September 16, 2014 - Written by: Natasha Hotung

‘A Selfless Good Deed’ – Is There Such a Thing?

In biology we learn that evolution caused the human race to change and develop through continuous cycles of natural selection over successive generations. This then meant that in order to survive we had to compete against each other.

Those who had the better genes, traits and behaviours evolved and soon new species began to form.

I’m no philosopher or scientist, but if there’s one thing we could blame for selfishness in the world, evolution would be it. It’s the most obvious explanation that humans are biologically programmed to put one thing first – themselves. Thanks, Darwin!

This got me thinking: Can a person ever commit a selfless act with the intention to benefit another without reaping the rewards themselves?

Is there such thing as a ‘selfless good deed’ or are we inherently selfish as humans?

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These questions led me to watch a TED Talk on Trevor Deley’s A Selfless Good Deed where he argues that the act of selflessness should be an act in itself, one small step to do something good for somebody else. However most of us struggle with this concept in reality, as we are usually motivated to do a good deed for the payoff we receive in return: What’s in it for me?

Living in a city like London, or any city in fact, with millions of other people can be tough, isolating and unfamiliar. As a result we may recoil, become fiercely independent and hostile towards each other, putting ourselves first and foremost when it comes to our personal relationships, friendships and careers. This can make it increasingly difficult for selfless people to exist and selfless deeds to occur.

A couple of months ago whilst job hunting, a good friend of mine and I were invited to be interviewed for the same job position at a publishing house. Due to our friendship we helped each other improve our CVs and interview technique. When we asked for interview tips from a careers advisor though, all he said was that we had to compete head-on with each other and leave our friendship at the door. He advised ‘it’s a dog eat dog world’.

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If this is true, then is it any surprise we feel the need to behave and act selfishly in our lives?

Consider the little incidents of selfishness that happen in everyday life, such as someone not holding a door open for you or not offering their seat to a pregnant woman. These small acts of selfishness may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but they all contribute to the wider breeding of selfishness over time.

What is the point in being selfless if everyone else is out for themselves? Why should I be the selfless one when we live in a world where ‘me’ will always be more important than ‘we’?

The question is: do we choose to accept this or can we change this?

Last week I had a surreal encounter with two strangers that really changed my perspective on our ability to act selflessly. I met Amy, a nature-lover from the US, and Viktor, a young homeless man from Lithuania, who I discovered locked in conversation outside Holborn station. Viktor had been crying, and I felt drawn to them out of curiosity and concern and ended up joining their circle.

I later learned that Viktor had been made redundant for the second time in the past two years. He had been forced to live out on the streets as he couldn’t afford to stay in a hostel. He was also too afraid to make contact with his family in Lithuania to ask for help for fear of shaming them.

I observed with great admiration as Amy gave him a hug and advised him to call his family to reach out for support. She explained that we are only given one life to live and that it can be tough and unfair, but that we are not alone and should never feel as though we cannot ask for help in times of need.

Amy was one in a million who had stopped to talk to Viktor, with the pure and honest intention to offer her worldly wisdom to a man in need. Most passersby would have neglected him entirely.

It made me realise that the world is an inherently good place with good, selfless people in it. Amy’s selfless act may have been small but it spread joy, love, understanding and, most importantly, hope for Viktor’s future.

So perhaps it requires us to take a small degree of selfishness to be selfless. Live our lives the way we wish, so long as we can gain the self-confidence, self-worth, and life experiences to have the courage to put our trust in others so that we can help them in every little way we can.