The Goodness of Selfishness

“What is our reason for living?” For more than two thousand years, humankind has mulled over the answer to this timeless query, but up to this time we still have not found a vivid answer to it. I, myself, have also spent so many nights pondering on this question, and as many as those nights, I found myself at lost. What if there is really no standard answer to that question? And worse, what if we humans do not really have a concrete purpose on Earth? What if we’re really just products of a huge cosmic accident? Oh, that would be harsh, isn’t it? But as a man who has high regards to human beings, I could not accept these what-if’s just like that. I have to make my own pilgrimage to prove that we, human beings, are special; that we do not live just to die, but because we have a purpose.

If there’s one person whom I consider one of the most influential persons in my life (aside from Nietzsche and Ayn Rand), this person just has to be Paulo Coelho and his book, The Alchemist (after reading the book, I almost rebelled against my parents). I can summarize the content of this book in one sentence: ‘Man’s only responsibility is to realize his dreams.’ I have always dreamed of studying in a film-making school and become a movie director someday. But due to life’s inevitable circumstances, I ended up taking the nursing course. One of these ‘circumstances’ I am talking about is my ‘love’ for my parents. People say it’s the child’s responsibility to follow whatever his parents would like him to do. This also means that this child must sacrifice even his dreams for his parents. But how can his parents stand the fact that their child is sacrificing his dreams in exchange of their own happiness? It’s tantamount to saying “child, I know you love me but you have to sacrifice to prove your love to me.” How can sacrifice be a justification of a child’s love to his parents? Isn’t it that if we love a person, we don’t want them to sacrifice for us? According to Ayn Rand, sacrifice is not rejecting something bad for the sake of good but it is to give up what you value most in favor of that which you don’t. This means if you exchange one peso for one million pesos, it is not sacrifice; but if you exchange one millions pesos for a one peso coin, it is.

One thing I liked about being a student nurse is that you are not allowed to impose your own personal values to others especially to your patients. This is in contrast of what’s happening in our society today. Society has imposed on us a moral code and we are expected to always follow this way of thinking even if it hampers the attainment of our ultimate happiness. And if a person went against their imposed way of thinking, they brand him as an insane person. But if insanity means being able to do what I’ve always wanted to do, then I wouldn’t mind being completely insane. If you have watched the movie Revolutionary Road, you can see there clearly how society caused a couple to fall apart and suffer a tragic end. We do not want that to happen, do we?

When I was in high school, our Values teacher used to tell us that freedom means doing what is good. I must agree because for me, doing what is good means being able to pursue your personal happiness and not the happiness of another person.

When I look at persons I meet along the way, I feel depressed. Based on what I am seeing now, I can say that the story of mankind is a tragedy. Unlike plants that live primarily for themselves, man now lives and struggles for other’s sake. I find this not right. And because of this, he has forgotten that his main purpose on Earth is to do what he has always dreamed of doing while there’s still time.

This might sound very cliché but there’s truth in this statement: “We’ve only got one life to live and we have to live it the best way possible.” We don’t know when life might end, so why not live it to the fullest? Ending life with regret would be the worst exit a person can make. So dance in the rain! Jump at a basketball game! Cuss for whatever reason you like! LIVE!

“I swear – by my life and my love of it – that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged