Condemnation of relativity

Have we condemned ourselves to live in a relative world? Everything in its every state is 'not-as-bad-as-the-other-one' or 'better-than-most'. Whether it is a Mc Donald' burger or a cheap print on a piece of synthetic or a horrific case of mass murder or an individual himself or the economy or anything else!! We seem to enjoying ourselves with the burden of an unnecessary comparison all the time.
There was a bomb blast that killed 5. Oh no!! But thank god it wasn't as bad as the last one that killed 20.
Sakshi scored an 87% in her board exams. That's nice but Lavanaya scored 93%.
Indian economy is growing at 8% every year. Damn!! The Chinese beat us at that too.
Virendra Sehwag made 300 runs in his last test against Australia. But he is still behind Sachin's record of 39 test centuries (I hope that's the correct number).
I fail to understand the logic. Is an achievement not good enough in itself? Is an act of wrong doing more rightful if it harms lesser number of people?
Now, the critics might argue that comparisons push you to perform better, raise the standard and achieve more in life. Maybe, but that is a comparison that one should make to himself. My take on the matter is completely different though. The comparisons, for most, are severely limiting because the limits of another can't be the reflection of your caliber. We should be able to judge how good we have been and how much better we can get, without or without having someone else's performance as a benchmark.
I earn a million dollars and I don't care about the guy who earns 10 million or the one who earns 100 dollars!! I am happy earning my million. But I am not yet complacent because I know I can earn more. And I will, no matter if nobody else does or everybody does.
I am not fair and I will make dark beautiful, with or without a story of a black swan to guide me.

Alexander never conquered the world by comparing himself to any other ruler or kingdom. He knew what he could and wanted to achieve and set out to do just that. And we need to do just that. After all, for how long do we want someone's failure to be a measure of our success? Or vice versa.

The Objectivity of Selfishness

"I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction."

- Ayn Rand

This is a statement that makes me think after the sessions over the last two days and it really does. I have never known that selfishness could perhaps be a virtue.

And this made me look up the meaning of selfish in the dictionary. It says, 'Concerned chiefly or only with oneself'...

And now I think that if it is actually what the definition says, it is MAYBE, not a bad thing. Afterall, be a judge yourself and say, which part of the statement exudes negativity? None actually...so what makes it bad? What would make it bad is when you do the above at the cost of someone else, overstepping someone's interests for your own such that it leads to their downfall.

Stop. Pause. Think.

Spare a minute and you will realise that there is, probably, no greater service than service to self. Because an unhappy soul is not the agent of happiness to the outside world. He can not be.

This thought actually compelled me to read Ayn Rand's Virtue of Selfishness...

Maybe, yet another selfish pursuit to the need for an introspective today!!!