What can help people to do good?

Question from the Internet:

“Do people need a philosophy like universalism or humanism to do good?”

No philosophy or great speeches, not even inspiring books or movies, can help people to “do good.” At this stage, we do not even know what “doing good” means and what standards or scales we would need to use to define “good vs. evil.”

What we need to identify and humbly accept, first of all, is that we are all inevitably locked into an inherently egocentric and subjective consciousness and perception of reality. All our “good vs. evil” measurements are based on what is “good or bad” for us, according to our 100% self-serving and self-justifying “pleasure/pain” calculations and expectations.

We have countless philosophies and theories speaking about “doing good,” and all our religions reportedly are based on loving others and doing good. We have myriads of books and movies, poetry and songs, each singing, lamenting about love and compassion; we even cry and fully agree when we read, see or hear them.

So what good did these things do to us and the world in general? How did human history turn out with its endless conflicts and wars, and destruction? How do we fare today, stumbling from one crisis to another while basically succumbing to the fact that the next world war is inevitable?

What we actually need is a practical method that can help us humbly recognize that it is our own inherent human nature that makes us do “bad things.” Unless we recognize and accept that by default, there is nothing “good” in us — meaning that we are incapable of true love, compassion, and selfless service towards others, and we are incapable of building Nature-like mutual integration — and developing a great, irrepressible and intolerable need to change and further develop ourselves, we will inevitably self-destruct either in this or in the next generation.

Suppose at least a small and critical minority of people develop this need and willingly and consciously start a special method that can harness and channel Nature’s all-permeating developing forces to precisely guide and tune our future Human development. In that case, we can avoid the seemingly inevitable terrible blows and suffering waiting around the corner and start building a very different humanity based on completely new values and aspirations.