WEBVTT NOTE How Do You Know For Sure? 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 Human Emotion and Motivation 2 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:11.000 There is only one reason why any human being ever performs any action. 3 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:14.000 It is because he wants to. 4 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:24.000 That is to say, the reason he acts is because there is something he wants to attain or obtain. 5 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:30.840 Man is a creature of desire, of motivation, of wants. 6 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:38.400 He takes action because he doesn't have everything that he wants, and he has to take action in 7 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:40.680 order to get it. 8 00:00:40.680 --> 00:00:49.800 Man, because he is a rational being, doesn't have a built-in pattern of wants. 9 00:00:49.800 --> 00:00:56.240 He has to identify the nature of the world about him, and then select from that world 10 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:02.360 those things which he believes will be compatible to his best interests, and then he acts in 11 00:01:02.360 --> 00:01:04.460 an effort to obtain them. 12 00:01:04.460 --> 00:01:12.260 Man discovers at a very early time that there is what we could call a cause-effect relationship. 13 00:01:12.260 --> 00:01:20.460 He knows that when he initiates a certain cause, that an effect, further down the line, 14 00:01:20.460 --> 00:01:22.720 will be made available to him. 15 00:01:22.720 --> 00:01:30.100 If he has done his intellectual homework correctly, then he has identified the type of result 16 00:01:30.100 --> 00:01:38.660 that he wants, and he initiates the proper cause or causes leading to that effect. 17 00:01:38.660 --> 00:01:45.780 However, if man was not a creature of desire and wants and needs, he probably wouldn't 18 00:01:45.780 --> 00:01:52.060 act at all. He would, I suppose, be very much like a tree. We would just plant our feet 19 00:01:52.060 --> 00:01:58.660 in the soil, raise our arms to the sun and rain, and flourish as a result. But we are 20 00:01:58.660 --> 00:02:04.620 not that type of living organism. The only way that we can survive in this world is by 21 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:10.940 by taking positive cognitive action in an effort to get what we want. 22 00:02:10.940 --> 00:02:13.960 Now this is a very interesting factor here. 23 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:20.440 When we speak in terms of motivation, we're actually speaking in terms of our emotional 24 00:02:20.440 --> 00:02:22.440 makeup. 25 00:02:22.440 --> 00:02:30.440 We view wants and desires as being of an emotional character, something that we have a feeling 26 00:02:30.440 --> 00:02:31.440 toward. 27 00:02:31.440 --> 00:02:37.820 Now when we're talking in terms of ideas themselves, we usually disassociate them from emotion. 28 00:02:37.820 --> 00:02:42.960 We think that they are intellectual, abstract, and that there is no emotion connected with 29 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:44.040 them. 30 00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:49.420 In fact, in the early days when people were first beginning to study the nature of man 31 00:02:49.420 --> 00:02:54.840 and trying to figure out how we worked, they used to think that the thoughts originated 32 00:02:54.840 --> 00:03:00.760 in the brain and that the emotions originated in some other organ of the body, like the 33 00:03:00.760 --> 00:03:08.640 the Heart, perhaps, or the solar plexus, or the spleen, or the wishbone, or whatever it 34 00:03:08.640 --> 00:03:10.440 is we have. 35 00:03:10.440 --> 00:03:20.000 Anyway, now we know that that's not the case, that an idea, however abstract and however 36 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:26.880 intellectual it may be, nonetheless has some element of emotion in it, there is some emotive 37 00:03:26.880 --> 00:03:33.880 of Money, The Theory of Money and Credit of Money and Credit of Money and Credit of Money 38 00:03:56.880 --> 00:04:03.360 and, for example, perform a lobotomy, which virtually, insofar as emotions are concerned, 39 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:06.440 can reduce a person to a mere vegetable. 40 00:04:06.440 --> 00:04:13.360 His wants and desires are simply removed from him, and he doesn't want anything anymore. 41 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:19.760 And this is done by an operation on the brain, not an operation on the liver or the solar 42 00:04:19.760 --> 00:04:21.880 plexus or some such thing. 43 00:04:21.880 --> 00:04:29.840 So we think and we desire from the brain. 44 00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:32.720 Now here is the interesting thing. 