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Monday, 8 June 2015

We Are All Shellfish, Sea What I Did There?

Are we all selfish?
Really though, why does anybody do somebody else a favour? (Good grief this is already making me sound like a horrible individual). Is it because of some moral gratification? Is it because we think we'll be divinely rewarded? (Whatever that may mean?) Is it because we have been taught to do so?
When doing somebody a favour, it usually also entails slightly inconveniencing yourself, so really why do we do so in the first place? Most of us have been raised in a way where we were taught that lending a helping hand is the right thing to do. Thus, from infancy we have had this idea embedded in our brains that helping out is simply what's expected. If this was not the case would people be as willing to help out? One can only imagine.
I think a large part of it has to do with the concept of knowing that helping somebody out when they are in trouble or could simply use an extra set of hands is progressive for everybody involved. The idea that by lending a hand or leg we are bringing a greater number of people to a slightly (or bigger) level of comfort and well being. But are we doing it for the right reasons? Is there a right and wrong reason to begin with? Does the extent to how much we help out make a difference at all?
Many have argued that our actions are driven by our selfish  nature. The argument claims that when an individual does a favour for somebody else he/she does so only to be justified by a good, warm, fuzzy feeling of "doing the right thing". That would already counter the idea of doing somebody a favour, because the intentions of doing so are arguably misconstrued.
"Are we all selfish", is really not a question I believe I can answer. Take it how you want, but I find the idea and examples behind such an argument fascinating. 

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." - Oscar Wilde

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