Selfish love

Love is considered the most important among the virtues necessary for humanity.

That is why love has been taught across the ages and in all countries of the world by saints. Love means basically giving something good to others unconditionally.

Let’s leave love for one’s own children out of the discussion because animals also love their cubs to spread their genes. At one end of the love spectrum is a doctor who leaves for an African country to give medical care to the poverty-stricken, leaving behind wealth and fame, and at the other, a person who shows the way to another who is lost.

I have always wondered why people tend to love others at the expense of their own interests, those who are not their flesh and blood. I feel like I’ve found a solution to the problem through two books, namely, “The Origin of Species” and “The Selfish Gene.”

Let’s take the instance of flowers, the most beautiful productions of nature. They are not beautiful for the pleasure of human eyes but they are the results of evolution through geological periods, so that they may be easily noticed by insects. Once they succeed in attracting insects, they give them nectar to be fertilized. Had it not been for insects on the face of the earth, our plants would not have been decked with beautiful flowers.

As a counterexample, let’s see the plants that are fertilized through the agency of the wind, such as fir, nut and ash trees, spinach and nettles. They only produce such poor flowers. “The Origin of Species” says: “A similar line of argument holds good with fruits; that a ripe strawberry or cherry is as pleasing to the eyes as to the palate. However, this beauty serves merely as a guide to birds and beasts, in order that the fruit may be devoured and the matured seeds disseminated.”

The same thing applies to animals.

Darwin says three things again in “The Origin of Species” as follows:

(1) “A great number of animals, as all our gorgeous birds, some fishes, reptiles and mammals and a host of magnificently colored butterflies, have been rendered beautiful for beauty’s sake. But this has been affected through sexual selection, that is, by the more beautiful males having been continually preferred by the females, and not for the delight of man.”

(2) “Natural selection cannot possibly produce any modification in a species exclusively for the good of another species, though throughout nature one species incessantly takes advantage of, and profits from, the structures of others.”

(3) “If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection.”

The same thing applies to humans too.

We can show beauty of kindness to our neighbors or fellow workers without conditions. But if we analyze it in cold blood, we get to know that the more kindness we give to others, the more we receive from them in most cases, as insects pollinate flowers by conveying pollen to the beautiful flowers and giving nectar to them.

From the viewpoint of evolutionism, love has a deep-hidden motive, however pure it may look. Did “Reverence for Life” force Albert Schweitzer to become a doctor and depart for Africa? I think it proper that he went there to search for the meaning of his existence before the holy thought of treating helpless and hopeless patients.

Did patriot Ahn Jung-geun sacrifice himself for Korean independence from Japanese colonial rule? Most probably, in a Korean history of vortex he put forward the meaning of his existence first.

The above two examples are in the realm of meme, not gene, according to Richard Dawkins, the author of “The Selfish Gene.” Meme is not biological but cultural. Memes like Christianity, Islam, fashions, musical styles, etc. make an all-out effort to propagate themselves in as many areas as possible as genes do. Whether they are gene or meme, they are selfish. However, it is quite certain that love is, above all, a win-win strategy for a bountiful life.

The writer teaches at an elementary school outside of Seoul. His email address is heemy123@hanmail.net. <The Korea Times/Shin Chul-ho>

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