Selfishness: Virtue or Vice

Why is it that we are taught to look down upon selfish pursuits, Is it so bad to want things for purely selfish reasons. Should we still pretend that the world as we know it now would have been better without people who think about themselves. Every medium through which we learn is always about the hero who sacrifices things closest to his heart for the common good of the many. When we apply reverse psychology to the very same situation aren’t the many guilty of being selfish, in a more evil sort of way in that they allow a fellow being to suffer in order to redeem themselves.

Having established the above, Let us organize our thoughts towards a selfless society. If there are no selfish pursuits for an individual, at what level or to what extent do you think that his work would be inspired. Are the concepts Career growth, Family, Job satisfaction then considered to be Selfish. There can be no society that can be completely selfless, exception would be an Orwellian society.

This concept is put forth in a concise and entertaining way in Ayn Rand’s work. Atlas Shrugged is the story of America ruled by minions of selfless society, the outcome has more to it than the imagination of one author. Rand quotes capitalism as the cure o all evils, I would not say I back that, rather the perfect society is one with capitalism and socialism co-exist.

Selfishness as virtue or vice is solely dependant on the issues to which it is applied to. Wanting to improve your lifestyle while your neighbor suffers is not a vice, rather refusing to help him when you can is. The intent of any writer of such content is not to have his readers follow or accept ideas blindly but to initiate a thread of introspection however small. Only leave comments if I was able to do that to you.

So should you be worrying about being selfish, I guess not.