Will we ever learn?

From the moment we leave Mother's womb and enter this world until the moment we depart on our respective death beds, without question, each of us is the centre of her/his own existence, and it is for this reason why I wonder if we'll ever get our collective act together.

As we pass from infancy into childhood, we slowly become exposed to any semblance of "society", in which many self-centred beings must now coexist. A group of individuals often come into conflict, but how are these resolved when all we know is to look out for ourselves? From my own experience as a child, empathy does not do a whole lot, as we are far too young to appreciate the connection we have with the pain and suffering of another. When I snatched a toy from my peer for my own amusement, I didn't stop to think, "That could be my heart that breaks" when I see her/him in tears. Initially, in times of conflict, our instinct tells us to fight or flee - most of the time, I, being physically inferior, found myself fleeing. It is up to our role models - parents, teachers, mentors - to guide us towards an altruistic frame of mind, but can we really count on them?

In our society, as children and through adolescence - let's face it: as adolescents, we're still children - we are pitted against one another as a matter of survival. The leaders use charm and intimidation to satisfy their own desires, while the rest of us find ourselves playing the roles of subjects. Here, we begin to learn altruism when we form attachments to our peers. Great! We're on the road to getting along with each other, but not so fast: what if I'm the alpha of my group, accustomed to receiving praise and generosity without having to provide any myself? Is my allowing these people to bask in my presence my way of "giving back"? Or what if my best friend and I have a crush on the same girl/boy? If I respect my friend's feelings, I lose out on my first love, but if I end up securing this individual as my mate, will it be at the expense of my best friend? How about turning on a dear friend so as to appear worthy before the "cool" crowd? How many of us have put friendships, or any relationship, for that matter, in jeopardy in favour of our own selfish desires? Have we been able to overcome this behaviour?

Now, we enter adulthood, where the stakes are different: instead of schoolyard supremacy, we now fight for wealth. We are now ready to put our finely tuned competitive skills to the test, as we find ourselves pitted against one another, competing for that one job, that one promotion, that one item in the window, that one particular house, that one special person's affection. I wonder if we're too busy competing against one another to appreciate any empathy for one another. If only we knew how we came to be the wealthiest of civilizations, would we then feel empathy for our sisters and brothers in Africa, or Asia, or Latin America, or even in our own backyard in the slums and on the reserves? Would we feel so apathetic towards war, poverty and our changing climate? More importantly, what message are we sending to our children when we behave so selfishly, yet have to teach them the merits of cooperation? Who are we to tell them to get along when we can't seem to do that ourselves?

Finally, on our way out of life - please note, at this point, I'm purely speculating, as I have not yet experienced dying, nor am I able to rely on any anecdotal evidence - when we realize we cannot take our earthly rewards with us, we may wonder what sort of society we're about to leave behind, and what we did and didn't do to render it what it is, provided we have time to do so. Do we learn when it's too late? Do we ever learn?