"Greed" by Robbie

This December, Advanced Composition students studied, wrote, and recorded audio essays. Students wrote and recorded their own "This I Believe" essays inspired by the weekly This I Believe Podcast. While we're publishing the text of each essay below, we strongly encourage you to listen to each student's audio essay for a more intimate experience.

Growing up my main concern was always myself, and even to this day it remains that way. Although I am very considerate of others ,I always know that priority rests solely on me. My mother would always tell me that my fate is in my own hands; that I have to worry about myself and not hangout with bad crowds. Selfishness is necessary for survival, greed is a necessary evil. Greed is the one thing that man can rely on; he can only rely on himself.

We as a species have the instinct inside to fend for ourselves and take what we believe to be rightfully ours. In the eyes of Ayn Rand selfishness is a virtue that is granted to man.  In Ayn Rand’s words, “   The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.” The one thing that man is gifted with is life to find true happiness is by finding it in you.  This is the only way for a person to be truly happy. The gift of life is something that you have to enjoy for yourself.

 Greed has always been discouraged and portrayed as something that is to be condemned. That fact of the matter is you only have yourself and your loved ones. You must provide for yourself and immediate for it is necessary for survival. Live is easier when you don’t bare the weight of others, when you carry the weight of others it only hurts you and supports them. It is a win-lose situation, where the one who cares for other is losing something. So what is the point in helping someone, when it can back fire on you?

I believe that there is no such thing as someone who is not greedy.

Even those who find themselves thinking that charity is their prerogative and that it gives them a sense of self importance. If nothing else this is hypocritical, helping someone else while looking like you nothing to gain. When in fact you have everything to gain, this sensual pleasure of self-gratification is what makes it hypocritical. Charity is doing something for others, and then this act defies what it stands for.

The fact of the matter is that greed is in every fragment of our lives it is impossible to escape, selfishness is just human nature. Human nature is thrown around a lot like humans were made the way they are by some will. But in actuality this is the nature of all that exist, self- preservation what it all comes down to. No one can say that they are truly selfless for they would have not care about the one constant in their lives, which is themselves. No one can say that they did not think at one point the world was created for them and that they have some sort of entitlement to it. In nature all animals fend for themselves and will do anything to survive, what makes humans any different.