45 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:40.240 When we are thinking in terms of ideas themselves, that is the intellectual side, we find that 46 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:44.840 these ideas are tremendously individualistic. 47 00:04:44.840 --> 00:04:54.240 Every human being by his nature selects a little different pattern of statistical data 48 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:56.440 from the world about him. 49 00:04:56.440 --> 00:05:04.400 He chooses certain stimuli that are meaningful to him and he ignores others so that his pattern 50 00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:08.380 of thought is uniquely his own. 51 00:05:08.380 --> 00:05:15.060 But when we start thinking in terms of drives and basic emotional characteristics, all men 52 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:19.900 are surprisingly similar, if not identical. 53 00:05:19.900 --> 00:05:28.380 It follows that in our emotional characteristics, we are very nearly instinctive creatures, 54 00:05:28.380 --> 00:05:37.140 because our emotional drives we apparently inherit, since these drives are much the same 55 00:05:37.140 --> 00:05:45.300 with all human beings irrespective of race, religion, creed, color, or whatever. 56 00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:49.900 But the ideas are very individualistic, but the drives are very similar. 57 00:05:49.900 --> 00:05:59.100 So we could think of man as an emotionally oriented person almost on the basis of an 58 00:05:59.100 --> 00:06:28.940 In the early days, we used to think that all 59 00:06:28.940 --> 00:06:37.660 All men had instincts, of course, and we always used to begin by saying that every man had 60 00:06:37.660 --> 00:06:42.380 a basic instinct for self-preservation. 61 00:06:42.380 --> 00:06:48.340 That's the way we used to begin it, that all men had an instinct for self-preservation. 62 00:06:48.340 --> 00:06:54.300 Actually now we know that that's probably untrue and certainly it isn't the best way 63 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:58.020 to get at what we're trying to get at. 64 00:06:58.020 --> 00:07:03.820 It is certainly true that most of us, if we are normal and healthy, would have a very 65 00:07:03.820 --> 00:07:08.000 strong drive to preserve ourselves. 66 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:13.600 But it wouldn't be an instinct, and it wouldn't be a constant. 67 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:15.660 It would vary depending on other things. 68 00:07:15.660 --> 00:07:20.440 So what I would like to do is use a little different phraseology here. 69 00:07:20.440 --> 00:07:27.980 Rather than say that all men have an instinct of self-preservation, let me say instead that 70 00:07:27.980 --> 00:07:38.620 that every man has a desire to prevent loss. Loss of what? Well, that we don't know. We 71 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:45.380 know that each man here might very well differ from the next man. We only know that whatever 72 00:07:45.380 --> 00:07:53.420 an individual man values at a given time and place, that particular thing that he values, 73 00:07:53.420 --> 00:07:59.940 He will try to prevent the loss of or he will at least seek to minimize the loss of it. 74 00:07:59.940 --> 00:08:08.020 In other words, man will seek to preserve his life when his life is valuable to him. 75 00:08:08.020 --> 00:08:14.840 If it ever becomes such that his life is not valuable to him, then he probably will not 76 00:08:14.840 --> 00:08:18.000 take a great deal of effort to try to preserve it. 77 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:25.120 If his life becomes a burden upon him, he might very well act to do away with it. 78 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:32.800 Indeed, we find this happening all the time, fortunately, not too frequently, but no day 79 00:08:32.800 --> 00:08:38.360 passes in this country, for example, when someone doesn't commit suicide. 80 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:44.320 Now, if we had an instinct of self-preservation, that would be impossible. 81 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:52.000 We would have a basic drive, a basic desire to preserve our lives at whatever cost. This 82 00:08:52.000 --> 00:09:00.040 is manifestly not so. We do usually place a very high value on our lives, but when other 83 00:09:00.040 --> 00:09:10.460 factors intervene, such as old age, sickness, or possibly even a high element of risk related 84 00:09:10.460 --> 00:09:17.340 to something else that we value, we might very well give up our lives in preference 85 00:09:17.340 --> 00:09:24.460 to either some other condition or in favor of another person or thing, as the case may 86 00:09:24.460 --> 00:09:25.460 be. 87 00:09:25.460 --> 00:09:32.180 We know, for example, of many instances in history where men have gone to the scaffold 88 00:09:32.180 --> 00:09:39.300 or to the gallows or to the stake rather than deny a principle or aid in what they construed 89 00:09:39.300 --> 00:09:41.100 to be wrongdoing. 