Roving Thoughts

They say an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, I wonder whose workshop mine is turning into because my mind is never idle. I have had this idea running through my mind for a while now and I have had time to ruminate on it over and over again and I think it is time to put it into writing. It is the idea or perception of selfishness.
It’s dictionary meaning is placing concern with oneself or one’s own interest above the interest or well-being of others. It is the opposite of altruism or selflessness. From the foregoing, it is generally accepted that selfishness is bad and even the bible teaches us not to be selfish.
I would love to differ a little from this generally accepted perception of selfishness and dare to make a general statement that ‘all humans are inherently selfish’. It is inbuilt in our DNAs, a part of our genetic make up, even when we try to deny its existence, we exhibit it in ways we least imagined. Justifying this statement is the main stay of this write up.
Selfishness is often contrasted with other well sort after virtues like love, kindness, care, benevolence and the likes, but something we get to ignore is that deep at the root of all these virtues is a certain dose of selfishness.
Some people are very kind, they can go out of their means to help others. Now the question is why are they always kind and good to others? The answer you get most times is that it gives them satisfaction, they are happy when they assist people. Tell me if that is not selfishness. In helping others, they acquire internal joy, peace. So deep inside the kind act, they are satisfying their self interest of achieving happiness.
Also love, when we love someone, we always want the best for the person, we place their interests far above ours, we never want to hurt them, they are treasured and held in high esteem. And what do we get in return? Self satisfaction, inner peace. We indirectly fulfill our selfish desire of being happy by showing love to others.
I believe with these few points I have been able to show that we all are inherently selfish but some persons exhibit this selfishness in ways enimical to societal view while others portray it by performing virtuous acts.