The destructive nature of humanity can destroy the destructive nature of humanity.

In my head when I am doing therapy with somebody, their drives, values, and ethics become polished and aligned with the forces in their lives outside of themselves and internally. Like a glimmering jewel (at least, to me, the psychology nerd), their ethics and their interests align so that when force strikes it at any angle, they can work through problems in a way that can be said to be a combination of drives, ideas, and basic sensory stimulation, in a more ideal way. In my more indulgent moments, I think of myself as a metaphysical diamond polisher of sorts, a polisher of spirit, making crystals that are strong, purposeful, and grant a value to the person I have-- polished.

This is why I write about Psychological Egoism and dialectics, it is the philosophical school which allows me to be a high grade drive and ideal polisher for another person. There is one hard kernel that I have not addressed yet at the center of this diamond, which is the irrational tendency of game making in the form of reflexive qualitative measurement. This can come out in humorous ways, such as trying to walk faster than other people on the sidewalk for instance, or it can come out in world-war ways, where someone wants to win for their country not because of ideological reasons primarily, but because of this kernel at the center of Psychological Egoism, which is Absolute Competition.

One of the final consequences of Absolute Psychological Egoism, or Dialectical Egoism, is Absolute Competition which removes from its original context the moral proposition, and aligns it in a game. This reflexive game is the person versus the other. Because the other is not just an actual other but a transcendental, perceived other simultaneously, this can have the consequence of people being in competition which does not ideally polish the diamond of their morals and drives. As a professional metaphysical ideal and drive diamond polisher for the other and you, a reader of this essay and a fan of philosophy or psychology or just someone who has some free time to kill, we must address this.  This is to say, in order to better understand self-interest, we must analyze this core irrational tendency towards competition generation which does not ideally channel drive and ideals.  

Kant broke apart the good and self-interest, and it is our task to bring these two star-crossed lovers back together.

Humans, utilizing values and ideas, attempt to get ahead of one another, when in a competitive framework, via any means available. Humans will qualitatively rate themselves via standards which put them ahead of others reflexively. Ethics play a role in guiding conduct in a way which is determined as good, despite the reality of Absolute Psychological egoism.

Because all values are lacking the clean perfection of their immediate abstract character via the blight of their intrinsic self-interestedness, ethics are created which channel the forces of ideas . When Absolute Competition is taken into account, the ideology must still register as good. This is the challenge of the ideological diamond that must be polished. Here we may come out of abstraction and into the day-to-dayness of everyday ethics:

Some basic examples of everyday ethics: Racism is bad. Homophobia is bad. Sexism is bad. Racist homophobic sexism is bad. Capitalism, despite whatever dynamic properties it has to create new technology, is bad because it is exploitative and creates class society.

It doesn’t matter that someone says these things out of self-interest, because they are ethical propositions which allow one to channel forces both inside of themselves and make judgments in the world which create a society which closely relates to Kant’s categorical imperative: if everyone in the world took on these ideas, would the world be better?

Creating judgments which of good and bad which are immune to their own properties of self-interest via their idealist-soundness, which is to say their compatibility with not only personal psychology,  not only interpersonal relationships, but with individual countries and politics, allows for one to lead an ethical life which is not one of simple discontent, where drives are aligned against ethical systems, but in a way which destructive drives turn into the creative destruction of actually existing ethics.

The destructive nature of humanity can be used to destroy the destructive nature of humanity.