90 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:48.680 Here they readily accepted their own death rather than simply denying something that 91 00:09:48.680 --> 00:09:50.380 they thought was true. 92 00:09:50.380 --> 00:09:55.600 Now here would be a case where a person has a very interesting value structure in which 93 00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:02.900 he would value his own life less than what he took to be an ultimate truth. 94 00:10:02.900 --> 00:10:09.100 We have had the same thing happen with men who have preferred to die rather than betray 95 00:10:09.100 --> 00:10:17.260 or possibly rather than to lose a loved one or possibly to lose a piece of property. 96 00:10:17.260 --> 00:10:24.880 We find men constantly engaged in exchanging their particular views of what is valuable 97 00:10:24.880 --> 00:10:30.740 for something else which they view as valuable, even putting their own lives into the balance 98 00:10:30.740 --> 00:10:33.980 whenever this seems warranted to them. 99 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:40.500 I might even point out that this appears constantly with most of us every day. There are some 100 00:10:40.500 --> 00:10:47.580 men who value their lives in such a context that they never run any risks if they can 101 00:10:47.580 --> 00:10:55.580 possibly avoid it. They live quiet, retiring lives. They take as few chances as possible 102 00:10:55.580 --> 00:11:00.980 and in case of any appearance of danger, their natural tendency would be to run and hide. 103 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:08.260 There are other men who would find that that type of existence would simply place them 104 00:11:08.260 --> 00:11:10.860 in a completely untenable position. 105 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:16.700 They find the only joy of living is taking a chance. 106 00:11:16.700 --> 00:11:21.980 These men sometimes are stunt pilots or they drive racing cars or they do other things 107 00:11:21.980 --> 00:11:28.060 that are risky and filled with adventure because without the spirit of adventure, their lives 108 00:11:28.060 --> 00:11:30.740 would be meaningless to them as they see it. 109 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:37.800 So here you have individuals who value their lives, but they value them differently. 110 00:11:37.800 --> 00:11:45.160 Some men placing far more value on how they live their lives than the mere fact of living, 111 00:11:45.160 --> 00:11:46.720 others less. 112 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:50.100 And this is the nature of man as he values things. 113 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:58.880 The point is that all men, irrespective of their values, will act to prevent loss. 114 00:11:58.880 --> 00:12:04.920 We just don't know what it is that they're going to value at a given time, but we do 115 00:12:04.920 --> 00:12:12.080 know that if they value it, they will seek to prevent the loss of that which they value. 116 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:17.880 If they can't totally prevent the loss, then they will act to minimize that loss. 117 00:12:17.880 --> 00:12:19.960 Now this is a constant. 118 00:12:19.960 --> 00:12:23.700 I know of no exception to this. 119 00:12:23.700 --> 00:12:28.680 Every human being who has ever lived is alive now, or conceivably who could live in the 120 00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:35.880 of the Future, would operate with that drive in him. It is virtually instinctoid. It would 121 00:12:35.880 --> 00:12:44.160 apply to all of our species. We will all act to minimize or prevent loss. Now, there is 122 00:12:44.160 --> 00:12:49.920 a necessary corollary with this, because that is not the only motivational factor that we 123 00:12:49.920 --> 00:12:58.440 have. In addition, all men will act to promote gain. Well, you might very logically say, 124 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:03.960 Well, what's the difference? If a man is acting to prevent a loss, that is a gain. And obviously, 125 00:13:03.960 --> 00:13:09.220 if he's getting a gain, well, that prevents a loss. And, of course, this would be correct. 126 00:13:09.220 --> 00:13:19.000 But there is a precise difference here. The difference relates to a kind of pattern that 127 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:24.960 tends to emerge here. This is not a principle. This is only a probability, but it has been 128 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:36.560 Detected. When men anticipate a loss, their tendency is to try to get in with the group. 129 00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:43.620 When they anticipate a gain, their tendency is to try to get out and be by themselves. 