The Art of Selfishness

One thing that has been criticized time and again by one and all- is selfishness. Ingrained in our brains since 1st grade (Oh my god she's so selfish!! Doesnt even share her chocolate!) is the notion that those who think of themselves above all others are Selfish, and to be avoided.

Once in fifth grade, I refused to share my lunch (pasta- something that we as fifth graders didnt bring to school very often) with my friends. I suffered the consequences. Tagged as 'that selfish girl', I had literally no friends left for most of one month. I felt so guilty for acting selfishly that i forced my mother to let me distribute chocolates so as to regain my deemed selflessness in class.

Thats one time thinking of which I criticize myself for giving in to the common masses and not taking my stand. And now that I am relatively more enlightened than me fifth-grader self, I realize that selfishness is my greatest virtue.

You may think that I am just repeating Ayn Rand, and I will agree with you. Her ideology of Objectivism has hit me so hard that I can never see the world in the same way as I used to for the past 20 years.

I now realize that those who have been telling me to be generous, and to place the good of others before my own, are just big losers who dont know how to live, and who will never be happy in their lives. After all, why should I share my lunch with those who have not contribuited anything towards it and who will not, in future, offer me their lunch anyways?

I completely agree with Ayn Rand that selfishness has been gravely misunderstood through the generations. I would go a step ahead and say that if there is any true religion for me, its objectivism, and the art of selfishness. Selfishness does not mean striving for our own benefit while demeaning others. Its just that one cannot think selflessly unless one is completely satisfied with oneself- a state rarely achieved by most of us.