The Price of Selfish Thinking

Humans and other animals are selfish by nature. There is nothing wrong in trying to have a better life and improve your condition. However, when that comes at the expense of others, that's when things become bad. I will illustrate this with two examples.

Herd immunity: Many people are talking about attaining herd immunity by infecting a large fraction of a country's population. The argument given is that we will generate antibody to the virus, which will protect those who have recovered from the disease and the wider population. The price we have to pay is the life and health of some people.

The problem with this logic is that nobody wants to die or get sick. Everybody wants someone else to die, so that (s)he can live. They want to sacrifice others for their selfish gain. They don't want the same fate that they expect someone else to have. This is completely unacceptable.

Conscription and wars: Some people want others (most often young men) to sacrifice their life for the country to save others. But they don't want to sacrifice their own life for the country. Patriotism is good for the dying soldier, but not for the common people. They don't practice what they preach. This is hypocrisy of the highest order.

The moral of the story is - everyone will tell the other person to take risk and die, but they don't want to do it themselves.

Beware of such "advisors" and "well wishers"!!