130 00:13:43.620 --> 00:13:48.640 Now that's a very interesting thing. As I say, this is only a probability because I 131 00:13:48.640 --> 00:13:54.840 can find exceptions to this. But as a general rule, this would be the case. In other words, 132 00:13:54.840 --> 00:14:01.520 It is as though you and I, acting as human beings and always having our own best interests 133 00:14:01.520 --> 00:14:06.080 uppermost in our minds, which we really do, however we like to deceive ourselves in this 134 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:13.520 connection, we say in effect, if there's a loss to be had, I'd like all of you people 135 00:14:13.520 --> 00:14:14.520 to share it with me. 136 00:14:14.520 --> 00:14:19.400 Now, if there's a gain, I don't need you, I can have that for myself. 137 00:14:19.400 --> 00:14:23.240 In other words, if there's profit, I'd like it. 138 00:14:23.240 --> 00:14:26.440 If there's a loss, I'd like to divide it. 139 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:28.000 And we act this way. 140 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:34.400 We are constantly engaged in trying to maximize well-being for ourselves. 141 00:14:34.400 --> 00:14:41.360 We are inner-directed, egocentric, and trying to please the most important person in the 142 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:46.200 world to us, me, whoever you are. 143 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:48.220 That is what you are trying to do. 144 00:14:48.220 --> 00:14:51.400 The most important person to you is you. 145 00:14:51.400 --> 00:14:54.920 However, you may think about it. 146 00:14:54.920 --> 00:14:58.680 Let me cover a couple of other desires that we have. 147 00:14:58.680 --> 00:15:00.000 There's a long list of them. 148 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:01.920 I won't go into all of them. 149 00:15:01.920 --> 00:15:09.560 It isn't essential for purposes of this particular course, but let's take another one here. 150 00:15:09.560 --> 00:15:18.860 All human beings by their nature have a drive toward winning approval from others. 151 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:23.660 We all want to be thought well of by others of our kind. 152 00:15:23.660 --> 00:15:28.460 Incidentally, not necessarily by all others of our kind. 153 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:37.320 Sometimes we actually can take pride and pleasure in being disapproved of by people that we 154 00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:39.320 ourselves disapprove of. 155 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:47.680 In other words, we can take a kind of pleasure in being hated by the right people. 156 00:15:47.680 --> 00:15:53.280 We want to be accepted by the people that we accept. 157 00:15:53.280 --> 00:15:58.960 But if the others who we don't accept disapprove of it, well, that's just dandy with us. 158 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:01.500 And this is the way many of us view this. 159 00:16:01.500 --> 00:16:04.980 So we seek approval of others. 160 00:16:04.980 --> 00:16:11.260 Now I've run into some people who don't really like to accept that because they feel that 161 00:16:11.260 --> 00:16:16.560 in themselves they are very rugged individuals, and doubtless they are, and they say, I just 162 00:16:16.560 --> 00:16:19.560 Just don't give a hang what anybody thinks about me. 163 00:16:19.560 --> 00:16:21.760 I don't need the approval of anybody. 164 00:16:21.760 --> 00:16:26.640 I'm my own judge and everybody else can go way back and sit down. 165 00:16:26.640 --> 00:16:33.760 But actually, although they may think this to themselves, what they are probably trying 166 00:16:33.760 --> 00:16:41.320 to do is to please the arch type of rugged individualism that they imagine must exist 167 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:42.440 somewhere. 168 00:16:42.440 --> 00:16:47.740 They're cutting themselves to a predisposed pattern and they would like to measure up 169 00:16:47.740 --> 00:16:48.920 to that. 170 00:16:48.920 --> 00:16:54.480 Somewhere in the world there may be another rugged individualist who is as rugged and 171 00:16:54.480 --> 00:17:00.540 as individualistic as they, and they would like to be as good as he is. 172 00:17:00.540 --> 00:17:03.000 They would equate this with being good. 173 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:09.780 Just to give you another instance of this, we find instances, for example, where we have 174 00:17:09.780 --> 00:17:15.460 A person, this is particularly noteworthy among children, where we have a child, let's 175 00:17:15.460 --> 00:17:20.480 say, who doesn't find that his playmates accept him. 176 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:26.820 This child will very often, in an effort to be approved by at least someone, will invent 177 00:17:26.820 --> 00:17:30.100 a playmate for himself, and then he'll play with that playmate. 