Selfishness Research Paper

Submitted By thackeray21
Words: 777
Pages: 4
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Selfishness Selfishness is present in all human beings, but how we handle it and use it makes us the people we are. I think that selfishness is a trait that can be positive and negative for people, it just depends on how you look at it. If you view selfishness as something where you only use it to pick yourself up and further your life goals and plans and no one else’s some people view that as a negative. On the other hand if you use selfishness hardly at all and you mostly help other people that can be looked at as a positive. I think that when you help people though you have to ask yourself are you doing it for them to actually help them out or are you doing it so you can feel good about yourself. Because if your doing it to feel good about yourself I think that is also a negative. One view on selfishness that I found very interesting was Ayn rand. She believed that a man’s first right when he is born is to be selfish and egotistical. She believes that life’s goal is to make you happy not others happy. But I find that when I make others happy or do something for them and they are happy I get a since of gratitude and I don’t know whether that is a good feeling or bad because was I doing it for them or to better myself? Rand thinks that a human being should be all about themselves and no one else. I Agree and disagree with this because I feel like yes you do need to be selfish and help yourself out and make sure your life is going where you want it to but on the other hand I believe that you do need to help others and try to make other people’s lives better too. In Rand’s book “Anthem” she expresses this believe in Equality 752125. He sees himself for the first time in a reflection in a creek and realizes he is beautiful and he breaks through the law and invents things for himself even though he is not supposed to. He starts being selfish which is basically a mortal sin in their world.
Another view on selfishness that is almost the exact opposite of Rand’s is martin Luther king Jr. He truly devoted his life to the belter of others. He spent a majority of his life’s work to get all of the African Americans the same rights as the whites because he believed that the two races were equal in all views the only difference was the color of their skin. He was the leader of the civil rights movement in the sixties and not because he did it for selfish reasons but because he was asked to because the people thought he was a good leader and public speaker and they were right. Dr. King wrote an essay on what he calls the drum major instinct. He
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