[The Hierophant]

So many good semaritans online these days eh? Good to hear that you guys hold doing kind works in such high regard.

An interesting thing to consider though is how much of this kind intent is really intended more for our own satisfaction, for our own alleviation of guilt and sense of moral superiority, than for a genuinely altruistic purpose? Are we kind to shopkeepers and workers because their happiness is of paramount importance to us? Or is it because we want to feel that we have made a difference in their lives, because we want to feel the sense of satisfaction that comes from doing supposedly selfless deeds?

What is more important in this instance then, what drives us harder? The happiness of others, or our own moral gratification? If no one were to know of our 'kind' deeds, if we ourselves were to never feel the euphoria of knowing that we and we alone put that smile on that person's face, would we still possess any inclination to kindness? How much of our compassion is tainted by a subtle selfishness? How much of our 'love' for one another is conditioned by little more than self-righteous pragmatism?

These are questions that burn my mind day by day. All I've ever wanted is to be a good man, but in my lust for moral purity I have given myself to the very sin of self-service that I sought to reject. True peace, true love, shall arise from an extinction of the self. There shall no longer be people doing good acts, there will merely be good acts, flowing through the bodies of people.

Need is dire want, want is the forge of sin.