on the bus ride home today this little thought managed to lodge itself into my mind.

it was an event which happened last year, not so long ago now.
and it made me realize how innately selfish people can get. yes, we're all selfish animals who do not give a concern for others around us.

i believe everyone's born selfish. they are often unwilling to share their toys, stationeries, clothes, food, boyfriends, girlfriends, pets and also dentures.
however, because society dictates oneself to always be generous to others, and with the addition of one's superego psychological system (thank you freud), people learnt that they have to share and be altruistic, ungrudging and magnanimous.

yes. easier said than done.

here's an incident:

our schools encourage group work. more head are better than one, i guess. and most of the time, people have diverse priorities, which leads to them placing varying importance to the tasks set out for them.

one thing leads to another and then we'll have group menbers putting in different levels of effort.
one will stress upmost concentration on this particular project, while another will do the same to another project. all of which have the same deadline.

so what do we have now? A says oh i think this module's more important. but B argues no, this should be emphasized!

we have a conflict, thus.

oh, but that's not all. suddenly,
suddenly, a terrible mistake happens. this is but nobody's fault.

now those who haven't been contributing much to the project divert their undivided attention to this mishap. why?
simply because this concerns their grades.
a badly done project pulls down one's overall score. obviously nobody wants that to happen, they're not stupid.

and that's why they're selfish. they've never been so much enthusiastic for this project, but now that it jeopardizes them and perhaps their shaky future, they decide they can make things right under they solid leadership.

selfish, selfish. why are they participating only when there's a possibility of an F grade for themselves? why didn't it occur to them to help out at the very beginning?

huh?

i rest my case. no further questions.