This is egoism in action, remaking your world the way you want it.
The video illustrates pellucidly why the idea of agape as self-sacrifice is incorrect. The love expressed this way is entirely egoistic: I am rearranging the universe to more closely reflect my values. This is the way I want things to be.
I love the way it shows things changing over time, too. That’s good art. This is the comedic form at its finest, redemption as new ideas are cultivated through time.
Fine print: Stipulating that what you’re doing is actually good and that you’re not betraying your own interests in someone else’s behalf, this kind of thing can be a self-loving expression of benevolence. I think the video dances that line perfectly: I’m doing the right thing by particular people (and animals) I know and trust to do the right thing in their turn. Fully-conscious benevolence is potentially an everybody-wins transaction. Dial back either consciousness or benevolence, not so much. As with everything else, it’s the motive of the actor that matters. But I really love the idea of each one of us husbanding a better world for himself. Big things are made of little things over time.
I think it’s a great film, a perfect philosophical short. Anti-egoists might see what the protagonist is doing as charity, while anti-anti-egoists might call it a self-sacrifice, but all I see is his own self-interested desire to make his home a better place.
Voluntary. Self-initiated. Persistent even in the face of personal doubts and public scorn. And yet he is rewarded over time by the relationships he is cultivating.
This is Egoism In One Lesson in three minutes. Wonderful.
