The good selfishness

One thing I thought about is this thing about ego and selfishness and how it is perceived. Someone with a big ego is seen as an inflated narcissist while a selfless person is seen as Mother Teresa. Someone with a big ego sees himself as a nice person with good self-esteem and good intentions, any criticism only comes from ignorant people who interpret you in the wrong way....

The word egoism has an undeniably negative ring to it. It implies complacency and self-interest and is the direct opposite of solidarity and compassion for others.

I often use the word in connection with descriptions of the trends of hatred, threats and violence that are creeping everywhere into the social debate. People who have turned off the empathic ability and built a wall of egoism against the problems of the outside world and society, who appoint scapegoats, generalize and who only have their own best interests at heart.

But there is also a good and useful egoism. My own life situation has taught me that. This means that in a difficult situation, such as in my case a multi-diagnosis dominated by chronic pain, you sometimes have to be a bit of a narcissist and only care about yourself and your own well-being.

One can consider this a form of egoism, but it is a necessary one if one is ultimately to be able to be solidary, compassionate and of any help to others.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but if I did, it would be to promise to be kinder to myself so that I'll have the energy to devote myself to other than my work, i.e. my interests, to a greater degree.

So I will try to practice the good egoism as much as I can to simply cope with life as it is right now, and whoever wants to call me an egoist is very welcome to do so, because this self-absorbed narcissist won't give a 💩!

XOXO