[Ansteorra] Re: New Question 11/20

[Marc Carlson]

>From: Burke McCrory <bmccrory at oktax.state.ok.us>
>Following in Lorraine's footsteps I would like to pose a question to
> >everyone.
>When is a selfless act a chivalrous act?
>When is a chivalrous act a selfless act?
>Are all self-less acts chivalrous? vis-versa?

Based strictly on what I was taught with regards to being a "Gentleman":
1.  A selfless act may be a chivalrous act when it serves a chivalric
purpose, such as helping those in need.

2. Of course to be truly 'selfless', no one must know you did it.  You get
nothing from it, no credit.  Ideally you shouldn't even get a good feeling
or ego boost from it, as you are just doing it because it's the only
appropriate thing to do.  [As an extreme example, we might agree that going
out and teasing and tormenting homeless people is inappropriate.  Most of
us, however, don't get an ego boost from NOT doing it since it would never
occur to us that it was even an option.  Ideally -all- good deeds should be
performed with the failure to even accept that there were any other
options.]   Of course, as my grandmother used to tell me, an ideal is
something to work towards.  If you never actually attain it, working towards
it is its own reward.

3.  By no means are all selfless acts chivalric, and certainly very few
chivalric acts are selfless.  Doing good and being SEEN to do good are
different things -- so Chivalric stuff done out of non-selfless reasons.
But the opposite of selfless is selfish.

Marc/Diarmaid

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