Selfish Beyond Reason

Here’s a word that has been tossed around ad nauseam for the past two years: selfish. The powers that be have conducted a quite formidable campaign against the “anti-masker” and the “vaccine hesitant.” Leading that campaign has been the accusation that those not getting vaccinated or refuse to mask up are selfish—not just “selfish” in the way we were accused of being so as children when we wanted to keep all of our ice cream cone, but selfish in a truly diabolical way—biblically selfish, go to hell selfish, rapist selfish, serial killer selfish.

Throughout time there has always been a notion of reasonable empathy, and reasonable selfishness. We may hear in the news someone who has done some noble selfless act such as giving a kidney to a homeless person, or donating some astronomical sum to an orphanage or some other altruistic cause. Although I am sure many people are impressed with such extreme acts of selfless largess. But typically there is a limit, and people recognize that boundary between amazing generosity, and just plain kookiness. Where is that boundary?