eassy on selfishness
Answers
Explanation:
another word for it is greedyness
Answer:
Selfishness means acting in one's rational self-interest. Contrary to popular opinion, all healthy individuals are selfish. Choosing to pursue the career of your choice is selfish. Choosing to have children—or not to have children—is selfish. Insisting on freedom and individual rights, rather than living under a dictatorship, is selfish. Indeed, even ordinary behaviors such as breathing, eating and avoiding an oncoming car when crossing the street are selfish acts. Without selfishness, none o f us would survive the day—much less a lifetime.
Selfishness does not mean self-destructive behavior. In other words, a car…show more content…
Or, consider the envious individual who tries to get you to feel guilty for your hard-earned success. "You are lucky to have done so well," the envious person says. "Now you have a duty to share some of your success with others." Ce rtainly, a selfish person wants to share his success with those he genuinely cares about—his family, friends, or children (greater values). But why should he make sacrifices to individuals he does not know or care about (lesser values)?
Selfish individuals give to charity—if and when they choose. A selfish person is not "stingy." He simply values the use of his own judgment in making decisions about how to spend his money, and when to give it away.
Most of us assume that some selfishness is healthy, but "too much" selfishness will lead to loneliness and despair. This idea rests on an incorrect definition of selfishness. Selfishness means acting in one's rational self-interest. By " rational" I mean that one can logically prove that an action is in one's self-interest—in the long run as well as the short run. The world isplagued with poverty, disease, drugs, crime and ignorance. Yet, the mostdestructive is selfishness. People think, work and make decisions based only onwhat they want.
People live as if the effects of their decisions are notimportant. All that's important is one's success, comfort and pleasure. If thatmeans destroying others, too bad. What's worse is that most look the other waybecause they want self-gain, too.
Corporations are notorious for this.Success is what matters. If you walk into a board meeting, you will see thatpeople are not the decision-makers: money, potential profit, stocks, sales andeven evaluations of each employee rule. Every day there are layoffs, foreclosuresand even evictions in the name of profit and personal gain.
The public isguilty of selfishness, too. When we vote, buy or make decisions, we are notthinking of global warming, future generations, or the homeless, rather we're only thinking of ourselves. There is not one person completely free of this sin.People need to focus their decisions on the good of the whole group, not just family, a few friends, or a select group.
The world could accomplish somuch if countries, groups and even families weren't pitted against eachother.