On Composting – A Review

At some point in time, probably in college, I wrote about a philosophy of “selfish altruism” (also called Egoistic Altruism), which is a sort of mindset that basically explains that you only do good things because it benefits you. That could mean that you do something because it might lead you to get a reward or have a better reputation, but it also could mean that you do something beneficial for society because it makes you feel good.

I always have had a lot of feelings about “selfish altruists” and kind of fell prey to their argument that all altruism is selfish because doing something good makes you feel good. And that made me sort of combative towards them, I didn’t like that they held this thing over my head that I wasn’t being good to be good, but just that I was “programmed” to be good by having dopamine splashes every time I did something charitable.

This argument is what I call a mind virus. It’s something that gets into your head and infects your thinking. To me, the idea that humanity just does positive things because they are conditioned to is madness! It really limits everyone and well, it’s kind of impossible to disprove.

Don’t fret, I’m going to point out how it’s a stupid ideology and you will not leave this blog infected with a mind virus, well, at least not a bad one.

A lot of people in history, often bad people, have said that everyone’s actions are motivated by an invisible force. In the case of selfish altruists, it’s brain chemistry. For Americans during colonial expansion, it was manifest destiny. For eugenicists, it’s Darwinism.

There’s a general logic to this, or at least, people who believe these things tend to have some sort of logical shell to their argument. E.g., dopamine is part of the reward pathways in your brain, you get dopamine when you do a good deed, QED: you only do good deeds to get dopamine.

Sounds like solid logic, right? Well, you can very easily substitute this belief with the following, which I have on good authority is also irrefutable. There is an intangible and invisible pink elephant that whispers directly to your id, ego, and super ego, it tells you to do something, and you must do it. This intangible and invisible pink elephant is very charitable and only tells you to hold doors open, flip over upturned turtles, and pick up trash in the parking lot. QED: you only do good deeds because of the pink elephant.

Don’t believe me? Well, you can’t see it. You can’t feel it. And it doesn’t work all the time or on everyone. But it is true. See? Insert link to a cherry-picked article that says exactly what I believe.

Does dopamine make you do good things? Maybe! But it also makes me eat ice cream and play video games and sing in the shower. And you know what else gives you dopamine? Watching videos of other people doing good things, looking at a dog, and being in sunlight. So can this whole thing really be so cut and dry?

Mind viruses often FEEL simple. They seem like they are true so we believe them to be true.

Let’s talk science. The human reward pathways is somewhat genetic, but mostly learned. From an early age we are taught to be good. Children’s books and TV shows are almost always teaching lessons on empathy and helping others. It is engrained in us in an early age.

And while that doesn’t necessarily defeat the argument of selfish altruism, it puts a crack in its armor. Because why do we teach kids to be this way? Someone had to start this cycle. But ultimately it reveals that this isn’t a biological function, it’s a social one.

How else can we defeat this mind virus? Easy. Composting.

Composting has recently come to my neighborhood. It was a long-fought battle, but the City caved and bought everyone a green trash can and a little bucket to put all their organic waste in and I hate it. Well, I don’t hate it. I just have an obsessive fear of mold and contamination and the idea of keeping a thin plastic bin full of molding food in my kitchen terrifies me. But do I compost? Yeah, duh.

Composting isn’t easy. There are so many steps to it, and you have to be careful what you do or don’t compost. It also means (for me) that when I want to throw away a banana peel, I have to bend over and open up the cupboard under my sink, rummage around until I find the small bucket and then put the banana in there, close it, reopen it, take the sticker off the banana, and then close it again. Which is a lot faster than just putting my foot on the garbage can’s foot and dumping it.

You also have to take a compost bin out more. And those green cans are a nightmare. Truly. Never have I seen more bugs in one space. It also reeks. And sometimes when I open the can so much stinky garbage moisture comes up it fogs my glasses. Every time it is a sensory overload and I feel disgusting after doing it. Trust me when I say there is no dopamine there.

And yet, I compost.

I find selfish altruists annoying because if I still believed in their mind virus I wouldn’t take the time to compost. I wouldn’t rinse out my coffee cup before recycling it. I wouldn’t try and shop local or avoid buying products with palm oil or vote with my wallet ever because all of that just feels like a chore and I know I’m just a small drop of duck in a big duck pond. But I do it anyway. Why? Because for one it’s easy. And for two, I believe that little things add up.

By suggesting that people only do stuff like this to feel good, you’re diminishing the hard work of so many people. And you’re making it easy to skip doing the “hard” work of doing the right thing when you don’t have to.

And here’s the cool thing and how the mind virus truly loses. I’m not the only one. I see other people taking the same little khaki bins out to the trash. I see my neighbor’s compost piling up with mine. I see people caring for stray cats and picking up litter and planting trees and all the wonderfully uncomplicated stuff that makes a difference and that’s all the dopamine I could ever want or need.

Thanks for reading! I’m going to try and keep weekly blogs coming. But no promises. And no promises they'll always be on Sundays but that's my aim. Consider me unretired from blogging. So unsubscribe now, while you still can.

And also. I really hate mind viruses. I feel like they’re so pervasive and persuasive. The best way to stop them? Media literacy. Look things up. Question things. Get to the root.

And also again. I lied. There was one time when compositing filled me with dopamine. It was last week when Maddie went to go put some strawberry hulls into the compost and she saw that it was full. She “said oh this is full” and then stood up rather excitedly, looked me right in the eyes, and said in her cool calm voice: “we’re saving the world.”

We’re definitely trying to.