Enough

So I was watching this half an hour show on tv called 'Business In The New Millenium' and they were interviewing this guy called Charles Handy. He's an author and broadcaster although he called himself a social philosopher. There's some few interesting things that he said. First is the concept of proper selfishness. When I heard that, I was mind-boogled. How can there be a proper selfishness. Selfish is selfish. His explanation was that first we must be selfish. We need to take care of ourselves first. We build our lives so that we reach that level when we have enough (I know, I know. We'll never have enough but I'll get to that shortly). After that then we go beyond bettering ourselves. We work for others and help others. That's where the term 'proper' kicks in. Because, he said, that it is useless to follow the old saying 'Love Thy neighbours like you love yourself' when you aren't that good yourself. It isn't that good for your neighbour as well. It's far better if you have the means first. But it is essential that the goal itself is not to simply enrich yourself. Because, again, that'll be unattainable. He likened it to a company. A company struggle, adapt with the market and all. What for ? To survive the economy. And then what ? to keep struggling, adapting and surviving the economy ? That's kinda stupid isn't it ? Yes, of course they have to make profit but when there's enough, there's so many other things that can be done. You don't eat just to able to eat again. You eat so that you can do many things.

About this 'enough' idea, he told a story about one conversation that he had with a reporter.

Reporter : How many lectures do you give in one year ?
CH : Five.
Reporter : Five ? But you can give more. You can give fifty, a hundres. I even know someone who can gives two hundred.
CH: But why would I want to do that ?
Reporter : Well, you can get a lot of money.
CH : But I have enough already. Why would I want more ?
Reporter : Well...(after thinking) You could collect things.
CH : But I don't want to collect things. (and he laughed)
(And that's what people do with excess money, they collect things.)

Wouldn't it be nice if people know when enough is enough. But, no. People to get more and more money or getting higher and higher position. They know the 'selfish' part but forget about the 'proper' part.

It'll be imposible to write all he said even only from a thirty minutes show into this post. Look it up if you're interested. I just think he said interesting things.

Too much of anything is not good