I am not sure if man was born selfish or not. Many of us tend to be very selfish in every walk of our life. We are inconsiderate to others with or without realising the impact we create on people around us.

An individual’s selfishness may be tolerated within the family ,by parents and siblings ,for two reasons – one ,they do not have a choice but to tolerate and the other ,that they are magnanimous to us, as they want us to change in the future.

However, we may not get the same support from the society and the organisation, which we work for. Our neighbours may not be as considerate as our family members and so will be the case ,with our colleagues at work.

It may be worthwhile to realise the impact of our selfishness sooner than later ,to be successful in life. Just like no individual can succeed alone in life, no team will tolerate a selfish individual ,forever. If we do not change, we may have to fend for ourselves as individual players in family, society and organisations at large.

Now, if we move to communities and societies, we are tending to become more self centred without any consideration for others. This is reflected in the fact that ,today we do not know our neighbours as well as we did in the past. We are not concerned about anything happening around us ,unless it directly impacts us. The best example is that, there are not many volunteers to work for community or apartment associations.

If we move from societies to nations, the story is not very different. The most developed nations ,are the most selfish. For example, the developed nations of the world emit the maximum carbon emissions and then advise the world on climate change and carbon footprint, of other less developed nations.

If we look at this phenomenon of inconsiderate or selfish individuals communities and societies, we could come to the conclusion that this may be because, the unit of any society or nation is an individual, and unless the individual changes, this phenomenon will only multiply in the future.

If we look back at Indian villages, everyone in the village knew everyone else and if there was a problem for a villager, the whole village was there to support that individual to get over it. The villagers shared resources and volunteered to support each other, in any crisis or celebration ,in the family or the community.

Today, we are gradually alienating, members of our family itself. Joint families led to nuclear families and now nuclear families are leading to individuals in live in partnerships. So individuals are tending to get more individualistic in outlook and are not bothered about anyone around them in the family, community or society.

The impact of this alienation is already felt in society. We have more cases of depression and other psychiatric illnesses in society today. Relationships are weakening in families, societies and even between nations.

We need to get back to our roots to revive and transform the individual from a selfish to selfless person and thereby change societies and nations at large.

Let the journey begin with ourselves.

S Ramesh Shankar

6th Jan 2024