Selfishness is the Key to Happiness Accordirng to Harry Browne

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.

Selfishness is the key to happiness, according to Browne. Most of the population believes that putting others before oneself is key to happiness. Browne calls this the “unselfishness trap”. People are told and led to believe that they must sacrifice their own happiness for others, to be “good” and be “truly happy”. In his example, Browne sees happiness as a ball, and when a person holds the ball in their hand, they get to be happy. If everyone is selfless, then everyone would pass the ball off to the next person, believing that it is the best thing to do. The ball would keep going around and around because everyone is willing to give up their own happiness. In the end, everybody loses. Nobody gets to be happy. “How it would be a better world if everyone acted this way”. Happiness comes in different shapes and sizes. What makes him happy doesn’t necessarily make her happy. Because I may not know what makes you happy, me simply being selfless to you doesn’t have to make you happy. Browne says that we are all stuck in the “unselfis...

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...om distinct points of view with distinctive ideas. Browne states that a selfish life is a life to more happiness, whereas Nagel objects and claims that a direct concern for others should be the basis of our morality. Browne believes that if everyone sacrificed their happiness for another person, no one would be happy. Nagel critiques Browne’s theory by saying that people are not permitted to do anything they want for happiness because there are many actions that are resentful. Selfishness has earned a negative sense of being because it is often association with ruthless people. In reality, selfishness is a term that has been twisted into an unrelated negative function. People cannot critique another person for having concern about their own being because it is in human nature to do so. Selfishness cannot be seen as right or wrong, it merely describes self-interest.