Me or We?

What do humans and porcupines have in common? Well, that's a bit of a leading question, so I'll just tell you what I'm getting at. We may share many similarities with porcupines (I can't think of any off the top of my head), but at the most basic level we share a common instinct to survive. Yes, at the root of human nature resides the fundamental instinct to survive. We face an interesting dilemma: as living beings, our survival instinct drives us; yet as we interact with other human beings, we also see the need for cooperation. The issue is that survival and cooperation frequently conflict with each other. Furthermore, many moral and ethical practices demand that we not only cooperate, but that we give up selfish interests for the benefit of other human beings. Realizing this, I see why it's so difficult to "make the right choice" at times. It's not logical to do so. But, nonetheless, it is the right thing to do. We fight our natural instinct to be selfish in favor of a greater good. An interesting paradox, don't you think?