178 00:17:30.100 --> 00:17:34.080 This playmate doesn't exist, except in his own mind, but he creates this playmate who 179 00:17:34.080 --> 00:17:38.780 always does approve of him, and then he has conversation with his playmate and they get 180 00:17:38.780 --> 00:17:43.240 along well together because, of course, the planet always understands him. 181 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:46.800 There may be a great deal relating to religion in this area. 182 00:17:46.800 --> 00:17:53.760 We all feel that we want to be approved of by somebody who will understand us in spite 183 00:17:53.760 --> 00:17:59.060 of our faults and will accept us and forgive us our weaknesses and whatever. 184 00:17:59.060 --> 00:18:06.060 So we are constantly seeking approval from somebody who understands us and in spite of 185 00:18:06.060 --> 00:18:13.300 that likes us. Understanding doesn't always mean liking. So this is a very important thing 186 00:18:13.300 --> 00:18:20.140 and everybody has it. We want to be approved of by at least one other, hopefully more than 187 00:18:20.140 --> 00:18:28.940 one, possibly a great many, probably not everybody, but the more we have who will approve of us, 188 00:18:28.940 --> 00:18:38.700 The more satisfied we are, the more we tend to be in balance and emotionally mature because 189 00:18:38.700 --> 00:18:43.980 we feel then that we fit in and that everything is going our way because we have approval 190 00:18:43.980 --> 00:18:45.980 from so many areas. 191 00:18:45.980 --> 00:18:49.020 Actually, if we're in business, this is a very important thing. 192 00:18:49.020 --> 00:18:53.940 Every businessman is essentially very much concerned with the other party. 193 00:18:53.940 --> 00:18:54.980 He has to be. 194 00:18:54.980 --> 00:19:00.080 Although he's in business to make profits, without any question, the only way that he 195 00:19:00.080 --> 00:19:07.580 can make profits is through a process in which he considers what the other fellow wants. 196 00:19:07.580 --> 00:19:13.020 And he's got to win the approval of that other fellow by providing a good or a service 197 00:19:13.020 --> 00:19:18.220 for the other fellow quicker, cheaper, and better than the other fellow can do it for 198 00:19:18.220 --> 00:19:19.220 himself. 199 00:19:19.220 --> 00:19:20.700 Otherwise, he can't succeed in business. 200 00:19:20.700 --> 00:19:25.200 So here's the businessman, and I've talked to lots of them, and they go around telling 201 00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:30.980 me how independent they are and how they are seeking profits, and I sort of chuckle because 202 00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:37.860 I know that every one of them is basically just concentrating for all he's worth in trying 203 00:19:37.860 --> 00:19:44.300 to figure out what somebody else wants so he can give it to him, for a prize, of course. 204 00:19:44.300 --> 00:19:45.300 But that's the idea. 205 00:19:45.300 --> 00:19:49.900 He definitely must concentrate on the other fellow, and he will often tell you what a 206 00:19:49.900 --> 00:20:00.060 There is another type of drive we all have, and this is the drive toward self-approval. 207 00:20:00.060 --> 00:20:06.860 We not only want to win approval from others, but we want very much, in fact we must, it 208 00:20:06.860 --> 00:20:13.060 is absolutely a part of our own mechanism for self-survival, we want to be able to approve 209 00:20:13.060 --> 00:20:16.620 of ourselves, a very important factor. 210 00:20:16.620 --> 00:20:24.420 I might even suggest that, and I think there's a general consensus here, that most psychiatrists 211 00:20:24.420 --> 00:20:32.780 and psychologists would concur that the open doorway into any or almost any kind of mental 212 00:20:32.780 --> 00:20:41.380 imbalance, discounting physical injury to the brain, is caused by a decline in self-esteem, 213 00:20:41.380 --> 00:20:43.260 caused by one reason or another. 214 00:20:43.260 --> 00:20:51.740 It could be caused by the acceptance of a guilt complex or possibly a self-imposed guilt complex. 215 00:20:51.740 --> 00:20:57.020 It can be imposed by the person on himself as a result of disapproval of something he 216 00:20:57.020 --> 00:21:02.700 has done, disapproval of the way he looks, disapproval of something he has said. 217 00:21:02.700 --> 00:21:08.840 All of these things cause us to become sometimes critical of ourselves or even hypercritical. 218 00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:17.800 If we become overly critical of ourselves, if we lose self-esteem to a significant degree, 219 00:21:17.800 --> 00:21:19.820 we can become ill. 220 00:21:19.820 --> 00:21:27.240 It is imperative that we retain our good opinion of ourselves at least to a point. 