I can remember one time when I attempted to perform an altruistic act for a lady online. I was most puzzled by her extreme suspicion and disbelief that I was not trying to get away with something. It was one of the oddest experiences. It wasn’t even something big. No money would have changed hands, I wouldn’t have gotten her name or location, nothing. I decided later on that she was a Randian and that the whole concept of someone doing something solely out of the kindness of his heart was mind shattering for her… (Maybe I’m reading too much into it but her behavior/reaction was just too odd not to comment on it, if only many years down the line.)
Altruism is a tough subject because no matter how much I might deny myself there will always be some small core of my being that has a warm fuzzy feeling when I’ve done something nice for someone else. So in the strictest sense of the word, no there is no such thing as altruism (among the merely human that is.) However to pretend that people never do things just to be nice is to err to far on the other side of the coin.
That said there is much to be said in favor of enlightened self-interest.
