Selfishness

 Selfishness, though a word with negative connotations can easily be ascribed as the motive behind all human endeavor. Before moving ahead, lest I be accused of spreading perversion and expose myself to misinterpretation, it is very important to explain what I mean by selfishness here, not to give a holistic definition of the term. If one googles "selfishness" for a quick definition, the following come up:

-concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself; seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure or well being, without regard for others.

Now, this is definitely bad. We, as social animals have to have a regard for others. Altruism or selflessness on the other hand is the principle and practice of concern for the well-being of other humans or animals. It may even border on extreme by abnegating self but won't that tantamount to insulting the best creation of God i.e. human himself.  

The core of the word here is "self" occurring in both Self-ish and Self-less. Humans have been trained since times immemorial (the western education particularly lays emphasis on it when it comes to preaching about morals) to see things from a binary lens-only good or bad, white or black, in or out etc. It seems as if the world is a binary switch waiting to be flipped. In practice, you see degrees to which a person may be evolved and may be sensitive to, in different domains of human endeavor. I may be more sensitive towards some particular pursuit of life than my neighbor, but that does not grant me the privilege of judging him/her. That borders on radicalism. At the same time though, letting everything pass under the garb of liberalism and all that also is not the wont of the gentleman. Life remains beautiful and worthy of living only if it is lived within certain norms. 

Back to the point of selfishness-

If I identify this self as only my body with complete disregard to how my decisions regarding furtherance of its appearance or my indulgence in carnal pleasures does to those around me, then I stand trial at the altar for being selfish.

Now if I increase the scope of my self to include my wife I become a good husband or include my family, keep their well-being close to my heart, put food on the table (may be because it is cheaper than eating out in a restaurant) and pay my bills, I suddenly transform into a family man and may not be so deplorable in the eyes of the law. Remember I am doing all this from a self ish perspective.

- If I don't care for my wife, she will walk away and I will be miserable

- If I don't care for my family, I will have raised brutes and not civil/thinking human beings that will only come to bite me in future.

- If I don't pay my bills/taxes in time, I will be forced not only to pay huge fines (which no-body in the first place wants to pay) but forgo many of my liberties which hitherto I enjoyed without any restriction. Hence the quality of my life will take a hit.

-Again if I am being good to my neighbor, it may not flow from the goodness of my heart but the self ishness of the gesture being reciprocated. 

Now if you align you interests with the greater good of the people of your country, suddenly flowery words like "patriot" make your way whereas it may just be stemming from a self preservation motive of you having to spend less energy if you are flowing with the current rather than against it. Or your chances of success are magnified manifold if one is surrounded by people who understand where you come from rather than by an alien people.

We don't do anything just for its sake. Every action that we do has to have something in it for me in return. We don't water the thorny weeds for the life in them when we are watering the flower or fruit trees. Instead we weed them out because that is beneficial to us.

We like trees not because they are majestic or create a beautiful scenery or this and that. While that also is true, the ultimate thing is that they take in something that we exhale (CO2) and in return give us something that everybody on this planet (unless you are an extra-terrestrial) needs i.e. O2. There can't be a better deal than that.

Now someone may argue that what I am propounding is a utilitarian point of view and not everything in this world is garnered for its utility. And I whole heartedly agree with that. Utility is a basic human instinct and should be catered for first, but after the material utility is taken care of, other forms of utility-may be more abstract, somewhat philosophical will have to be satiated.