“It’s selfish.”

Posted by Marc Hodak on June 1, 2007 under Invisible trade-offs | Comments are off for this article

That quote came from a 21-year old student who flew back from Europe with the TB guy, meaning she may have been exposed to infection. Yes, it was selfish of him. But I’m somehow bothered that we apparently have students, journalists, and probably many readers who believe that “selfish” is a worthwhile distinction in this matter.

My personal suspicion of this strange label began as a child hearing my mom complaining about my “selfishness” when it appeared to me that her real complaint was about me not satisfying her wishes in lieu of mine. Like every child, I wanted to make my mom happy, but I was still bothered by the logic of her complaint. I suppose that most kids internalize the negative connotation of “selfishness” as guilt when they make trade-offs in their favor versus other people. For some reason, I couldn’t do that. I grew up considering other’s interests and feelings in a fairly normal way, but I also came to view “selfish” as a fundamentally dishonest accusation, an indictment of the accuser more than the accused.

Don’t get me wrong–I would be quite upset about someone deciding to put me at risk by bringing an infectious disease into my passenger compartment. In this case, it was a personal injury lawyer who must have weighed the liability risk of what he did. But I wouldn’t whine about his behavior being selfish. My complaint would be that it was coercive–he didn’t give me the choice. He brought me into the trade-off of staying in Europe and probably dying versus getting to the U.S. and probably living, while exposing me to a minimal risk. His selfishness in making that trade-off would be no less than my selfishness in denying my consent (or complaining about being exposed.)

One could just as well view this situation in the obverse and say that it exposes a lack of heroism. The infected man was not heroic by staying put in Europe to die. The complaining student was not heroic in suggesting that this mans life was worth the small risk to her. In other words, selfishness is here, as everywhere, on both sides of the equation. So what? Either side could have adopted a heroic stance. Heroism is praiseworthy, but optional.