Eco-Frustrating

This story begins with trip to a poke restaurant that I frequent. Relevant to this story is the fact that I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, more on that in a bit. As I enter the restaurant, to my surprise they have changed the containers they use for their poke bowls. Instead of round plastic bowls, they have begun using rectangular cardboard containers. This is mildly annoying given that I think the bowl is a better vessel for my food but that, dear reader, is not the point of this story. Instead, it was the reason the staff gave for the change which was frustrating, albeit not particularly surprising.

The change was made due to customer complaints regarding the use of packaging that was not “eco-friendly.” For those unaware of this particular issue, plastic is arguably more environmentally conscious packaging given the cost (externalities) of both production and decomposition of paper materials. Does this seem counter-intuitive? Well it is. As with most topics of science and our understanding of the world, the truth is non-intuitive. And if you don’t believe me (and you shouldn’t by default), read these sources here and here.

Living in the Bay for two years, this is the kind of low-level understanding of these issues that I have come to expect. Everyone wants to be an eco-warrior without putting in the work to understand the nuance of the underlying science. People are biased towards cognitive shortcuts like “plastic is bad” rather than considering the totality of production, use, re-use, and decomposition of materials. In this case, these changes could actually have the opposite effect of what the customers claim to care about.

I say all this not as environmental scientist (which I definitely am not) but as someone who is aware of the limits of my understanding. I certainly do not comprehend all the costs and benefits of every type of material but I do understand that it is not my job to run around from shop to shop chastising owners for their choice in packaging. I care for the environment and I am willing to speak up for causes that I believe in. That said, I make those choices very carefully and only after I have done the work required to hold a strong opinion. I just wish that more people took the same approach. 

Selfish v. Self-Centered

When I use the word selfish what comes to mind?

As I am about to get nitpicky with words, let us start with a definition...

Interestingly, selfish is defined as, "caring only for oneself." Why is this interesting you might ask? This is because I do not know anyone who uses the word “selfish” in this manner. Instead, the word is tossed around within any context of doing what one wants.

You want spend your time that way? That’s selfish

You want to spend your money that way? That’s selfish

You want to avoid those obstacles? That’s selfish.

I’m here to argue that the word selfish needs to be defined according to it’s use and should simply mean, doing what one wants. This of course frees us all up to be selfish in every moment of every day. It cannot be any other way. Who among us has ever done anything that we did not want to do?

Maybe right now you are leaning back into your chair thinking, “I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning, you stupid ass.” And that may very well be the case. But that is not what you did. You did, in fact, get out of bed this morning (unless of course you are reading this very post from bed). Why? I’m not sure.

Maybe you wanted to show up for your exam. Maybe you wanted another dollar in your pocket. Maybe you wanted to provide for your family. Maybe you wanted to run into that cutie on the train. Whatever your reasons, you acted according to what you wanted. This may be a tautological argument but as I’m clearly playing word games here, I’ll press forward undeterred.

So if we can only do what we want and to be selfish means doing what one wants, why then should we be against being selfish? It’s only an -ish after all. We seem to not be terribly offended when people are cheapish, sickish, freakish, bookish, girlish, standoffish, or Danish for that matter. What we really want to avoid is caring only for ourselves. This is of course brings us back to the formal definition of selfish, but not the colloquial usage. The word we are really looking for is self-centered.

And here we arrive at the important distinction between selfish and self-centered. Self-centered puts you in the middle, serving as the only object of importance in your life. Selfish does not. If you are being self-centered, you are being selfish but being selfish does not require one to be self-centered. It requires only that we act according to our desires, which our biology and reason dictates we must.

But how does doing only what you want not put you on the fast track to self-centeredness? By choosing to want the right things of course...