What is selfishness?
In the Merrium Webster dictionary it is defined as,
the quality or state of being selfish: a concern for one's own welfare or advantage at the expense of or in disregard of others: excessive interest in oneself.
We blame others for being selfish. And often we look at ourselves and feel bad about being selfish. But selfishness, is still a mystery, after reading the article you would gather around enough knowledge about to live with it than feeling guilty.
Consider following examples. Imagine you in these situations and think whether you feel guilty feeing of selfishness.
Imagine an airplane advertisement which request you to put on face mask yourself first in case of an emergency before attending to your child.
Imagine a businessman who buy rice harvest from village farmers and stores it until prices goes up and makes a profit out of it.
Imagine your friend who recently broke up with the partner is carrying on his/her activities without any remorse.
Imagine you are in a wrecked ship, it is sinking, you try to save your life racing against others jumping into a boat.
How would you react to those situations? Would you feel that those people in above situations are selfish? How would you react if you were in such a situation? Would you be selfless?
Now, let's go through above scenarios to understand selfishness.
Why does airplane advertisement ask you to put on your mask first, before your loved ones. It cannot be just because you are more important than your child. We might label such an action as selfish, if taken in isolation if not backed by evidence. Obviously, chances of both you and your child making it alive are higher if you first take care of yourself first. It is selfishness, in its mildest form doing good.
What about the businessmen? Surely, he does not care about giving farmers a fair value. He is solely focused on his growth in wealth. However, it is evident that harvest like rice doesn't come in abundance throughout the year. Someone have to store it and distribute when there is no harvest. This will prevent famine and hunger. Really speaking, civilizations may have not progressed in the past, if it is not for storage of food. Does that mean selfishness is essential for future of development?
Selfish acts of individuals have done more to prevent poverty and famine in the civilization than donations - Adam smith.
How about your selfish friend? Would you rather be with a depressed friend who cannot get over with guilt and sadness, or with a friend who is always happy no matter what. Yet you would judge them as heartless and selfish?
The final example is very difficult to explain, only one who have been in such situation, would know what you have done. When it comes to life and death, it is very unpredictable what we would do. I really am not sure whether I would be a saint or a selfish. Yet how can we judge. We can imagine, but that is not the truth. But how can anyone else judge, when they are not in the same situation?
Conclusion
It is absurd to think about everyone to be selfless if we are aiming for a better civilization as selfishness itself is a driving force for survival of individual hence the society.
Thank you for reading "Is being selfish a bad thing?"
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