Identity Group Selfishness

Individual selfishness is a well-known and often disapproved phenomenon. But group selfishness, particularly in context of identity groups, is often overlooked despite its more damaging influence on society. An individual’s selfishness can at most affect a few people, but group selfishness dehumanizes society as a whole.

When people identify with a group they naturally feel desire for that group to grow and become more powerful or greater than other such groups. In society identity groups are quite permanent and selfishness is collectively exhibited by the group over a long time.

Group selfishness occurs mostly in two types of identities—nations and marginalized groups. For a variety of reasons, including the strength of national identification, people often view the world in terms of the nation and its interests. It is common to hear citizens calling for development and progress of their nation, of growing the national economy of ensuring the nation’s security, and of making it powerful in the world. But why not development of the whole world? Why not growth of the entire world economy? Why not the security of the world? People should look beyond nations and evolve into a greater consciousness.

Marginalized identities are perceived as having a poor social status in general. People of marginalized groups usually prefer only the advancement of their own identity group rather than society as a whole. There could be many reasons for this—one that they perceive the rest of society as already ‘privileged’; another that their identity matters more to them. It is common to hear a woman calling to improve female literacy, a minority member calling for social welfare programs for that identity, or a person from a backward class calling for poverty reduction in that group. Mostly it is about bringing these identities to the level of the ‘mainstream’ of society. But again the same question arises—why not welfare and progress for all of society?

But unfortunately most people do not look beyond their identity, so little action is taken on problems that affect all humans. The best example of this is the environmental crisis, which is perpetuated by national selfishness. Nations shift the blame on each other for not doing enough, even as they all favour their own short-term comfort and growth over the future existence of all humans. And the earth continues to suffer. Only a united world can fight this crisis the way it needs to be fought.

The continuance of other worldwide problems like poverty, lack of basic amenities, and underdevelopment can also be traced to identity selfishness. There are enough resources in the world to meet every human’s basic needs. But these are distributed unequally and are under the control of national identities. Resource distribution is like a finite-sum game with each nation trying to maximise its share while individual needs become irrelevant. Even within the nations various identity groups try to maximise their welfare.

Like individual selfishness, group selfishness results in apathy and indifference towards those outside the group. Many people are less willing to help a person from outside the group as compared to someone inside it, simply because ‘they are not one of us’. Similarly problems faced by an identity will be considered as having greater significance than the troubles of those outside it as they concern ‘us’. Sometimes there is even negativity towards the rest of the world (the ‘others’) when they are viewed as threats or competitors.

Ironically, group selfishness arises when identity leaders urge people to leave aside their individual selfishness and identify with something greater than themselves, to work for the good of the ‘community’ or the ‘country’. Promoting the identity’s interests rather than one’s own has an initial moral appeal as well, but replacing one type of selfishness with another does not make one a better human being.

The concept of identity group selfishness hinges on the idea of a shared belonging and collective consciousness among identity groups. Identities are artificial creations that exist only in the mind, and there is nothing shared or common in them except that identification. People should leave their identities behind and grow into the higher consciousness of humanity; they should all try to think in an inclusive rather than divisive manner.