Is Selfishness Wrong?
July 17, 2007
No doubt, many of you will read this and be in total disgreement right from the top. However, please step away from your original reaction and see if what I say makes sense.
It occurred to me that perhaps selfishness is the ultimate show of affection. How can I make such a bold statement? Well, here goes:
Humanity is selfish. We are all selfish to one degree or another. Some of us are selfish because we just want things for ourselves and we don’t care who we have to hurt in order to get them. This is NOT the form of selfishness that I believe can be virtuous.
Instead, we all act from a self-interest. Whether or not you choose to have children, whom you will marry, what sort of career you want to pursue, to what religion (if any) you subscribe, are all life altering decisions that we make with a self-interest. Some may say, I decided to marry the person I married because I’m in love with him or her. This may be true, but it was in your self-interest to marry the person you love. If you have a religion, it is because you agree with the tenants of that religion, and it is in your self-interest to align yourself with those tenants.
The ultimate show of love for someone is to lay down your life for them. This would seem the most unselfish act of all. However, because of my love for that person, it is better for me to lose my life than to think about the object of my affection losing their’s.
In reality, everybody is selfish in some way. The virtuous selfishness is not “looking out for number 1,” instead, it is making the conscious decision to accept a consequence because we would be happier paying it than watching those we love paying it.
Selfishness- Something to think about.
July 17, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Hi,
I think selfishness does not exist until it is ones interests become excessively exclusive to the point where it harms others. That is what makes it wrong, in my opinion. May God bless you.
July 18, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Thanks for the comment Hakim.
Overall, I like your definition of selfishness. Perhaps it would have been better for me to draw a more apparent line between selfishness and self-interest.
November 1, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I have an idea for a new sort of biblical (and other religious text) hermeneutic: namely, identifying and extracting all of the passages that could involve the tinge of the writer’s or the religion’s self-interest. What sort of text would emerge? If you are interested, pls see my post at http://deligentia.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/self-interest-in-religion-and-the-related-conflicts-of-interest/