This is how I think

I’m looking out at the massive flock of redpolls on our two birdfeeders.  Occasionally pine siskins, a woodpecker, a few bluejays, a few pine grosbeaks, a squirrel and the odd raven and magpie join in. Sometimes there are other birds I cannot name. At -36C, the activity in our otherwise dead still back yard is impressive.

“Everyone acts in self-interest,” a friend said to me a while back. “It’s what motivates everyone.”  He said it with certainty. Like it was a fundamental truth of the universe. Fundamental like gravity. So fundamental you would be a fool not to recognize it.

If self-interest is the prime human motivator, what inspires my husband to feed these little creatures every winter? Is it just because he likes looking at birds? Or is it something more?

All around me I see people donating their time and money to help others. They shovel their neighbours' walks. They help the homeless. They take in stray dogs. They raise money for charities. They sit on committees. They promote the arts and lobby to protect the environment. They perform a myriad of tiny anonymous tasks to make people's lives better.

During and after the Slave Lake fires, hundreds of people helped one another. They helped each other get out of town. They warned their neighbours to get out, adding precious minutes to their own escape. They let others into the line of escaping cars even though it might put themselves in danger. Some filled their cars with total strangers instead of their own possessions. They took people in, fed them with their own food, shared their own homes, donated their own money, time and possessions- all without thought of compensation or return on investment.

Escaping the Slave Lake fires.

I guess people like my friend might say people do these things because their actions make them feel better about themselves. Their behaviour might give them a sense of community and shared purpose and belonging. But is that the same as self-interest? Well. It just isn't.

Is human motivation universal? Is it instinctive? Do we all act for the same reasons?

I say we don’t.

And we don’t because we do not all have the same values. We were not all raised the same way. We do not all have the same experiences or beliefs. We might all be held to earth by the force of gravity but our actions on this planet are not all motivated by the same influences and morals.  

Apart from a basic instinct for survival and perhaps -some might say - procreation, are we all motivated primarily by the desire to make ourselves rich and self-satisfied?  There is clearly such a thing as selflessness that motivates many people.

So I think my friend is wrong.

Self-interest may be what motivates some people, but you are a fool to think it is what motivates everyone.