It is obvious why the morality of altruism is a tribal phenomenon.
Prehistorical men were physically unable to survive without clinging to a tribe
for leadership and protection against other tribes. The cause of altruism’s
perpetuation into civilized eras is not physical, but psycho-epistemological:
the men of self-arrested, perceptual mentality are unable to survive without
tribal leadership and “protection” against reality. The doctrine of
self-sacrifice does not offend them: they have no sense of self or of personal
value-they do not know what it is that they are asked to sacrifice—they have
no firsthand inkling of such things as intellectual integrity, love of truth,
personally chosen values, or a passionate dedication to an idea. When they
hear injunctions against “selfishness,” they believe that what they must
renounce is the brute, mindless whim-worship of a tribal lone wolf. But their
leaders—the theoreticians of altruism—know better. Immanuel Kant knew it;
John Dewey knew it; B. F. Skinner knows it; John Rawls knows it. Observe that
it is not the mindless brute, but reason, intelligence, ability, merit,
self-confidence, self-esteem that they are out to destroy.