By Douglas Anele
In every aspect of life- education, employment, healthcare, housing, nutrition, interpersonal relationships, and general well-being – the spirit of selfless service is extremely important. Even simple kindness to a stranger in need is an act of selfless service.

Contemporary human societies are ensnared by life-destroying hardened individualism, craving for material possessions and consumerism, which have dramatically exacerbated the feelings of alienation and anxiety at both personal and social levels.

Until recently, the idea that man is a happiness-desiring and a meaning-seeking being has been neglected by contemporary thinkers while delineating the essential features of homo sapiens.

Victor E. Frankl, founder of logotherapy, the third Viennese school of psychotherapy and one of the pioneer post-World War II scholars to emphasise the centrality of the quest for happiness in human existence, suggests that the striving for meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.

His work, Mankind’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, stresses man’s freedom to transcend suffering and find happiness and meaning in life regardless of difficult existential circumstances.

But the route to happiness is hard and varied, and conceptions about “the meaning of life” differ from person to person because there is no generalised, fixed, meaning of life discoverable a priori either through intuition or revelation.

Therefore, although it is semantically possible to talk about the meaning of life in general, the reality is the specific meaning an individual identifies for himself or herself at any given time.

Bertrand Russell, in The Conquest of Happiness, suggests that a happy person is someone who lives objectively, who has expansive affections and wide interests, whereas unhappiness is a kind of disintegration or lack of integration which results from overconcentration on self.

Sharon Salzberg makes the same point in her book, Loving-Kindness; The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, wherein she proposes that in order for an individual to find lasting happiness, he or she must learn to connect, to open both heart and mind, to love, no matter what is happening.

The best way “to connect”, to love and, thus, the best route to happiness, is through providing selfless service in whatever form either for an individual or for an entire community (or both).

Genuine spiritual teachers all over the world extol the virtue of selfless service on the ground that giving, especially to the poor and needy, without expecting a reward is one of the most exhilarating sources of happiness and spiritual growth. Buddha, Jesus (if he really existed), Gandhi, Pope John Paul II and several others in various ways preached the doctrine of love as the straight and narrow path to salvation and spiritual growth.

The human world is at a critical juncture in its evolution. Never before in history has disconnection between the moral intuitions of the best spiritual and moral teachers and the concrete practice of life in society been almost complete.

In many countries there is increased religiosity without corresponding improvement in moral behaviour. The worst in this regard, as far as one can tell, is the spiritually hollow, hip-hop style, Christianity which originated in the United States and has spread its toxic tentacles worldwide, although Islam also has provided a platform for the grossest manifestation of human cruelty in the form of global terrorism and subjugation of women to men.

This implies that mere acceptance of a set of dogmas without respect for the sanctity of human life and dignity does not guarantee moral life. Selfless service in peace and unity should be the ethical imperative of a new world order.

An individual in peace and unity is a cultivated person who is self_contented in his being, at peace with himself and with others. The existential centre of his being is himself, from where he radiates love outwards to embrace the whole of humanity- ultimately.

Such a person is not interested in primitive accumulation, since he knows that the more he has the less he becomes and the less he has the more he grows spiritually. To him material possessions are instrumental goods which serve human needs. Of course, it is unrealistic to expect selfless service from someone still struggling for bare survival.

It is also very unlikely to find a preponderance of individuals willing to offer selfless service in an inhumane, highly competitive, acquisitive and materialistic society because the spirit of philanthropy will not thrive in such an inclement environment.

For the spirit of genuine philanthropy to blossom throughout the world, people in positions of authority and influence must demonstrate it practically in their activities as examples for others to emulate. In Nigeria presently, there is too much avarice and corruption, and it appears that members of the ruling and business elite, for selfish reasons, are unwilling to eliminate these evils, or at least reduce them significantly.

Moreover, by worshipping material success members of the clergy not only encourage acquisitiveness but also promote cynicism towards morality and spirituality among many well-educated people disillusioned by the spiritual hollowness of contemporary worship.

What all this boils down to is that rarity of role models for selfless service has created a generation of youths lacking in public spiritedness.

Yet people can, through sincere effort and determination, become more contented, kinder and more compassionate to others, based on the realisation that we all need each other to be truly human, as emphasised by the Jewish existentialist philosopher, Martin Buber, in his influential work, I and Thou.

In my view, a meaningful life cannot be achieved without some degree of philanthropy. If every individual understands that all human beings belong to one huge family, as demonstrated by the biological sciences and spiritual systems of thought, and that in the journey of life we must assist one another to succeed, then our hearts and minds will be open to the fresh air of freedom and happiness associated with “doing-for-nothing”.

Concluded.