When do you choose being selfish to being selfless?

[Kimi]

A friend threw this question at me today and as I'm having such a bad day today, my philosophy for today is one chooses to be selfish over selfless cos:
1. There is no pure selfless act. I usually don't say this kind of thing but one would find it one way or another, 'tis a cold reality out there...
2. The point 1 above is caused by that everybody is selfish anyway in some degree.
3. The degree in the point 2 is increased esp. when one feels there is no one else to take care him/her unless oneself, which is again true in some degree for everybody. Who would know what is the best or knows what one needs the most but oneself?

Yep, I'm in a dark mood today...

Thoughts?

[sapphire]

tough question!

[Kimi]

If it is true there is no selfless act, point one alone is already the answer, cos there is nothing else to choose from!
There leaves only one option which is not a multiple choice ay?!

I usually put more importance on the result of the what-appears-to-be-selfless acts, regardless of the possibility of any hidden agenda or such. But then that's when I'm in a good mood to think like that...

[sapphire]

give me one example of a selfless act u've observed.

[Guest]

This is a bit rough but here goes.

Back when I was a young man of about 20 or so, my best friends father found out he had inoperable cancer and only had about 6 months or so to live. He then proceeded to get all of his affairs in order, made sure the family would never want and in order to keep from possibly bankrupting the family with his illness, he then sat down and killed himself with his favourite hunting rifle.

To me, that was the ultimate selfless act. I saw quite a number of acts when I was in Vietnam during the war from 1966 to 1968. Actually, they had a name for them back then. They were usually called heros.

sms

[Fuz182]

I'm not too sure if this could be counted as a selfless act, but it dates back to years ago when I was 13 and represented my school in the National Tennis Championships. We won the Bronze medal but there were fringe players in the team who didn't get a medal. I gave mine away to one of the older fringe players as I felt, he wouldn't get the opportunity to win another medal.

I don't really regret giving it to him, but everytime I think about it, I get this sharp feeling in my heart.

Sure there are selfless acts, but they're not always that clear cut. You're right Kimi. Alot of seemingly selfless acts have incidental "perks" or benefits which aren't obvious.

Even when someone does something for a stranger seemingly selfless and out of good will, more often than not, he expects some indication of gratitude, be it a smile or a thank you. End even then, it can be argued that it isn't exactly selfless because it gives him a nice feeling inside to have helped someone.

[Girly]

my best freind and bf went behind my back for many years. i tell them, pls be happy, as long as u r both happy, thats ok. was that selfless?