The Last Battleground

Is Jack Shepard meant to be an indictment of altruism? That seems to be the direction the writers of LOST are going with him. Unless of course, I'm reading my own wishful thinking into what I'm seeing.

But of course the response to altruism is that people have the right to choose their own form of happiness. The altruist argument against that is Original Sin: even if people do have free will they cannot be allowed to follow it because they will always choose evil. So much for free will.

Which leads us into the circular argument that if people must depend on other people to make their choices for them, how are they to rely on other people who are just as limited by Original Sin?

And this is where mysticism comes in to say, "You don't have to rely on other humans who are just as flawed as you are. You can invent your own fantasy to rely on."

But what if there was no such thing as Original Sin, and human beings are not monsters by definition? What if achieving your own selfish happiness here on Earth did not have to bring pain or suffering to anybody?

What then?

If Mankind is to have a future, if the battle against altruism is to be won, it is the right of individual human beings to choose the form of happiness that they will pursue which must be redeemed.