This author is making an error and misrepresenting Objectivism by equating kindness, good will towards others as altruism. Altruism is self sacrifice or living for the sake of others. To always put others before yourself and to give up something of greater value for something of lesser. For example if your wife who you love dearly gets cancer and a neighbor gets cancer then the proper thing for an altruist to do is to sacrifice his wife and spend all his time and money to save the neighbor.
If you help someone it should not be a sacrifice but a payment that the person has earned by the values and virtues that they represent such as a single mother working three jobs to get by and raise her child. An objectivist would feel compelled to help that mother and it would be selfish. That is the selfishness Ayn Rand was talking about.
Look at the heroes in Atlas Shrugged and ask yourself if all they cared about was profit. Hank Reardon for example risks his life and is prepared to give it to save Francisco D’anconia because he loves him. But it would not be a sacrifice because Francisco was the embodiment of all of his values. He would have given up his life and all the money he had ever made to save him and it would have been profoundly selfish. Values, not money is the root of objectivism.
In the end of the book all of the heroes put their lives on the line to save John Galt because he is a supreme value to them. Had they given their lives for the sake of James Taggert that would have been altruism. If all they were interested in was money they would have made deals with the government and gotten special favors like James Taggert but instead they gave up everything in their strike.
I don’t care if people don’t agree with Ayn Rand’s philosophy but I do care that it is so often misrepresented.
Altruism is not good according to objectivism. It is evil. “A love above and apart from one’s self interest is not only evil it is impossible” and that is what objectivism holds. And to hold that love apart from ones self interest is exactly what altruism demands.
I think the difficulty with this statement comes when you get to the issue of religion. The Bible states, "no greater love has any man shown than that he lay down his life for his friend.....
Romans 5:7 "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
By your definition stated here, the event that the Bible declares the greatest act of love would have to be considered the greatest evil.
Not trying to start an argument, just pointing out why some people would have a problem with Rand's philosophy on altruism.