Are You Being Selfish Enough? Thinking About Thinking by Balaji Prasad “Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.” - Jane Austen She stood, glowering down at him, and grimaced, “How can you be so selfish, and think only of yourself!?” The boy shuffled his feet, looked away sheepishly, and couldn’t find any words that would be appropriate to the situation. Clearly, selfishness is not considered a virtue. When you are part of a society, a group, or an organization, you are just one among many. If everyone thinks only of themselves and compromises everyone else, it would be a difficult existence for all, practically speaking, setting aside the broader philosophical issues of morality and such. The one or the many? Many questions create dichotomies that make it difficult to deal with the underlying reality in a meaningful manner. So, too, in this case: It is not the one or the many. There’s a power in an “and”, that it’s wise to understand: that the thing in your hand, is not the thing that was canned, by the words that were planned, for some ostrich in the sand. There are times that call for a greater attention to yourself, and there are times when it is more appropriate to attend to the “greater good”. Putting an “or” between these things creates the illusion that one must be given up completely to get the other. Sometimes, and quite non-intuitively, a focus on yourself can make you more valuable to others; the obvious example is when you are told, during an continued on page 74
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January 2022
