Everyone, whether they admit it or not, acts in their own best interest to satisfy their needs and desires. No matter how noble the cause, people work for it not for its own sake but because it benefits them. Those peace protesters that congregate in front of the bookstore every Friday are there because it gives them the satisfaction of knowing they're doing something to support their beliefs.
The Taliban oppresses Afghanistan because they like being in control and having power over other people. They don't make their laws to follow the Koran; they justify their laws by "interpreting" the Koran to mean what they want it to mean. The problem isn't that we're all self-interested, the problem is that many people allow themselves to be deceived by their own rationalizations until they become confused and think that their excuses create their desires rather than the other way around.
With due recognition to noted psychologist Abraham Maslow, every human being's needs must be fulfilled in a certain order. No one worries about their self-esteem when they are starving to death or suffocating, and so on. I include desires in my model of human behavior because, as I said, we are not talking here about achieving the basest level of everything but rather looking to satisfy our wants.
The first level of needs and desires are physiological. Everyone needs food, water, air and so on. It's possible to survive on insects and recycled pee, but I refuse to be ashamed for desiring more palatable refreshments. In fact, I will go ahead and be horrifically selfish by saying that not only do I want to have enough food to survive, I want to have foods that I like to eat. If I feel like going to Wendy's every day after school, then I want to be able to do it!
Next we worry about safety. In addition to my Wendy's food, I would like some assurances that I won't be shot on the street or attacked by rabid dogs or poisoned by rancid meat or whatever. More than just the bare minimum level of safety such as not dying today, I desire the luxury of not having to travel in an armed mob to stay safe.
I desire not to be subjected to the whim of a dictator. I support the destruction of the Taliban in part because I know that I will never be completely safe as long as they exist. Until everyone on the planet is safe, I'm not safe - "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
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Third, everybody wants to be loved. I want to be free to spend time with friends, get married, have children and all that. Now, admittedly, there are a lot of people who've also gotten this last part confused. Thanks to TV and movies and merchandising, they've been tricked into thinking that toys or fancy clothes are what will make them happy.
Material things like these don't satisfy our desires. They can entertain us, amuse us, distract us from our woes . but they can never love us.
I also want to feel good about myself, which includes helping others and standing up for my ethics. When I donate to the Red Cross or demand democratic freedoms for all human beings, I'm helping others by fulfilling my need. Just because I'm honest about my desires doesn't mean I don't care about anyone else, it just means that I recognize that my concern for others is not selfless.
And, of course, there is the ultimate goal of striving to attain our full potential. I want to be able to sit down and write a novel if I want to or travel to exotic locales or whatever I feel will make me more complete. I can't do any of that without time, so I desire to have enough time left over from everything else to associate with other people, improve myself, and work toward self-actualization.
There's a common thread running through all of this that most of the college students reading this will appreciate. Being able to fulfill all of my desires is not possible without that little thing we call money. The mistake some people make in criticizing my interest in money is thinking that I see it as an end in itself.
How silly is that? I don't want money just for the fun of stuffing it into a money bin! I want money so that I can use it for other things. Without it, I can't do all the things I want to do. The more money I have, the more options I have and thus, the more freedom I have to pursue my goals.
And that, in a nutshell, is why I'm a capitalist.
by Craig A. Butler
Daily Lobo Columnist
