Why are we so selfish?

[SpaceCadet]

I mean humanity in general, why most of us are only concerned about our well being? especially people who have the power to change things and make this world a better place, but they just don't do it, of course some are definetly evil with their intentions, but others just don't seem to care, is that part of human nature? I'm guilty of that aswell, i'm not a saint by any mean, but damn i wish we as part of the same world could be more empathetic to each other, peoples heart seems to be so cold and uncaring, it kind of forces those who aren't like that to turn into it so they can protect themselves from the hurt.

 

[☆AwaitingEntropy☆]

I agree wholeheartedly. It's so disheartening to see how cruel people can be, turning a blind eye to suffering. The world doesn't have to be like this - where the wealthy prosper without care and the modest and poor suffer under their heels.

But it is. Knowing that so much suffering, and sorrow, and death is completely unnecessary and inflicted by an uncaring societal structure breaks my heart.

It's one of the big reasons I want to ctb. I just wasn't built for a world like this.

 

[Rational man]

Alot of people.dont think its their responsibility to change the world. Its other peoples problem not theirs. But unless we pull.together, things dont change. For example, homelessness. .... People just say get a job without understanding why people have no home.

 

[SpaceCadet]

I agree wholeheartedly. It's so disheartening to see how cruel people can be, turning a blind eye to suffering. The world doesn't have to be like this - where the wealthy prosper without care and the modest and poor suffer under their heels.

But it is. Knowing that so much suffering, and sorrow, and death is completely unnecessary and inflicted by an uncaring societal structure breaks my heart.

It's one of the big reasons I want to ctb. I just wasn't built for a world like this.

I feel you, this world could be such an awesome place, existence comes with pain and pleasure, but if we get together and fight for a better life for everyone, the negatives could be much less

 

[CommitSudoku]

Well to survive our own well being is important. For those of us who don't wish to survive ermmm. We have to look out for ourselves and can't really expect anyone else to do that for us so it makes sense to me. And life is finite and some people come to different decisions on how to live in the time they have. It's impossible to care for everyone and everything, or to fix anything as a single individual. It becomes a burden having such ideals in many cases. Even on this forum we can't reply to every single person and goodness knows we're nearly all suffering and could use company, empathy, acknowledgment, so on. I'm mostly sad for the impact humanity has had on the environment. But then the point we're at now it becomes impossible to get away from. Also I think we're all just too busy or otherwise occupied to do much. Living just one life is hard, taking on and trying to fix a whole species' problems is beyond any impact I could ever hope to have.

 

[GrumpyFrog]

existence comes with pain and pleasure, but if we get together and fight for a better life for everyone, the negatives could be much less

It's a very beautiful idea in theory, but in practice "better life for everyone" is a very elusive concept. It's hard to even think of real world methods of achieving it, much less implement it.
I think the best we as a humanity could do is to stop actively work on making other people's lives worse. That alone could make the world a better place.

 

[Sunset Limited]

Bad is easy. Good is rare. Sometimes a rusty blade is all it takes to start a war, while making peace and maintaining it is difficult and expensive. We are still animals that can think. Maybe one day there will be lasting peace. But I believe this will happen not through a cultural revolution, but through evolution.

 

[Pain In The Ass]

I mean humanity in general, why most of us are only concerned about our well being? especially people who have the power to change things and make this world a better place, but they just don't do it, of course some are definetly evil with their intentions, but others just don't seem to care, is that part of human nature? I'm guilty of that aswell, i'm not a saint by any mean, but damn i wish we as part of the same world could be more empathetic to each other, peoples heart seems to be so cold and uncaring, it kind of forces those who aren't like that to turn into it so they can protect themselves from the hurt.

I suspect that the end-game doesn't require too much empathy towards others you don't know - attaining resources for yourself and your immediate family results in a desire to work towards being skilled enough to attain as many resources as you can, and that skill-set pushes civilization forwards, whether it's in engineering, design, creative arts, or labouring for others - I suspect we are essentially 'tricked' by this 'will to power' within us into pushing civilization forwards through love for our immediate family and a desire for personal achievement or glory, and this end-game doesn't require any more empathy than that for its cause - what the end-game actually is, we can only speculate. Maybe I'm just talking out my arse, but this seems to make things make sense to me!

 

[jimmy7754]

Most of the middle class holds on to everything they've got… if there even is a middle class anymore..

 

[batcountry]

It really is so difficult to hold onto a will to live when constantly reminded of how selfish and apathetic the average person truly is. They really don't see a problem with the state of the world because their lives are fine, so why care or even think about people who weren't as lucky as they are? It's so frustrating trying to reason with them or make them care... So many of them actively look down on anyone not like them, in fact, which is even worse than apathy. And we're supposed to just accept that this is the way things are... It's all just so disgusting. Honestly most of what keeps me going at this point is anger at the injustice of it all. I'm just too pissed off to not try my best to attempt to do something to help before my life is finally over.

 

[Pain In The Ass]

Well to survive our own well being is important. For those of us who don't wish to survive ermmm. We have to look out for ourselves and can't really expect anyone else to do that for us so it makes sense to me. And life is finite and some people come to different decisions on how to live in the time they have. It's impossible to care for everyone and everything, or to fix anything as a single individual. It becomes a burden having such ideals in many cases. Even on this forum we can't reply to every single person and goodness knows we're nearly all suffering and could use company, empathy, acknowledgment, so on. I'm mostly sad for the impact humanity has had on the environment. But then the point we're at now it becomes impossible to get away from. Also I think we're all just too busy or otherwise occupied to do much. Living just one life is hard, taking on and trying to fix a whole species' problems is beyond any impact I could ever hope to have.

I suspect that there is a paradox, where finding something you love to do and are extremely good at, whatever that thing is, and working selfishly towards excelling at that, IS the best thing you can possibly do for others; your immediate family, wider society, and civilization itself, so selfishness becomes selflessness at the same time - being an extremely competent plumber is much better for everyone around you than being an extremely incompetent doctor! But someone who leaves school at 16 and decides to do nothing but work for charity through some misguided view of compassion or empathy for everyone on the planet, with barely any skills to contribute to that cause, probably won't make much difference to the suffering in the world.