Hello everyone,
This is FirestormII.

I was just wondering........... is selfishness imbibed in our characters since birth or do we adapt it during the course of our growing lives? Why are we like that? Why do we always think of our benefits and advantages before doing anything. I am not saying that everyone is completely selfish, but it is there in our characters. Why? Are Humans bad or are they the plague to this world? (please understand...... i am not creating this discusion topic to offend anyperson or anyone, it is just something that i noticed and i would like your views about it).
Please take this in a positive manner.........

The Firestorm.

No. You personality and character is structured as you progress through childhood. Your characteristics as a person is effected on how your parents and/or your culture of that generation raised you.

Why does everything need to be seperated into good and evil, born or developed, it's probably a little of both. We're born with an instinct to survive, looking out for ourselves keeps us alive and that is essentially selfishness. How selfish you are has less to do with selfishness itself and more to do with how much you care about others. Some people will readily give just about anything to family but nothing to charity, others will give to charity but only specific kinds of charities, are these people selfish?

*nods at Plunkies*

Good point. I think we have a ton of little selfish moments all the time. We have to. Last soda in the fridge? *yoink!* I'm hungry, there's food . . . *chomp chomp*. Sure someone else might deserve it more or need it more, but I got there first. If you're a nice person, you'll check yourself sometimes and think about others. Can't happen all the time, though, or you'll be a sycophant of the highest caliber.

Regards, Aaron

Plunkies

others will give to charity but only specific kinds of charities, are these people selfish?

Yes, there are people who give millions of dollars in charity and all, but are they really doing it for the people requesting the donation or are they doing it to become known or famous in a good way? When someone makes a donation everyone talks about it; "you know.... that guy gave these many dollars in charity?"
I don't think so, i think their real reson for giving in charity is coming into the limelight or gaining a little fame for themselves.

The Firestorm.

FirestormII

Hello everyone,
This is FirestormII.

I was just wondering........... is selfishness imbibed in our characters since birth or do we adapt it during the course of our growing lives? Why are we like that? Why do we always think of our benefits and advantages before doing anything. I am not saying that everyone is completely selfish, but it is there in our characters. Why? Are Humans bad or are they the plague to this world? (please understand...... i am not creating this discusion topic to offend anyperson or anyone, it is just something that i noticed and i would like your views about it).
Please take this in a positive manner.........

The Firestorm.

My answer: Yes.

I think we are all born that way, with a little selfishness. But the amount depends on how you're raised and where you live, I think it's easier for a rich person to give money than a person who's broke. Also, I think it's because we are humans. It just seems that humans tend to care more about themselves than others, generally. Everybody has to have done something selfish in their lives whether or not it was on purpose.

I guess we can only say we are selfish because we like to be successful,welike to be the first to have good thingss.etc..
i think we are born with it..and its up to us how to control it...

unfateful

Your characteristics as a person is effected on how your parents and/or your culture of that generation raised you.

Does everything that a child learn neccessarily come from the parents & their culture? doesn't a child observe others and learn from it too? All a growing child does is observe it's surroundings like peer group and playmates neighbours and learn from it.

The Firestorm.

FirestormII

others will give to charity but only specific kinds of charities, are these people selfish?

Yes, there are people who give millions of dollars in charity and all, but are they really doing it for the people requesting the donation or are they doing it to become known or famous in a good way? When someone makes a donation everyone talks about it; "you know.... that guy gave these many dollars in charity?"
I don't think so, i think their real reson for giving in charity is coming into the limelight or gaining a little fame for themselves.

The Firestorm.

No. My grandparents donated half their fortune (1.7 million) to the Red Cross and other organizations. Are they famous? No. Did they end up on the news? No. Bill Gates is already famous but he's donating billions to charity and STILL is. Jackie Chan is famous and he's going to donate more than half his fortune when he passes away and he's still donating presently.

*applauds Monwren's spam comment with sarcastic slowness and a dean-pan expression*

Hit us with another one, oh lord of quick paper-gain.

I don't know, Firestorm. I can count on one hand the number of times someone have purportedly given to a charity for exposure. Sally Struthers, Kathie Lee Gifford, and Madonna are the first names that pop into my head. The problem is that a lot of people really don't give to charities for fame. The selfish desire there might be more of a relief of their own personal guilt. They feel like even though they are giving to the poor or starving children or puppies or whatever, they are really making themselves feel better about their own avarice and so forth. So, it fits in that regard. You don't get a whole lot of fame from putting a dollar in Santa's little red kettle in front of the Piggly Wiggly, but you do get to feel like you're not an evil person for spending $9.00 on a six pack of beer.

Regards, Aaron

Hmm.. Selfishness..
Well do you see people that are basically saints as good folk.

In my humble opinion I think that being a little selfish isn't bad.. it's when you start sharing other characteristics related to selfishness that you have a problem..

And lets face it there isn't a human being on earth that isn't a little selfish in his or hers little way :D
How would we ever get along if everyone only thought of everyone else..

FirestormII

Yes, there are people who give millions of dollars in charity and all, but are they really doing it for the people requesting the donation or are they doing it to become known or famous in a good way? When someone makes a donation everyone talks about it; "you know... that guy gave these many dollars in charity?"

I never hear stuff like that..
Anyway I won't criticize people who give out mil of dollars for charity..
If it's for a good cause.. who cares.. maybe he can sleep better at night.. (are they really making that much money back, is that really a good way to make publiscity)

BTW, what would be a honest form of charity :)

Ok......... i agree with most of you and what you have said, but selfishness is imbibed in our character and isn't it bad when it goes to the interest of hurting other's interest in the pursuit of our own interest?
Is this type of selfishness justified??

The Firestorm.

I guess I asked for that last spam post. Should'a just kept me mouth shut. Faizuddin, you better watch your cut-and-pasting on these forums. The mods will bust you with a quickness. If you quote someone, say something about it. If you cut and paste your own stuff (I checked your posts), you are spamming.

Getting back on topic, I think that selfishness isn't bad if it's self preservation like some of us have been saying. If you don't pull over to help someone stranded on the road so that you don't waste gas or miss a TV show, that might be a deeper problem than selfishness.
I think there's a big difference between an ego trip and just being selfish. It's really unavoidable. Are you worried about a specific type of selfishness? What kind of event bothers you in particular?

Regards, Aaron

aaronvps

Are you worried about a specific type of selfishness? What kind of event bothers you in particular?

Hello aaronvps,

Well.... not particularly but in a way, because i have always observed that all my classmates become very friendly with me when they want something out of me. for e.g. when they want to use my collection of game CDs or they want me to finance their movie outings and things like that, once they are through with it they become indifferent with me and this hurts me a lot because whatever i do, i do it for the sake of friendship. But there is no reciprocal feelings from them so i feel very let down in the end.
But i have also observed other people who behave in the same way. Even some newsevents in the daily newspaper reflect this type of behavior in most people. These is observations is what prompted me to start this discussion topic.

Warm regards,
The Firestorm.