Michael Jordan proclaimed, “To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve.” Selfishness is the quality of lacking consideration for others, and being concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure. In a life-or-death circumstance, one must be selfish in order to survive. Merriam-Webster defines survival as the state of continuing to live in spite of difficult conditions. Selfishness abets those in survival situations because they can focus on their own needs. As Darwin’s theory states, only the strongest survive. Those who are weak and are concerned with others’ safety, in spite of their own, pay the ultimate price. People who survive disasters often put others in jeopardy to secure their personal safety, …show more content…
Resources such as food, water, energy, spices and space become limited in distinct scenarios. These resources are essential in the survival of the human population; therefore, people must conserve them in order to survive. By being selfish, people will be more successful in retaining resources, as well as acquiring more. In the novel Alas, Babylon, after the disaster struck, Randy was shocked to see Pete’s supermarket was barren. Pete said, "We'd sold out of just about everything by closing time yesterday. When I tried to close up they wouldn't leave. They wouldn't pay, neither. They started hollerin' and laughin' and grabbin'. (Alas Babylon 155). People in Fort Repose needed to get supplies. Since the whole economic system fell apart, citizens had to resort to violence to attain supplies. Instead of splitting the remaining resources evenly among residents, selfish people decided to keep assets for themselves. In order to make sure they survived themselves, people didn’t share supplies with others. Being selfish meant that people could keep more supplies, which would abet their survival. Similarly, after Dan Gunn was attacked by the highwaymen, he retold the chain of events to Randy. Dan said, “I’m sorry Randy. I was careless. I shouldn’t have stopped. I’ve lost our transport, our medicines and my tools,” (Frank 252). The highwaymen were selfish in their endeavor to survive. They stole resources from Dan Gunn because they were in desperate need of supplies. There aren’t enough resources for everyone during the disaster, so the highwaymen became selfish and decided to steal resources for themselves. It helped them survive in the meantime, but eventually led to their downfall. Survival requires selfishness because people will always keep limited resources to themselves. When certain supplies are needed, people will use such supplies on their own, instead of giving them away to
“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” written by Flannery O'Connor tells a story of a dysfunctional family on a roadtrip to Florida to illustrate the theme of self-awareness. The main protagonist in this story is the self-centered Grandmother whose lack of self-awareness is the reason why her family, including herself, are murdered by The Misfit (the Floridian convict). Throughout the story, the Grandmother considers herself as a good woman; however, it is through dialogue that reveals her true self. In reality, she is selfish, manipulative, inconsiderate, and dishonest. No matter how much she attempts to manipulate others into thinking she is full of integrity and a good example to follow, her actions contradict everything she wants people to believe.
One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is not a book about a superhuman. It is not a story about someone who is weaker and more desperate than everyone else. It is not a tale of greatness, nor is it about extraordinary faults. Instead, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn chose to center his story around Ivan denisovich Shukhov, an average, unnoticeable Russian prisoner.
Selfishness is a common trait in the world, it’s not a hidden factor, but very well-known as being one’s self-interest. The story “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff, discusses how each character in the story deals with different kinds of selfish ways. One character, Tub, deals with eating problems and lies about it. Frank deals with a secret life that he is hiding from his wife. Kenny is always comparing something to his liking and if he does not like it then he will complain. Self-absorption is when someone is focused on their self and only themselves. It is known to be a regular’s human’s condition, it’s something majority of human beings have. Selfishness may also kick in during survival incidents. For example, a boy and his friends
We have studied the two major theories that answer the question, “who should I be?”. These theories are egoism and altruism. In this paper, I will argue that the correct moral theory lies in-between the theories of egoism and altruism.
Tragedy strikes at every hour of the day, no matter where in the world a person lives. The true test of a person’s humanity is how they handle the tragedy. All over the country, people are hit with life-changing catastrophes and feel hopeless. Taking their feelings out on others around them who are just trying to help, their pain translates into the bad traits of humanity such as selfishness, conceitedness, and unreliability. Others, though, work through their struggles and show the world how strong they can really be.
