05-17-2019, 02:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-17-2019, 02:34 PM by redchartreuse.)
Recent research into altruistic (aka "selfless") behaviors using functional MRI has revealed that much of the difference in observed behaviors of human beings engaged in altruistic actions boils down to the fact that their brains happen to be wired to give them a much stronger jolt of neurotransmitters, like dopamine, in their reward centers when performing these types of actions, than the average person. So, really, what is motivating these people is that they "feel good" on the inside, more so than they are actually creating positive results in the outer world.
While perhaps we might think at least it's "better" to be helping others with these behaviors, the bottom line is that addiction is addiction, and at a biochemical level, there really isn't much difference between the chronic do-gooder and a person who is addicted to cocaine, gambling, or porn, or accumulating "likes" on social media.
Perhaps being addicted to "doing good" is even more insidious and difficult to escape from, since there is so much social praise and admiration which gets heaped upon those who outwardly practice activism or philanthropy, which further reinforces the neural circuitry underlying the addiction.
Whereas for other types of addictive behaviors, there is more of a risk associated in terms of losing social favor, thus driving a person to engage their addiction "in the dark", being a goody-goody allows a person to feed their addiction out in the open, and even garner further rewards for doing so.
Now, of course, a handful of studies doesn't necessarily equate to incontrovertible truth on a topic, however I think if we dive a little deeper into the shadow side of altruism leading to activism leading to martyrdom, we can see pretty quickly that these actors are often times not as really as "selfless" as would appear on the surface.
For one thing- there tends to be this strong air of self-righteousness in that whatever method a person is using to achieve their goal is the "one and only true way" to go about doing things.
Secondly, when challenged to cough up some kind of documentation or evidence that their actions actually DID end up helping people at the receiving end, seemingly altruistic types often become extremely defensive and vitriolic in their response. For example, "Well at least I'm TRYING TO DO SOMETHING, while you are sitting there doing NOTHING but being a naysayer!!"
Ostensibly, somebody who is so concerned about helping others would be at least equally as concerned that their efforts were effective. As seen in the real world, recipients of so-called "humanitarian" efforts often end up in worse off than they were before and yet... so few seem to care about that. The ongoing humanitarian debacle in Puerto Rico following the hurricane is just one example that comes to mind.
Another example would be how certain vegan and animal rights activists believe that Trojan-horsing videos of abominable conditions at factory farms is the way to get people to eat less meat, whereas in reality it has been the efforts of companies creating and marketing tasty vegan products like the "Impossible Burger" which have turned out to have the greatest effect in terms of changing people's behavior.
If we look beyond the surface of the so-called "personality shell" martyrs often exhibit characteristics that are quite selfish.
Since the definition of martyrdom means bringing harm upon oneself while "helping" others, we can often see how that self-harm ripples out into the days, months, and years ahead. And since nobody exists in a vacuum (one would think so-called "selfless" people recognize this more than anybody)... the effect is often that friends and family of the martyr find themselves having to put their own hopes, dreams, and goals aside in order to take care of the now-damaged martyr, assuming they haven't literally killed themselves in the process.
Or at the very least, those whose lives most closely touch that of the martyr, find themselves constantly pulled in to their latest scheme to "help others" thus depriving them of the chance to maybe do something of their own creation.
And then there is this little tip-off to an underlying addiction fueling the behavior: They often just can't seem to stop. Not even to take a brief rest to recharge or attend to self-care, which of course further drives the martyrdom.
Curious to hear some thoughts and perspectives.
While perhaps we might think at least it's "better" to be helping others with these behaviors, the bottom line is that addiction is addiction, and at a biochemical level, there really isn't much difference between the chronic do-gooder and a person who is addicted to cocaine, gambling, or porn, or accumulating "likes" on social media.
Perhaps being addicted to "doing good" is even more insidious and difficult to escape from, since there is so much social praise and admiration which gets heaped upon those who outwardly practice activism or philanthropy, which further reinforces the neural circuitry underlying the addiction.
Whereas for other types of addictive behaviors, there is more of a risk associated in terms of losing social favor, thus driving a person to engage their addiction "in the dark", being a goody-goody allows a person to feed their addiction out in the open, and even garner further rewards for doing so.
Now, of course, a handful of studies doesn't necessarily equate to incontrovertible truth on a topic, however I think if we dive a little deeper into the shadow side of altruism leading to activism leading to martyrdom, we can see pretty quickly that these actors are often times not as really as "selfless" as would appear on the surface.
For one thing- there tends to be this strong air of self-righteousness in that whatever method a person is using to achieve their goal is the "one and only true way" to go about doing things.
Secondly, when challenged to cough up some kind of documentation or evidence that their actions actually DID end up helping people at the receiving end, seemingly altruistic types often become extremely defensive and vitriolic in their response. For example, "Well at least I'm TRYING TO DO SOMETHING, while you are sitting there doing NOTHING but being a naysayer!!"
Ostensibly, somebody who is so concerned about helping others would be at least equally as concerned that their efforts were effective. As seen in the real world, recipients of so-called "humanitarian" efforts often end up in worse off than they were before and yet... so few seem to care about that. The ongoing humanitarian debacle in Puerto Rico following the hurricane is just one example that comes to mind.
Another example would be how certain vegan and animal rights activists believe that Trojan-horsing videos of abominable conditions at factory farms is the way to get people to eat less meat, whereas in reality it has been the efforts of companies creating and marketing tasty vegan products like the "Impossible Burger" which have turned out to have the greatest effect in terms of changing people's behavior.
If we look beyond the surface of the so-called "personality shell" martyrs often exhibit characteristics that are quite selfish.
Since the definition of martyrdom means bringing harm upon oneself while "helping" others, we can often see how that self-harm ripples out into the days, months, and years ahead. And since nobody exists in a vacuum (one would think so-called "selfless" people recognize this more than anybody)... the effect is often that friends and family of the martyr find themselves having to put their own hopes, dreams, and goals aside in order to take care of the now-damaged martyr, assuming they haven't literally killed themselves in the process.
Or at the very least, those whose lives most closely touch that of the martyr, find themselves constantly pulled in to their latest scheme to "help others" thus depriving them of the chance to maybe do something of their own creation.
And then there is this little tip-off to an underlying addiction fueling the behavior: They often just can't seem to stop. Not even to take a brief rest to recharge or attend to self-care, which of course further drives the martyrdom.
Curious to hear some thoughts and perspectives.