Life is full of ironies, but few are as humiliating as self-bias. It reveals itself in countless ways, most commonly in our expectation to receive what we ourselves refuse to give. We demand to be rewarded with the very virtues we withhold, insisting on the benefits of reciprocity while deliberately neglecting our own obligations. Such is the contradiction of human selfishness: we desire a transaction in which only one party pays the price.

Perhaps nothing distorts judgement more than a deficiency of love. Selfishness strips us of fairness because it narrows our moral vision until our own interests become the only ones that matter. We measure justice by what serves us, not by what is right. In that state, we are willing to profit at the expense of others, scarcely concerned by the wounds we inflict, so long as our demands are met. The tragedy is not merely the harm we cause, but the astonishing absence of self-awareness with which we justify it.