It is not OK to help someone if it is not in your self-interest

I was not around! Sorry! In any case. We can go on like this forever. You can present what you consider as unambiguous examples and I can go on saying that there is more than one way to look at each particular example. I think that the core of the debate is different. Part of it lies in the way that human action is structured and another part lies in the way that this action is interpreted. I had a friend who was not "fascist" or "extremist" but, it was night and there were some guys following him. He was white. To "secure" himself he joined some people at a bus station who you might call as "Nazi's". If you isolate his move, then it run contrary to what he believed was "the right thing to do". He was totally against this ideology. In the face of danger though, he thought it was his safest option. How are we going to interpret his action? We need to evaluate all the parameters, isolating the action is not sufficient. Arguments from example have limitations. Arguments from example have their limitations as they are open to interpretation. Who are we then to trust as an authority to get a correct characterization of the action? The individual, most likely. Well then, what can each individual tell us about his own actions? He might say " I did action A, even if this was not in my self-interest". Let's see what would happen if everyone acted in the same way. To me it is obvious that it would lead to a society where everyone took care of somebody else, therefore, even if the individual did not take care of himself, someone else would. Unless the individual was unaware of this social conduct and did not practice it mechanically, it would lead to a "positive" expectation towards others. He would assume, and rightly so, that someone else would take care of him. Moreover he would count on it for his own survival. He would expect someone else to "do the right thing and help him out". This assumption though could be rightly claimed to be his "self-interest", even if the means of achieving what he needs always pass through another person. When you do not take your self-interest into account, then you run the risk of becoming a slave. An individual who always helped the others, in a society of self-centered individuals, would end up becoming a slave. He could also become a slave if he believed in a "supreme lord" who is benevolent, or a political party, or anything that instructs him to disregard his own self and unquestionably agree with their decrees. I am leaving morality out of the picture here. If you accept what the other person tells you to accept, then the "content" of your action will always depend on the other person, and no matter what it actually is, you will always consider it as "right" or "ok". In order to rationally judge an action it is necessary to take your self-interest into account. Take a simple choice, the kind of food to eat. A burger or a salad. In order to make a rational choice between them you need a criterion for selecting food. Health or taste can be used as different criteria. If you let others impose their criteria on you, then your choice is not rational, it is forced on you. If you want to make an independent rational choice you have to evaluate both parameters. Then you can decide what is best for you. Now let's assume that you try to rationalize the action only by thinking what is best for others. This seems impossible. If you give priority to your family, then you will chose healthy food because it will make you live longer and be with them more. If you give priority to the manufacturer of burgers, you will chose a burger because he also needs to work and survive...and so on. You must draw a line because different people will demand that you take a different course of action (which involves them rather than someone else). To be self-centered does not mean that your actions are against other people. It means that you rationally chose what course of action to take. Your self-interest might well be to take into account the needs and desires of others around you, but not everyone.