221 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:33.200 I'm not suggesting that egotism is a vital factor, but egoism may well be. 222 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:38.840 We have to think well of ourselves so we want to be able to approve of ourselves. 223 00:21:38.840 --> 00:21:43.960 One of the best things, of course, in order to win self-approval is to do those things 224 00:21:43.960 --> 00:21:46.600 which we know in advance we would approve. 225 00:21:46.600 --> 00:21:51.760 If we're going to busy ourselves by doing things that we can't approve because it may 226 00:21:51.760 --> 00:21:57.240 be fun and so many things that we would disapprove of would be fun, well then, of course, we 227 00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:01.080 may run the risk of disapproving of ourselves. 228 00:22:01.080 --> 00:22:06.760 And that's, I guess we could call that a bad trip or a bummer. 229 00:22:06.760 --> 00:22:08.520 It's not really the way to do it. 230 00:22:08.520 --> 00:22:17.000 So what we have to do if we're going to be emotionally healthy is to have self-approval, 231 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:22.640 to win the approval of others, at least some others, we are definitely engaged in promoting 232 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:26.600 gain for ourselves and we're certainly engaged in trying to prevent loss. 233 00:22:26.600 --> 00:22:32.320 When we put all these things together, these are four of the basic drives we have. 234 00:22:32.320 --> 00:22:38.820 Now I could go on and tabulate a number of additional drives, but you know in the end 235 00:22:38.820 --> 00:22:42.600 they'd all be added up to one thing. 236 00:22:42.600 --> 00:22:48.900 I can call this an ultimate given with respect to the nature of man. 237 00:22:48.900 --> 00:22:58.540 It is an ultimate given that every human being by his nature is actually a profit seeker. 238 00:22:58.540 --> 00:23:06.780 Now don't jump. I don't mean a profit seeker in terms of dollars. Not necessarily. I see 239 00:23:06.780 --> 00:23:13.220 nothing wrong with dollars and I know many people who seek dollars for themselves. Fine. 240 00:23:13.220 --> 00:23:22.380 But when I use the term profit here, I am talking and thinking in terms of a plus factor, 241 00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:25.940 something that is better than I now have. 242 00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:32.060 In other words, I anticipate a loss, so I will act to prevent the loss. 243 00:23:32.060 --> 00:23:37.580 If I act in such a way that the loss is prevented, that's a plus factor. 244 00:23:37.580 --> 00:23:42.740 Or I anticipate a gain, and I act in such a way that the gain occurs, well that's a 245 00:23:42.740 --> 00:24:03.740 or I anticipate winning the approval of someone that is meaningful to me and I act in such a way that I win that approval, well, that's a plus factor or I act in such a way that I am able to admire myself a little bit for something I've done, something I've said, some accomplishment, that's a plus factor. 246 00:24:03.740 --> 00:24:31.740 In other words, when I say profit, I mean a plus factor, and every human being, by his nature, acts in terms of innumerable plus factors which he erects in his mind and he seeks, through varying behavior, depending upon his analysis of the nature of the world about him, in an effort to satisfy all of these drives that he comes equipped with. 247 00:24:31.740 --> 00:24:42.740 And that's the way we work. Every human being then, whether he likes to think of it this way or not, is actually a prophet-seeker. 248 00:24:42.740 --> 00:24:51.740 Now, let me take up a question that's bound to arise here. What about the question of altruism, charity? 249 00:24:51.740 --> 00:24:59.340 If a person is really a profit seeker, if he's looking after number one, himself, would 250 00:24:59.340 --> 00:25:04.300 it be possible for him to extend charity to another person? 251 00:25:04.300 --> 00:25:07.820 Why, of course, certainly. 252 00:25:07.820 --> 00:25:16.260 A person who would assist another is simply putting that other into his scale of values 253 00:25:16.260 --> 00:25:18.580 as a plus factor. 254 00:25:18.580 --> 00:25:26.140 For example, let's suppose that we have a man here who desires to give $100 to his church. 255 00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:28.260 Why would he do that? 256 00:25:28.260 --> 00:25:33.680 The only reason that he would do this—and I'm excluding any coercion here, I'm assuming 257 00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:40.660 a free choice—the only reason that he would do it would be because, after he does it, 258 00:25:40.660 --> 00:25:46.460 he would feel that he would be better off than he would be if he didn't do it, therefore 259 00:25:46.460 --> 00:25:47.780 he will do it. 260 00:25:47.780 --> 00:25:55.280 Well, how could he possibly feel that way? Doesn't he know that if he gives a hundred dollars to his church, he'll be minus a hundred dollars? 