Egoism is an ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality. Humans have been egoistic since when we could consider ourselves humans. The Average citizen in Norway for two-hundred and fifty years might have wanted some really good shoes. A hundred-fifty years ago, maybe a bicycle. Eighty years ago, a car. Thirty years ago, cheap air travel, and so on. Once we get what we want, we don’t stop; we see how we can improve things even more, and how to make things even better. Egoism is shaped in humans in different ways, in war, in selfishness, and in survival. Humans aim to maximize their benefits and minimize their costs. We act altruistically because we can expect that the people we help go on to help others, or you can gain some benefit from helping. In the end you help others because it makes you feel good. You did something that can help others, making you feel a good feeling of self-accomplishment, and that is an egoistic feeling in the end. When self-interest succeeds in wrecking the collective interest, for example, if there are suddenly limited resources, it becomes easy to start viewing our neighbors as competitors. As long as there is self-interest, there would be conflict. However, self-interest can lead to cooperation. The power of cooperation to make friends of former enemies is one of the most hopeful things that a psychologist can think of.
War is an egoistic act made by humans. Wars can start for various reasons, but almost always because others are gaining a better advantage than others. The only way to get better off is if someone else gets worse off. If you take a bigger piece of the pie, someone else’s gets smaller. If you want more food, or resources, then conquering, plundering, and stealing are great strategies. Your neighbor’s loss is your gain. This was the state of things for thousands of years. Societies invaded each other to gain more resources. An example of a current war is the invasion of Ukraine. Putin is making a really egoistic act of using others’ lives to get what he wants, invading Ukraine. He is not sacrificing himself for his country, he is involving the whole country for his own self-interest. In the book The Things They Carried, the author Tim O’Brien, shows his disgust of this type of leaders or people, “there should be a global law that states: People who are in favor of war should put their own families in the front line” (O’Brien 37). O’Brien expresses his disgust of the leaders that use others to obtain something that will benefit themselves. Leaders showing a lack of sympathy over their followers. They did not care if they died. They were just pawns that they could get rid if they wanted. The leaders lack sympathy to their followers. Wars begin because of egoism. WWI and WWII started because Germany did a selfish act to invade other countries because they wanted their resources. Then the other countries did not like that Germany was gaining too much power, and decided to declare war to them. Civil War started because the South felt they were different from the North, and egotistically wanted to be independent from them. The North did not want them to become independent because they would be affected greatly economically. Wars always start because of the self-interest of their citizens or leaders. Never because they want to help others. The idea of taking another life is selfish enough. To look for yourself in a state of survival is egoistic too.
In the novel The Road McCarthy presented us with a realistic idea of what could happen in a post apocalyptic world, where there are no animals and plants left, only humans. Humans without any food left resorted to cannibalism, “They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won’t face it” (McCarthy 56). The wife of the protagonist told him this before she suicide. She preferred to end her suffering rather than keep living. Leaving the man and her son behind. Humanity resorted to cannibalism because of their own survival. In this post-apocalyptic world there are no laws, humans are free to do whatever they want. It shows the lowest of humanity. A realistic idea of what could happen because people look at themselves if they are in a good position to help others and it will not affect their survival. That is what the man was worried about. He put as his first priority the survival of himself and his son. Then if it did not affect their survival then he could help others in need, but he never did. When he and his son met a man on the edge of death he did not help him. His son was mad at him, but he told him: “He’s going to die. We can’t share what we have or we’ll die too” (McCarthy 52). The man, who was going to die, had burns like if he was hit by lightning. The man knew he was going to die even if he gave him food or medical treatment. The burned man was going to die. They will have to waste their resources to try to help a dead man, risking their own survival. Humans always help others if they are in a good position to do so. If a person is not economically well, he will not help others economically. They could help others in other ways, but if they think that they are not in a good position in doing it, or it would affect them in their own survival, they are not going to do it. Egoism is not necessarily a bad thing. Egoism is a broad topic, and has a lot of examples of how you can be selfish, like in love.
When you find someone you love, you want to be with her or him for a great part of your time. You want to feel whole, and that is why people marry. They want to dedicate their time and life to that other person. They want to have their love for themselves, and do not want others to take her/him away from them. To build a family together, and get old together. This need of having that person love for himself is selfish. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby wanted Daisy’s love, even though he did not know if she wanted the same thing. Telling her, “Just tell him the truth—that you never loved him—and it is all wiped out forever” (Fitzgerald 51). Gatsby wanted Daisy for himself, but she was married to another man, even though she did not love him. However, Daisy married her husband because of economic interest. She truly loved Gatsby, but she did not correspond with his feelings because she loved her husband too. Daisy and her husband were selfish people, “they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made,” (Fitzgerald 104). Daisy did not mind using people. She used Gatsby to make jealous Tom and take her revenge by having an affair with another man as he did with other women. She selfishly uses others to make herself feel better with her revenge. It is normal that humans do the impossible to get what they want. Humans always want more. Jealousy in a relationship is normal. Jealousy is not a bad thing. It shows that you truly love that person and that you do not want her to be with someone else. However, extreme jealousy can lead to a toxic relationship, and it is something unhealthy for the couple. Being a little egoistic is not something bad, on the contrary is something good, but being extremely egoist is bad, and no one likes an extremely selfish person.
Egoism is an ethical system in which self-interest is held to be the foundation of morality. Egoistic can be represented in different ways. For example, on war. Selfishness leads to war, and it has been like this for millions of years. People are egoistic if this involves their own survival. Humans always seek to live longer, and survive in society. Finally, Love is a selfish emotion because you want that special person, that makes you feel whole, to be with you. Egoism is a natural human emotion that makes us who we are, and people tend to interpret egoism as something bad, but it isn’t. As anything in this world, all excesses are bad and egoism is not the exception; however, to think of yourself, and worry about yourself is not a bad thing.
Egoism
