Altruism provides no single, objective standard for measuring the good—i. e., for determining which actions are most moral under its code. Consequently, there are really many altruisms, linked by a common negative premise—that the individual is not an end in himself or herself. Altruists may regard the individual as the means to a number of different, often incompatible objectives, giving rise to vehement arguments and sometimes violent strife among competing altruisms:

An undefined "good of society"—subject to a virtually infinite variety of interpretations.
The "good" of a particular race—Aryan purity, the progress of black people as a "whole," or any other race or ethnic group.
The supposed national interest. As we shall show in Section 5, the United States is uniquely associated with a specific set of ideas. The proponents of "patriotic" self-sacrifice, ironically, are essentially oblivious to those ideas and regard the surrender of one's life as inherently noble, regardless of whether or not it serves a worthwhile purpose. Some editorial commentators during the Vietnam War, for instance, simultaneously condemned both American draft evaders and their counterparts who refused to fight for North Vietnam. From this perspective, the ideal of self-sacrifice takes precedence over reason or the rightness of one's cause.