261 00:25:55.280 --> 00:26:02.280 Sure he will. But he will have a plus factor, or he won't do it. 262 00:26:02.280 --> 00:26:10.280 Now, what that plus factor will be, I don't know. It could depend on his point of view relating to many things. 263 00:26:10.280 --> 00:26:17.160 Perhaps, he believes that if he gives $100 to his church, this will help to make life 264 00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:20.400 better for him in the next world. 265 00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:24.720 And then that's a plus factor because he's gaining something in another life. 266 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:31.620 Or possibly he feels that he wants to see the church succeed and he is a part of it 267 00:26:31.620 --> 00:26:35.600 and he believes in it and he wants to contribute towards its success. 268 00:26:35.600 --> 00:26:41.120 and its success is meaningful to him and therefore having it succeed is a plus factor and he 269 00:26:41.120 --> 00:26:42.880 wants to be a part of that. 270 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:49.160 Or possibly he wants to be recognized as a donor to this church. 271 00:26:49.160 --> 00:26:55.040 Possibly he wants to please other people and stand before them as an important figure. 272 00:26:55.040 --> 00:26:57.160 Certainly he wants to please himself. 273 00:26:57.160 --> 00:27:05.120 So when he gives away some money in an act of charity, he is doing it to please himself 274 00:27:05.120 --> 00:27:14.880 Fundamentally, he can't help it. These acts of apparent selfless generosity really aren't so. 275 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:24.000 The apparent selflessness isn't there. There isn't any selflessness. That's impossible unless 276 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:31.200 you really are sick. You are definitely interested in number one, and when you are engaged in 277 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:37.040 and including somebody else in your choices and actions, you are simply engaged in including 278 00:27:37.040 --> 00:27:43.920 them because they have become a plus factor to you or their good opinion has become a 279 00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:45.840 plus factor to you and so on. 280 00:27:45.840 --> 00:27:52.320 So actually you are engaged even in an act of charity of pleasing yourself. 281 00:27:52.320 --> 00:27:59.080 Now the term altruism I think probably means, it can be interpreted many ways, but I think 282 00:27:59.080 --> 00:28:06.080 What it means is that a person actually values another person above himself or another thing 283 00:28:06.080 --> 00:28:08.120 above himself. 284 00:28:08.120 --> 00:28:15.440 And of course, I don't think that that's possible unless you have a case of severe mental derangement 285 00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:17.360 and illness. 286 00:28:17.360 --> 00:28:23.380 Every human being, even when he is most self-effacing, is in essence taking pride in himself for 287 00:28:23.380 --> 00:28:24.380 being self-effacing. 288 00:28:24.380 --> 00:28:31.420 We're all engaged in being egocentric. 289 00:28:31.420 --> 00:28:35.380 Perhaps I can show what I mean by introducing another word here. 290 00:28:35.380 --> 00:28:38.080 The word is sacrifice. 291 00:28:38.080 --> 00:28:42.240 Is it possible for a person to make a sacrifice? 292 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:43.620 Of course. 293 00:28:43.620 --> 00:28:46.780 One can always sacrifice someone. 294 00:28:46.780 --> 00:28:48.820 You sacrifice someone else. 295 00:28:48.820 --> 00:28:52.340 You take a friend and you toss him into the den of lions. 296 00:28:52.340 --> 00:28:53.780 That's a sacrifice. 297 00:28:53.780 --> 00:29:01.100 But supposing instead you decide to walk into the den of lions volitionally, well that isn't 298 00:29:01.100 --> 00:29:07.140 a sacrifice, that's self-fulfillment, assuming no coercion has appeared. 299 00:29:07.140 --> 00:29:13.460 You are simply acting in terms of your highest value as you see it at that time. 300 00:29:13.460 --> 00:29:18.300 That's not self-sacrifice, that's not possible. 301 00:29:18.300 --> 00:29:19.300 Sacrifice? 302 00:29:19.300 --> 00:29:21.860 Yes, you sacrifice someone else. 303 00:29:21.860 --> 00:29:22.860 Self-sacrifice? 304 00:29:22.860 --> 00:29:31.820 No. Altruism, no. These things don't happen. A friend of mine once approached me and said, 305 00:29:31.820 --> 00:29:37.460 I've sacrificed everything to give my girl an education. I said, who held the gun at 306 00:29:37.460 --> 00:29:42.660 your head? She said, no one. I said, well then, it wasn't a case of sacrifice. You were 307 00:29:42.660 --> 00:29:48.780 acting to fulfill your highest value. You would rather give the girl a good education 308 00:29:48.780 --> 00:29:55.100 than not. We'll consider other ideas here at a later time. Thank you.