The Truth About Selflessness

This post is in response to Fanny's post about selfishness (http://bricenof.blogspot.com/2008/04/selfishness-its-pretty-great.html). I am not particularly religious. In fact, despite my desire to have faith in a higher power, my reason always wins out, leaving me with an absurdist worldview like the one prescribed by Albert Camus. Being solely concerned with how one ought to live in this life, then, my main interest in religion lies in its moral implications and teachings. I believe that Fanny provides' insufficient proof to her statement that an self-interested action is good for all humanity, and I politely disagree with her philosophy. When deciding how to act, she asks herself "Why should I care about other people?What have they done for me?" It seems to me that there is an obvious contradiction in this way of thinking. How can it be that one can view other people in a way that ignores their well-being, and yet this way of thinking "helps humanity"? If it is in my self-interest to lie/cheat/steal, this is fundamentally opposed to the well-being of others and hinders rather than helps humanity, or so it seems to me. If everyone took on the same philosophy as Fanny, and asked themselves "why should I care about other people," the general state of affairs would amount to social anarchy. If everyone were to employ an arrogant disposition, this would clearly create a flawed scenario; everyone would believe that they were more important than everyone else, which is irrational, and which would dramatically warp people's morals. When deciding how to act in a situation, I too ask myself several questions, such as "how will my actions affect others?" These 'others' are people who have as much right to a just treatment as myself, the type of treatment I certainly desire for myself. I certainly desire that nobody will lie to me, cheat me out of something that i have earned, or steal something that I own. Beyond that, I certainly desire that others will help me, for no benefit of their own, when I am in need of it. If these desires about the way other people treat me are certain, then it is equally certain that it is my duty to respond with a similar treatment of others. It may not be in my self-interest to act with others in mind (though I personally find there to be benefits of conscience and emotional state in such action), but it is in my self-interest for others to act in such a way. Therefore, it is my belief that it is in everyone's individual self-interest for everyone to act morally, justly, and sympathetically.