If the Good Lord's Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise...

I'll start this discussion with four scenarios as examples.

#1: A ragged begger was on the corner at a street where you turn left to go home. He had a sign that read,"Hungry,-need money for food." Being a sharing type person, you pulled close to him, rolled down the window and gave him a dollar. It wasn't much but maybe it would help.

#2:A ragged beggar was on the corner at a street where you turn left to go home. He had a sign that read,"Hungry,-need money for food." You contemplated giving him a dollar but, just as you turned the corner, he dropped a cigarette onto the ground and mashed it out with his shoe sole. Immediately you decided not to give this man a dollar because, if he were actually hungry, he should quit smoking cigarettes and use the money he spent on smokes to buy food. You passed him by.

#3: Your brother is dying and needs a kidney transplant. You immediately volunteer your own kidney to save his life. The Doctor tells you it could compromise your own health by giving up one of your kidneys but you still agree to donate your kidney.

#4: Your brother is dying and needs a kidney transplant. You immediately volunteer your own kidney to save his life. The Doctor tells you it could compromise your own health by giving up one of your kidneys. You think about it and, after weighing the benefit against your risk, decide not to donate your kidney. There is a chance he can get a kidney from someone else.

Here you have four situations. In two of the scenarios you perform a generous and selfless deed but in the other two scenarios you decide against what would be generous and selfless deeds. What was the difference in the situations? Why did you make different decisions?

First, let's inspect the scenarios.

In scenario number one when you gave a dollar to a needy man, it made the needy man feel good and it made you feel good.

In scenario number two, when you decided not to give the man money, it made the beggar feel bad but it made you feel good because you thought the man didn't need food enough to sacrifice his addiction for it.

In scenario number three, your brother feels good because you are giving him your kidney and you feel good.

In scenario number four, your brother feels bad but you, even though you do not help him, feel good because you are not afraid of being compromised with only one kidney.
In two scenarios, the other party felt good but in two scenarios, the other person felt bad, but(and that's the key word) you felt good in all four scenarios.

That is the complete assessment of the four scenarios. You could use a thousand more scenarios and investigate each of them thoroughly but it would be a waste of time and effort.

The fact is, there are only two things about which to consider to reach a logical conclusion concerning why you did what you did. What are differences in all of the conclusions of the scenarios?

In scenario number one, the beggar felt good and you felt good.

In scenario number two, the beggar felt bad and you felt good.

In scenario number three, your brother felt good and you felt good.

In scenario number four, your brother felt bad and you felt good.

The single thing that should be considered is, someone else felt bad some of the times, but you felt good all the times.

Consider:

Sister Teresa spent many years caring for needy children. She lived in terrible conditions sometimes and every day sacrificed her own well being for the sake of the children. She did it because it made her feel good.

Adolf Hitler was responsible for the slaughter of millions of people by causing World War II. He did it because it made him feel good.

People give gifts to other people because it makes them feel good to see those people happy.

People do bad things to other people because they don't like those people and it makes them feel good to do those bad things.

People do good things for people because it makes them feel good.

Actually, people do anything they do for only one reason; because it makes them feel good.

Sometimes you do very unpleasant things but you do them because it somehow makes you feel good about something.

A man might commit suicide because he thinks it will make him feel good compared to how he feels now.

That's pretty simplistic, you say. Maybe so but the 'Kiss' formula applies here as it should everywhere; Keep It Simple, Stupid."

I could go on and on all day with more and different examples but that would be redundant. I have said all there is worth saying about the subject,"Why Do I Do It?".

Think about it and use any reasoning you wish but if you're completely honest, you'll always come back to this logical conclusion;

Why do I do it? - Because it makes me feel good."