The older I get, the more and more aware I become of the selfish nature of the people around me. Everyone only seems to care solely about their own interests, and only wants to help others when they can gain something for themselves from it.
I think this care for oneself above others is the cause of most problems between people, society, and humanity, and I want to argue that for every negative character trait that a person can possess, it is brought about by a preoccupation with the self.
For example, a person who compulsively lies does so out of the selfish desire to manipulate other people's perceptions in their favor. Many people tell lies to portray the self or the actions of the self in a false light, but one that would ultimately benefit the liar. The person who is lying does not care about the repercussions that may result from the untrue information or the feelings of the person being deceived; the liar simply cares about him or herself and the benefits that they could receive from their untrue words.
A cheater, too, does so because he or she cares more about the self than the feelings of another or the integrity of the system at hand. One who cheats on a partner prioritizes their own gratification over the emotions of the other person, and one who cheats on an exam does not respect the structural system of the class enough to honor it, giving no regard to the unfairness to other students in cheating, too.
Envy comes from the desire to have something that belongs to someone else. When people are envious, they only want their own needs fulfilled, and do not care if that thing they need belongs to someone else or will come to them at the other person's expense.
People argue with others because they want the satisfaction of being right. They would rather create a problem that would affect not only them and the other person involved but the others around them, too, than sacrifice their pride to cool tensions.
All of these traits and more are the result of one thing: a prioritization of the self above the well-being of another.
From what I have observed in society recently, there seems to be a rise in people saying something along the lines of "Starting right now, I'm going to just focus on me. I've done enough for people who don't do anything back for me."
Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this mindset?
When did doing good things for others turn into a stipulation? Should one only do good things for other people if they are going to get something in return?
And if you are only doing something because you feel entitled to some sort of return, is it even truly good of you to do anymore?
I understand that there needs to be some kind of give and take when it comes to being selfless and a person simply cannot realistically do it all the time. But if every person made an active effort to always try and think of the feelings and needs of others first whenever they could, then they would start to notice their relationships getting better and could become happier with themselves in the long run for making a positive difference in other people's lives.
Helping others is good in and of itself and once people start to understand this, they will get genuine joy from putting others before themselves without expecting a return. In my opinion, if mankind worked to be less selfish, it would eliminate some fatal personality flaws in society and bring people more at peace with themselves.
When did we get so preoccupied with helping ourselves that we have disregarded those worth attention around us? Or those who need our attention around us?
If we can learn to get past this tendency to only care about our own feelings and learn to prioritize others above the self, we can remedy our negative traits at their root and begin to work on being better people, which would contribute to the betterment of society as a whole.
