Greed
There is something to be said for selfishness.
I plan on going over this in more detail, but I’ll start off by saying that most people who are widely considered to be selfish are merely short sighted. Those who are truly selfish and self serving are the generous ones.
Let me rewind a bit and explain my somewhat counterintuitive position:
First off you must understand that to be self serving and selfish is not a bad thing in the least. We are programmed culturally, genetically, and in every way that matters to serve ourselves. After all there is a very good reason for this, as I tell people often without me, the world as I know it would not exist and that is absolutely the worst thing that could happen.
Self preservation is a noble endeavor. It’s largely the reason I am still alive today. The other reason being apathy. Nevertheless preserving oneself at the expense of others is not the same thing as being selfish. That is simply greedy.
Airplanes instruct you to make sure your mask is securely fastened before you attend to others. This is so that you can help others who cannot help themselves, after all you are no use to them if you are dead.
Aesthetics believe that true enlightenment is found through denying self. I’m not sure if I disagree, but I do know that those who do not contribute to society are a burden to it. While I applaud their efforts in making themselves lighter and thinner and thus much less of a burden, they still must be carried or they will die. In biology we call this a parasite.
On the other hand a symbiotic species is one that developed to serve itself and aid another at the same time. A symbiotic species (a biologist can feel free to correct me) as I understand it is one that is intertwined with another species for the survival of the other. Without one, a vital component is missing, and both species die. In such a case self preservation not only furthers yourself, but in the end contributes to another’s survival. This to me seems quite a noble goal.
Mutualists are very similar to symbiotic species in that the both rely in a level of interaction. In fact upon doing a bit of research I find that symbiosis is the broad category for parisitism, mutualism, and commensalism.
Parasitism described above is where one thing gains a benefit from the harm of another. This is a bad thing, although it does create a certain balance. Commensalism is where one thing gains a benefit and the other is unaffected. For example one thing feeding off the scraps of another. This is somewhat rare in real life as almost any sort of interaction is either beneficial or harmful in some subtle way.
However what I am striving for is mutualism. A mutual benefit between two things is ultimately good as both things benefit while neither is harmed. Think about this objectively for a moment.
The only reason anyone really ever does anything is if it has some perceived benefit. Be honest with yourself and ask when was the last time you truly did something that had no real benefit for you whatsoever, then ask yourself if it was worth it.
If you think about there only being a finite amount of happiness in the world then parasitism and competition make sense. After all in order for your happiness to increase, the happiness of someone else must decrease. This however is not only patently false it’s also insanity. Happiness isn’t a finite resource, it’s something that can be infinitely gained and lost. There is no balancing force.
So, one is left with a choice. If your increased happiness doesn’t require the decrease of another’s happiness, you can either increase your happiness at the expense of others, possibly decreasing the worlds happiness as a whole, or you can increase your happiness *with* others and make the whole world a better place.
The reason you would want to do the second is simple. If there is more happiness in the world, it is much easier to gain happiness for yourself. Since it’s not a finite resource you can, with management have unlimited happiness. If you harvest all the happiness from those around you, soon you will find yourself without any available happiness. In the long term, this is stupid.
Instead, and this is the truely selfish part… if you want to make yourself happy in the easiest and most efficient way in the long term… you should work toward making others happy.
This doesn’t mean that you should lower your own happiness to do so. No one is asking you to do that, nor should they. Instead consider the long term benefits involved. By performing actions that might result in less personal happiness, but more overall happiness, you raise the overall happiness of your environment. This also gives your environment incentive to raise your happiness spontaneously. Think about it. Free happiness. You don’t get that by being mean to those around you.
So. What I’m saying is, if you want to be utterly selfish and looking toward your own personal gain. Simple be nice and charitable to those around you. Not the parasites mind you, cut them off ruthlessly but if someone or something may have a future benefit to you, then help them out. Once they are in a position to do the same to you, you have both mutually benefitted. Once those who only drain happiness in the long term have been eliminated, the society as a whole will be a much happier place.
Selfishness is ultimately good for society. Short-sightedness is not.
While I still read everyone's LJ I come across, my blog has been moved to http://www.gunnerrpg.com/blog this entry can be found at http://www.gunnerrpg.com/blog/?p=1142