Without getting too cheesy: I think the gods have spoken through the apparently "irrational" existence of (sorry for the cheesiness!) love, which I define as th

Without getting too cheesy: I think the gods have spoken through the apparently "irrational" existence of (sorry for the cheesiness!) love, which I define as the the active valuing of other life as more valuable than or at least equal in value to your own. While this is a form of selflessness, I actually think this works in conjunction with the basic belief that human beings are ultimately self-interested, because I believe that to recognize value in others beside yourself and act on that recognition is the most fulfilling and self-satisfying thing a human can do. To me, this weird alignment of the interests of self and other is pretty counterintuitive and only proven through its exercise/practice, but in any case seems pretty magical/mystical/awesome. I think the fact that a good chunk of modern social structure/law/convention is built on the restraint of the self for the benefit of others (which itself translates into net gains for society overall - magic!) is a manifestation of this fact, and also rears its head in Christianity and almost all other religions (though of course like everything in life, the good is mixed in with some fucked up stuff too). I can’t really say I have evidence for this other than personal observation of contemporary experiences, historical analysis and my own mind’s logic, but based on those it seems to me that (1) people who treat other people poorly or indifferently seem to be relatively unhappy/dissatisfied and do not feel self-realized and feel disconnected/alienated from those around them and still yearn for more power, wealth, etc. even in spite of the fact that they have more than most and (2) people who treat others well seem to be happy and self-realized and connected to those around them and seem to be relatively satisfied with relatively less power and wealth, etc. Similarly, societies wherein those in power treat people (relatively) fairly seem to thrive more than societies where those in power treat people unfairly - it seems that this also applies in some way to those who hold the power when comparing relative situations: would you rather be [enter name of random hundred millionaire in America] (who owns only a small portion of American wealth) or Mugabe (who owns/controls half of Zimbabwe)? (cherry-picked that one...haha but still, I don't think it's too off-point) This is of course assuming that being happy, satisfied, connected and self-realized are in fact, things that are good and that people want, but still, it seems to hold true in my mind through my observation and experience - I’d say I started paying attention around 14, and I’m 29 now, so that’s about a 15 year experiment, and it’s been trending pretty steadily in that direction.