Listen…..seriously.

This mantra works rather well when you already have practically no one in your life, but if one believes that their ‘happiness’ depends on what they get from their interactions and involvements with other human beings… well, then it’s a necessity to “follow the rules of the game” and give people what they expect, within reason and without lowering your standards (in turn, they should also give you what you can reasonably expect from them).

If you don’t, you’ll be ostracized, cast out, and no one will like you much. You could whine about it and say, “I’m the victim here! It wasn’t my fault! No one understands me! They’re all uncaring jerks!” – but none of this admits your own accountability for your actions. Everyone sees you as the egocentric bastard, and in the end, who’s really happy? Not those you pushed away (or who got fed up with your bullshit and dumped you), and probably not you, because now you’re back at square one and need to find new people to serve your needs, since what you don’t want to admit is that you’re not as much of an independent individual as you think you are, and you actually do depend on other people, for various reasons.

This is the price to pay for selfishness. You’re either in the game or you’re not. You can’t be a winner unless you please others while also asserting your own desires.

If you get tired of the whole dog and pony show, you can always withdraw from the world and become a hermit. But guess what? Even modern-day hermits, or, Hikikomori, as the term is known in Japan, are dependent on others to some degree. The world goes ’round only because everyone does their part. If everybody did whatever they wanted ALL the time, the globe would be in total chaos.