Altruism regards the individual life as something one may be required to sacrifice for the sake of
Survival is selfish in many ways in the book, “Night” by Elie Wiesel. It’s selfish by the Jews forgetting their friends and family members around them, and only thinking about themselves. In the book
My second evidence to support this claim is when Elie wiesel said “I had but one thought not to have my number taken down and not to show my left arm” (Collections (310). In this quote he was only thinking about himself in order to survive, so in order to survive he needed to be a little selfish and think about what he needs to do to survive the selection. My last claim to support how survival is selfish when Elie wiesel was running he was using all his strength and power and didn't care about how anybody else was doing in order to survive. He said “I felt as though I had been running for years” (Collections(310). Elie wiesel is using all his strength and power in order for him to survive his not doing it for anybody else.
With the development of modern society, many people say that the society has become miserable, and people only care their own profit. The self-interest is becoming the object of attacking. Thereupon, when we mention self- interest, people always mix up the concept of self-interest with selfishness. As we all known, the idea of selfishness is, “Abusing others, exploiting others, using others for their own advantage – doing something to others.” (Hospers, 59) Selfish people have no ethics, morals and standards when they do anything. At the same time, what is self – interest? Self- interest can be defined as egoism, which means a person is, “looking out for your own welfare.” (Hospers, 39) The welfare people talk about is nothing more than
Selfishness is a disease of the soul that every person experiences several times throughout their life. To say that it has never been experienced would be hypocrisy. To say that it is a “good thing”, would be erroneous. Although as humans we like to lie to ourselves, it is no question that selfishness can make any person act like a fool. It consumes us and makes us into someone we are not. Whether it leads to getting people killed, falling in love, or buying alcohol, selfishness always leads to destruction.
The theme of selfishness is central to An Inspector Calls. Priestley questions the morality of the Birling and Croft
People perpetrate seemingly selfless acts almost daily. You see it all over the news; the man who saved that woman from a burning building, the mother who sacrificed herself to protect her children from the bomb blast. But how benevolent are these actions? Are these so-called “heroes” really sacrificing themselves to help others? Until recently, it was the common belief that altruism, or selfless and unconditional kindness, was limited primarily to the human race. However, within the last century, the works of several scientists, most prominently George Price, have provided substantial evidence concluding that altruism is nothing more than a survival technique, one that can be calculated with a simple equation.
This paper shows that altruism is a very complex issue and much more information could be introduced, following this would allow a greater look at the complexity of other views such as the religious or the philosophical side. Garrett Hardin’s ‘lifeboat ethics’ is a perfect example and proof of this paper, showing that we would rather let others gets killed instead of trying to help a
Psychological egoism, a descriptive claim about human nature, states that humans by nature are motivated only by self-interest. To act in one's self-interest is to act mainly for one's own good and loving what is one's own (i.e. ego, body, family, house, belongings in general). It means to give one's own interests higher priority then others'. "It (psychological egoism) claims that we cannot do other than act from self-interest motivation, so that altruism-the theory that we can and should sometimes act in favor of others' interests-is simply invalid because it's impossible" (Pojman 85). According to psychological egoists, any act no matter how altruistic it might seem, is actually motivated by some selfish desire of the agent (i.e., desire for reward, avoidance of guilt, personal happiness).
Selfishness is a term fairly notorious for its meaning. A lot of people accept that being selfish is wrong, but no one knows how this came about and why it matters. Who has the right to decide whether someone gets to be selfish or not? In his article “The unselfishness Trap”, Harry Browne says that the best way for people to be happy is when if everyone sacrifices but me. Thomas Nagel, on the other hand, argues in his article “The Objective Basis of Morality” that being concerned about others is more important. Being selfish, for many people, is evil. By definition, selfishness is to be more concerned about yourself than others, but that would essentially make every living human being a “selfish” being.