Historically, this metaphorical designation is the consequence of altruism’s association with the twentieth century communist state: this association is, to say the least, unsound (to say the most, psychotic). However, it is an association that is easily explainable/understandable- on one fateful morning a six-hundred dollar phone became a gleam in the capitalist’s eye, and despite all of his charity, the capitalist began to feel guilty about his materialistic dream.

His guilt grew (or perhaps just agitated some tender nerve) and the capitalist began to question his own virtues and values. However, finding no error in his own principles he naturally assumed that his materialism was inherently social and thus a consequence of his culture. Ever so harsh upon that which he knows and loves, our capitalist began to lecture upon the virtues of the communist system declaring materialism as non-existent in a system where the chief concern is sustenance. In short, the capitalist discerning something he did not like projected the virtue which he desired onto a system (which he did not understand) that was historically opposite his own.

Now with altruism inherently fastened to communism the philosophical gears of brilliant men began to grind. Citing Social Darwinism, these men with the grinding gears argued that communism had collapsed and therefore was vulgar, unrefined, and incompetent. Making the logical connection, they declared altruism, the code of the communist state, to be inept. The great individualistic sense of these men lead them to draw certain conclusions about this evil system: they argued that the necessity of self-sacrifice smothered the individual and his pursuit of himself, they argued that the individual could not both serve the greater good and hold to his own moral values, and finally they argued that moral values in an altruistic system are social.

The singular fault of these men is that they failed to recognize the dualism of society. They were absolute individualists: they had seen how men had forfeited their moral values when intoxicated by the crowd mentality induced by irrational men like Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler. They despised the irrationality of the mob, like any rational person should. However, in remembering only the negative side of society these men produced a philosophy of half-truths. What they forgot is the benevolence of man…his charity, his kindness, and the necessity of collaboration in mankind’s progress.

In short, they crushed their brother because they had seen something frightening in themselves. They rightfully viewed an altruistic society in which the individual is forced to forfeit his individual moral values as a scourge and a threat to the rational way of thinking. What they failed to see though was that an altruistic society in which the individual holds firmly onto his own moral virtues is the greatest society of all.