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Alright, I'm going to attempt to answer your question from a different approach. First off, I'd like to say that I believe that you can do good for the sake of good, without any selfish modifyers involved.
Alright, take a look at the situation, can people really be good? Well, can the really be bad? Does anybody really do things that they think are truely bad? Would anybody keep on doing those things if it made them a bad person? That's just one side, but all it really affirms is that nobody is really a BAD person, which is something I truely believe. I'm more towards believing people do the wrong things for the right reasons, which can be much more horrifying (Hitler).
But take an instant of kindness. Appologizing for something that wasn't a big deal, picking up a pencil for somebody who didn't ask, without thinking about it, and forgetting about it soon afterwards. Have you ever done something for someone and forgotten what they looked like, or even why you did it in the first place? I know I have. I've gone long out of my way for people without expecting a damned thing. I don't do it because it makes me feel better, either. Sometimes, I could go out on a favor for someone and get very irritated while doing it, because it took away from things I really needed to do. In the end, I still finnished helping someone out, and it really made their day.
I don't see what's wrong with feeling good about something like that. I don't do the action to feel good in the first place, it just seems to be the natural reaction I get afterwards. I don't do it for the feeling, the feeling comes from the action. The other person smiles, or I realize that I did something that made them happy, and that's what makes me happy. If making other people smile at my own expense is selfish, then what on earth could be selfless?
My last defense I'm going to put out for human goodness is one I believe I got from somewhere else. I can't remember where it was, so there aren't going to be quotes or paraphrasing or credits to whomever made it, but I wish I could. Anyway, take a child standing on the middle of the street, and a person (completely unrelated to the child) saw a car coming for the child. As a first reaction, he jumped in the way of the car, successfully saving the child, but got hit by a car in the process. Ever hear of stories like that? Or about stories of men who jumped on grenades in time of war to save their comrades? Those people who do those things and lived usually said the same things, "I didn't think about it, it was almost like a reflex." If human instinct can think up of something that selfless, I think humans aren't as bad as people make them out to be.
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