Do you consider yourself selfish? Altruistic? Somewhere on the continuum between them? Selfish, like pride, is one of those behaviors that we feel should be avoided at all costs. And while I would never try to make a case for selfish, I do believe we need to be aware of what it is and what its effects can cause. And most important – what do we do/say when we are.
Selfish needs to be defined so we all have the same framework. Selfish, for the most part, tends to be solely self enhancing – looking out for oneself to the exclusion of all other considerations. In choosing between self sacrificing and selfish, for the person who is self serving, there is no choice. And we see examples of this behavior every day… some of it our own. But there are also much subtler examples.
One question that needs to be asked: is acting in one’s best interest always selfish? Is there ever a situation that ‘requires’ us to be selfish? An argument can be made that the end result needs to be known in order to determine whether or not the behavior was selfish. If the end result was to the detriment of someone else then a case can be made for selfishness. But…I’m not going to provide an answer, it needs to be answered by each person. Part of the consideration of this topic is for each person to have a clear perception of themselves and their behavior.
Most critical to an understanding of when and how one is selfish, because we all are at some time or other, is… what about the intent of one’s heart? And self preservation, regardless of reality, does impact on one’s behavior. So perhaps the question should be – how do you mitigate against all pervasive selfishness? Simple denial is never, in my opinion, a method of working through selfish behaviors.
