I've been reading up on this gene known only to geneticists as the 'selfish gene'. This might ring some bells to all you literary types out there as also being the title of one of Richard Dawkins books.
It goes like this. Dawkins says that as the dominant, domineering species, we couldn't have made it this far without elements of selfishness within us. In order to survive, we've had to, in the past be brutally practical and think about the greater good, namely, ourselves. This trait of what is known referred to as selfishness is genetic and is hereditary. And from there onwards he goes into great detail to describe how it destroys the gene pool, contaminating an increasing number of people, information which is irrelevant to this blog.
Co-incidentally, few nights back i was in a engaging conversation about people's inherent selfishness and how they act upon it.
We all behave in the interest of ourselves but will not accept and action towards us that is anything but nice. All we want to be at the receiving end of is clean and pure altruism.. Since that isn't even feasible, we blunder our relationships believing we're not receiving due justice. Ahh such is life.
What's the one silver lining in this story? If people are selfish about their needs, wants and time of day, all you can afford is to understand and accept their selfishness and practice a little selfishness yourself.
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