The thought that humanity is the most selfish species out of all organisms with a heartbeat is so terrifying that we have progressed to ignore our natural instinct of only thinking for ourselves. This could have been something great. This harrowing feeling manifesting inside all of us prevents any trace of greed. This ignorance, however, over time has made a full circle. Now it is so praised upon in our society today that the slightest hint of self-assurance is immediately shut down and abhorred by our community. We are then met with a dilemma often battled in our subconscious and dictate how we act. If we only praise other people’s actions but detest our own, we’ll be seen as humble by society but in turn we’ll be incapable of self-love. However, …show more content…
With what others consider an obnoxious personality with an equally obnoxious face, I was forced to take up an undesirable job that was desperate for employees in the summer. Not that I can really blame other employers. Their warped view on self-indulgence caused them to have an understandable disgust with me, and my reputation of pessimistic introversion and haughty attitude even furthers the notion that hiring me to serve their customers coffee or shelf books would end up being a mistake. However, with a combination of my desperation to make money and child care being at the bottom of the appealing summer jobs, I am one of the only two people in this town to wear the stiff green polo and ugly khakis of babysitting. Believe me, I would rather be at home eating ice cream and not receive an unnecessary amount of attention for my facial deformity, but unfortunately that would leave me penniless and college would shut their doors on me for …show more content…
I still could not find a definite conclusion as to why she didn’t enjoy spending her time with Charlotte, even as weeks started to pass she was still only seeking my attention. “Why don’t you play with the other kids?” I asked one day. “...I don’t like playing with them.” She paused and took a breath before continuing. “I like being alone. Like you.” The girl finished and smiled. “...Like me.” However many hours I spent thinking about this new phenomenon, it had only recently dawned upon me that the reason why I hadn’t felt the general uncomfort of interacting with humans was because I got a pleasing sense of being wanted, even if it was from a small girl like her. It was enough of a nice feeling that I wake up feeling prepared rather than usual apathy. I quickly destroy these feelings of happiness by reminding myself that this new relationship is less of a friendship but symbiosis, where she gets to feed her natural cravings of attention and I get selfishly joyful feeling of being wanted. “Ma’am, are you friends with the other girl?” She asked me one day. “No.” “Why not?” “I don’t have
Selfishness is a disease of the soul that every person experiences several times throughout their life. To say that it has never been experienced would be hypocrisy. To say that it is a “good thing”, would be erroneous. Although as humans we like to lie to ourselves, it is no question that selfishness can make any person act like a fool. It consumes us and makes us into someone we are not. Whether it leads to getting people killed, falling in love, or buying alcohol, selfishness always leads to destruction.
The CNN Documentary “Homicide in Hollenbeck” described several criminal issues that have affected the Hollenbeck community. The documentary focused on the life of a gang member and recruitment of juveniles within the community. Criminological issues discussed in the documentary includes gang and gun violence, drug sales, homicide and vandalism. Interviews were conducted of personal experiences and opinions on neighborhood issues with members of a notorious gang known as White-Fence gang, police officers and family members who lost their loved ones in the hands of gang violence.
As we see in the daily news, people are often cruel and inhumane, and we also see kinder people in everyday life. We see people who give up their own personal pleasure so they can serve others. But while these people are far and few between, it becomes quickly obvious that humans are drawn towards self-happiness. Bibliography:.. 1. What is the difference between a. and a Leviathan.
...teredness stems from the constant striving for the American Dream of success and especially applies to today, when we see war, embezzlement, and natural disasters all over the news. But the philanthropic acts that lift us up and allow society to survive reverse the selfishness that often presents itself during difficult situations. So while selfishness may be the “greatest curse of the human race,” selflessness is the greatest cure (William E. Gladstone quotes, 2010).
Is human nature inherently selfless or selfish? Although a seemingly simple concept, the aforementioned question has long been a profoundly controversial topic. While many claim that humans are intrinsically compassionate and inclined to help those in need, others argue that people instinctively prioritize their own individual security over other people’s welfares. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s literary works, “Young Goodman Brown” and The Scarlett Letter, as well as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s renowned novel, The Great Gatsby, all reference the idea that people impulsively pursue perfection, as determined by their community’s values. While different communities establish different standards for perfection, society as whole romanticizes the idea of perfection and subsequently people strive to create the illusion of a perfect life. How an individual represents the values idealized by a given community determines his/her reputation in that community. Although people may appear to wholesomely follow the values idolized by their community, in reality, human nature is inherently flawed, making it impossible for people to achieve perfection.
Ayma Dommy Ciccone English 11 16 October 2015 The Power of Selfishness Humans are selfish, all of the actions we perform are done to benefit ourselves in one way or another. Thomas Hobbes and Arthur Miller, the author of ¨The Crucible¨, display the selfishness of humans in their writings. Hobbes says that many acts our society considers selfless are actually done for internal peace, making the selfless act selfish. The excerpt from Hobbes 's writing claims, ¨Even at our best, we are only out for ourselves.
