Hedonism bad for society? Do we owe society? Hedonists = low life?

I can't be expected to do anything other than what is best for me.

If I have nothing to do on a Sunday and go volunteer at the hospital, I'm being "selfish". I believe in the ideal that everyone helping everyone else yields the greatest good for all individuals, and I'm contributing to a world where this happens. Now if I decided to quit my job and volunteer full-time, and then I became homeless because I couldn't pay my rent and ended up suffering greatly, far beyond the benefits of my volunteer work I couldn't consider myself selfish and I would be foolish.

Another example: I see an old lady struggling with her bags in the grocery store parking lot. I help her out. I'm being selfish. Then I see another and help her out too, I'm still being selfish. Then there's a third old lady, but this old lady wants me to go with her to her house and carry her bags in for her, but doing this, I would miss my guitar lesson. I couldn't possibly be expected to sacrifice my own well-being to help her, there's a limit where it's not beneficial to my ideal and just stupid.

I don't know why people seem to have such a problem with my first statement. Maybe they want others to sacrifice their own well-being to benefit them but don't want to reciprocate. How selfish.

 

Getting something in return for your help and being selfish are NOT the same thing.

 

Rand calls her ideal philosophy "selfishness". Her usage of selfishness isn't our common definition. I'm using her "selfishness" which is distinct from the common usage of selfishness. A lot of people don't see the difference. If I said that "I can only ever be expected to do what's best for myself", a lot of people would take issue with that. I just wanted to clarify that Rand's selfishness and the normal definition of selfish aren't the same. The common definition of selfishness implies shortsightedness, that the selfish one really doesn't know what's best for them. Their behavior is harmful to others and they have a narrow worldview where the only good is worldly good done to themselves directly, but we know that that is rarely what's best.

 

Hedonism can really only exist in small doses in society, there's far too many laws and social rules to truthfully enjoy yourself.

 

Not if you disregard them.

 

I enjoy myself just fine, and I consider myself a hedonist. but then again I'm easy to please.