It is fairly common to see in ourselves the flaws of human nature—the day to day imperfections that make us all individuals even if inherently fallible. However, it is much more difficult to admit to any further incorrectness. We often cast the blame onto others, or onto the situation, claiming the innocence of the victim and shouting “erroneous!” with our actions, demeanors, and words. Men who would succeed in taking responsibility for their own actions—actions that demonstrate that they are not perfect in becoming men—are becoming scarce. St. Catherine of Siena spoke of such pride as the father of sensual selfishness, which is the foundation of every evil, and described its effect as one would describe a poison. One would tend to agree with her after having taken a simple glance at our world’s history of civilization, but the corresponding undertones in the effect of selfishness upon one’s life (or one’s country) are often neglected or unknown. Of pride is born selfishness; of selfishness is born evil.
Pride blinds one to the inherent good that could be done. Pride administers equality neither in opportunity nor in recognition of achievement. It would take the focus always off of others and have it rather be placed on one’s self. It stands smugly beside itself not only in the presence of past accomplishments but mainly in the understanding and belief that the future holds in store only more praise and admiration for the individual.
Reveling in attention from all sides, pride is not a sincere sense of accomplishment; it is the self-righteous piety in the rightness and legitimacy of one’s actions, words, or productions accompanied with the admonition of anyone who thinks otherwise. Pride takes any action that may have once had good intentions and defiles it, twisting and manipulating the means to incur an end that will result in the highest amount of recognition of one’s self from others. Pride in one’s self—be it in production or action—and not in a collective goal achieved by many, poisons the mind with an addictive void of unfulfillment, of a desire for more.
It is through this incessant longing to maintain pride, to continue to be the best, to always wish to be revered by others, to ignore criticism and to understand nothing but the praise of one’s actions—it is through this lusting desire that one’s mind becomes turned inwards. It is through the unhealthy sense of superiority that one finds the pomp required to care more for one’s self than for any other thing; it is through pride that selfishness takes root. The one whose face is turned constantly inwards needs search no further for whom he most cares.
Selfishness believes in no one; it trusts no one fully. Its ugly head rises only to the opportunities of further recognition. Selfishness looks at all situations from the vantage point of its own betterment and complies vehemently with its characteristics: grandiose in appearance, conniving in advocacy, and pompous in action. Those who find themselves so full of pride that they search for it by any means necessary already have as their drive the characteristics defining selfishness. By searching this way, their focus is on any way to get and to take.
However, it is very possible to be selfish and not act upon one’s sentiments, therefore it cannot be selfishness alone that invokes evil—actions are the actual evils. Still, since the action is impossible without the sentiment, and the sentiment cannot exist with being a part of the same mind that chose to act, that sentiment by which actions are inspired, influenced, and provoked retains the responsibility of the action. One could easier say that love is not the reason why the enamored poet writes than to imply that sentiments are innocent as actions were only guilty. It is through choice and action that selfishness is made manifest—that selfishness really exists; but selfishness is still inherently culpable because it wrought the actions.
Selfishness does not incur unselfish actions. Even if the end result is benevolent, because of intention and motive, the act itself was selfish: filled with malicious ambitions. It is possible that selfishness will only affect the one who wields it, but the extreme majority of situations involving selfish actions are hurtful to others. Every evil can therefore be traced to selfishness. Murder, thievery, covetousness, greed, envy, wrath, manipulation, and a whole entourage of evils all spawn from the desires of self-preservation and self-admiration.
The blinding fury of selfish men has reeked havoc on civilization since the dawn of time. St. Catherine saw it as the son of pride and the father of all evil. It is evident that when pride, the father of selfishness, is married to malicious ambition, the mother of evil actions, a family of evil is created with the potency to destroy the greatest of achievements: be it the heart of another, or an entire civilization.
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