The ideologies of western society emphasize the notion that selfishness is part of human nature. Also, that humans act according to what will benefit themselves and satisfy their own personal needs. However, this way of thinking has detrimental consequences. People, from a young age, are indoctrinated to believe that greed leads to self-preservation. This results in a hostile society where individuals compete with others for resources and wealth. Western society idolizes those who pursue individual success and take responsibility for their personal growth. However, this self-interested behaviour can cause humans to disregard the needs of others in their community. Some intellectuals argue that one cannot be both independent and socially interdependent,
Inwardly examining his own nature, man would prefer to see himself as a virtuously courageous being designed in the image of a divine supernatural force. Not to say that the true nature of man is a complete beast, he does posses, like many other creatures admirable traits. As author Matt Ridley examines the nature of man in his work The Origins of Virtue, both the selfish and altruistic sides of man are explored. Upon making an honest and accurate assessment of his character, it seems evident that man is not such a creature divinely set apart from the trappings of selfishness and immorality. Rather than put man at either extreme it seems more accurate to describe man as a creature whose tendency is to look out for himself first, as a means of survival.
Cooperation played a major role in the development of homo sapiens as the dominant species on earth. Americans do not understand its importance. It is understandable to place an extremely high level of importance upon self reliance in a dog eat dog society, but individualism has become fear and loathing of others. This motivates people to develop ways they can spend less time with each other. The ultimate expression of individualism, driving a car, illustrates the problem of denying “the reality of human interdependence” (30). “Some people can’t afford to heat their homes because we all want to ride expensive vehicles on crowded roads at high speeds, killing one another and polluting the atmosphere” (2). This situation cannot be repaired until we accept the inherent power in cooperation. “The more we try to solve our problems by increasing personal autonomy, the more we find ourselves at the mercy of these mysterious, impersonal, and remote mechanisms that we have ourselves created” (48).
My beliefs are important to me. I wake up every morning with a cup of coffee in my hand and turn on the daily news. I see many problems occurring around the world, but most of us are too blind to actually do something to help. We are too blinded by our society's cultural that we can’t separate ourselves from the good and bad.
Although, ‘modern’ age unsubtly supports swaggering egoistic behavior in the competitive arena such as international politics, commerce, and sport in another ‘traditional’ areas of the prideful selfishness showing off, to considerable extent discourages visible disobedience from the prevalent moral codes. In some cases, the open pro-egoist position, as was, per example, the ‘contextual’ interpretation of selfishness by famous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, can be described as ‘grotesque anomaly’. He, probably through unconscious inner drive, effectively equalized two essentially opposite meanings in the following sentence segment “egoistic or LIFE-AFFIRMING behavior”!? (Helmut Schoeck, Quote from, ‘Der Neid’. Eine Theorie der Gesellschaft or in English, ‘Envy’. A Theory of Social Behavior, 1966, 1st English ed.
Selfishness is a term fairly notorious for its meaning. A lot of people accept that being selfish is wrong, but no one knows how this came about and why it matters. Who has the right to decide whether someone gets to be selfish or not? In his article “The unselfishness Trap”, Harry Browne says that the best way for people to be happy is when if everyone sacrifices but me. Thomas Nagel, on the other hand, argues in his article “The Objective Basis of Morality” that being concerned about others is more important. Being selfish, for many people, is evil. By definition, selfishness is to be more concerned about yourself than others, but that would essentially make every living human being a “selfish” being.
...transcends mere egoism and reveals how the individual itself is constituted by prior patterns of interaction. For Smith, the self is never disembedded or "unencumbered."38 Rather, as he put it, "their approbation necessarily confirms our own self-approbation. Their praise necessarily strengthens our own sense of our own praiseworthiness. In this case, so far is the love of praise-worthiness from being derived altogether from that of praise; that the love of praise seems, at least in a great measure, to be derived from that of praiseworthiness."39 This dialectic between the ego and the other finds expression in sympathy, which provides, by linking self-esteem to social praise, the psychological and social mechanisms undergirding social integration. "Nature," Smith argued, "when she formed man for society, endowed him with an original desire to please, and an original aversion to offend his brethren. She taught him to feel pleasure in their favourable, and pain in their unfavourable regard. She rendered their approbation most flattering and most agreeable to him for its own sake; and their disapprobation most mortifying and most offensive."40
With the development of modern society, many people say that the society has become miserable, and people only care their own profit. The self-interest is becoming the object of attacking. Thereupon, when we mention self- interest, people always mix up the concept of self-interest with selfishness. As we all known, the idea of selfishness is, “Abusing others, exploiting others, using others for their own advantage – doing something to others.” (Hospers, 59) Selfish people have no ethics, morals and standards when they do anything. At the same time, what is self – interest? Self- interest can be defined as egoism, which means a person is, “looking out for your own welfare.” (Hospers, 39) The welfare people talk about is nothing more than
Selfishness, in some instances, can be a virtue. Regardless of the situation, it is essential to our survival. Without the selfishness that comes from survival, we cannot protect those whom we love far more than ourselves. In the texts read in this unit, “Is Survival Selfish” by Lane Wallace, and “Night” by Elie Wiesel the authors discuss their own feelings of “selfishness” in their hard times. Both texts lead me to the conclusion that survival requires some amount of selfishness, selfishness, however, is not always a bad thing.