Call it, a LEARNED behavior, or a sort of a bildungsroman if you want to…
How do selfless children turn into SELFISH adults??? By socialization, by watching their god DAMN adult counterparts behaving selfishly, as children still only “pick up” on what they observe, then, internalizing what they encounter in this god DAMN world that we currently live in???
Children are selfless, because they want everybody to be okay, they want their mommies and daddies to get along with each other lovingly, NO matter what, because, the parents ARE, their WHOLE world, and, if the parents are happy, then, so is the child, that, is where the values of the self derives from!
And yet, as children grow, the foundations of belief of selflessness is a good value get tested, as there are, SO many case of people who only thought about themselves, and harm others in the world, that, is how the “child” becomes, “tainted”…
As the children get older, they started picking up on the beliefs (from their parents, or anybody else that’s older than they are, those they looked upon, for guidance’s sake???) that it’s, EVERY man for himself, that if I don’t look out for number one (and number one being: the SELF???), then, nobody will, look out for me, and thus, they all start, behaving, MORE selfishly.
and where we end up, not my photo still…
And that, would be the end, of this, particular, SOCIALIZATION process!