I wanted to expand on this idea a little more.
Lets break it down. There are situations in life where your very survival is threatened. Think car accidents, house fires or camping and so on.
There are also times where to save someone you have to put your life on the line. Not because it is your job as a police officer, firefighter, EMT but because you love them.
I have read stories of men and women who lost their lives because they saved someone they loved. It might have been a parent saving their child, or a spouse saving their spouse. These stories are so powerful. They show us what true love is. That when you care about someone, you will do anything to help them survive.
I have had these experiences as well both as helping someone, and as being the one helped. This isn’t a romantic or abstract idea for me, but my very reality.
So if someone else could love me so unselfishly how can I be selfish with my love to others? How can I say no in anything when others have given me so much?
When I see selfishness of others I know that love doesn’t live in them. Anyone who had the smallest amount of empathy for others, would not want to see others suffer. Would not want to inflict cruelty or harm to others. Would want to stop others feeling pain because they care for others.
If we are cruel to others, it is because we have lost our ability to love. People who can’t love should be separated from society, because they can only do harm.