It seems that people are selfish by nature. All our instincts teach us to take care of ourselves and then of our species. If we would be reduced to our set of primal instincts, I would expect things to be quite simple. The game of life is known by everyone and the natural selection wins as always.
Imagine that one of these primitive humans could be tamed, like any other animals, by a superior creature. Humans would be pets for some other species, like cats or dogs are for us. How would that be?
But then again, in order to get to that point, we would need to have half of our brain removed or deactivated, we would need to get rid of our consciousness. We are where we are today because of evolution. Somewhere along the line, in the string of mutations that occurred, we woken up and there we were!
There are voices out there saying that generosity comes also from a sense of selfishness. People found out that doing things which are considered good by the society, gives them a feeling of well being, makes them appreciated.
So a generous action comes also from a sense of selfishness. But I think it is not the result of the instinctual selfishness which fights for our preservation. I think that it’s coming from the more evolved part of our brain, the one that distinguishes us from the other primates, that gives us the need to feel loved, to be part of a group or to feel appreciated.
In Romania, during elections, a lot of confusing things happen. There’s a saying that you can win the elections with a bottle of oil and a bag of sugar. And that’s because most of the working middle class is disgusted by the politicians and they don’t vote.
So the political parties need to just focus on the rest, the voting majority and also the poorest part of the population: retired people and country-side citizens. Which are usually easy to manipulate by offering them bribes in money or food and empty promises.
As this was not enough, like some sort of conspiracy, education is tore down, year by year. Without knowledge, without culture, people act based on their instincts to survive, making them easier to be controlled.
And in this process generosity seems to go away, being replaced by a chronic greed of more and sadness, greed of no matter what, just more!