Egotism Pt.2
Humans are naturally egotistical. We
all get born as one person, with a very sure sense ourself as being the centre
of our universe, if not the universe generally. In order to function properly
in life, we must consider ourselves to be perfect in every way, and indeed most
people do, including myself. Perfect, that is, in every way that we can control
– someone might be telling you about their bad habit of smoking; or how they lie
compulsively; or how they keep breaking other’s hearts – but from that person’s
viewpoint, these are all ‘given’ aspects of their personality which they cannot
control. So from the parts of themselves that they can supposedly control they
are completely perfect.
This principle is necessary because otherwise we would all go through life
compromised and hypocritical (though some of us do anyway), unable to reconcile
what we do with what we think we should do (within our own personal limitations
as explained earlier).
When we talk about someone we know, perhaps we might make criticism of them – he is a back-stabber or a hypocrite or over-sensitive. But what, might we ask are we comparing him to? Ourselves, in our own minds the perfect human being on which all other humans should modelled upon and compared to.
This inevitable but otherwise unproblematic principle of egotism is something that society struggles to understand. People might say of someone that ‘he’s full of himself’ or ‘he puts his own interests before others’. However, everyone does just this and it is an intrinsic part of human nature. People just vary in how good their façade is in covering this selfishness.
The tale of Narcissus, a man who was so besotted by his own reflection that he jumped into the water to embrace it and drowned as a result, has often been used to encourage utilitarian ideals of teamwork, equality and selflessness. I believe we would be being far more honest if we accepted our self-centredness and stopped the pretence of the utilitarian perspective.
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