self-interest to love others. They are the reward for our efforts to actualize that which is the human in us, the companionship of others who share our viewpoint, our sense of life. It is a great value to have other in our lives who reflect our values. We only “see” ourselves by being reflected in the mirror of others’ love for us. What I’m trying to say is that we are invisible to ourselves without others’ love.

But it does the heart no good to be around others who do not share our values, who do not see things the way we do in important matters. Get away from them. As the Bible says, “Separate yourself from your enemies.” In other words, keep your mental distance from and be on guard against another who has proven to be your enemy or your potential enemy at work, at church, in the neighborhood, in business, in politics, wherever you find them. We all are able to decipher who that is in our lives. Physical separation from your enemy is the best solution. But if it’s a co-worker and you can’t get away from them physically, you can distance yourself from them mentally, never making the mistake of letting your guard down. The voice of experience.

Egoistical and egotistical are not tantamount. It’s an important distinction. The former refers merely to first focusing on becoming a person of value, that is, developing one’s human or species nature. The latter refers to over-compensating for feelings of inadequacy in some way by lording it over others. Egotistical people are invariably over-compensating for self-hatred at some level. This highlights what’s behind Jesus’ admonition to love ourselves first [egoism]. Then when we have achieved that, to love our neighbors.

Noel,
Good to hear from you. You do make sense and you raise interesting questions that need to be examined. I believe – perhaps I am wrong – that very few humans are called by God to complete solitude. Of course to some extent “we are who we are when no one is looking.” Are we different people in different settings and with different people – of course we are, but as competitors or coworkers? Hopefully more the latter. That love is frightening or perhaps the better word from the Greek is awesome is what binds us. For me, you and many others, it is God who is the generator of that love. Even when no one is there to greet us (your prodigal son reference) we are still greeted by our Creator and our Savior. In that sense we are never alone.
Andriy