Selfish v. selfless

I keep being told that selflessness is the correct path, that in order to be a good person, one must be selfless.

I disagree, this is not the ideals that this country was built nor that i understand to be true. right about now, if you're reading this, you're probably freaking out about what i just said and ready to ram it down my throat, hear me out. this country was built on the ideal that every man has rights that are impossible to take away from him: among those being his right to live, his right to liberty, and his right to happiness. I don't know about you, but if we were built on selfless ideals instead of these selfish ideals, our Declaration would've gone like this: Man has rights to life, liberty, and happiness; but this can and should be given up in the case where your rights interfere with the well-being of your fellow man. doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

now why do i understand that a selfish man is in the right, and a selfless man is in the wrong. while it is true that a selfish man doesn't give to charity or help his fellow man (which are apparently virtues of goodness) he doesn't and won't impede on them, and will never force his ideals, or allow the peoples ideals to be forced on him; his only goal is his own ambition. still sound sucky to you? a selfless man is any man who has no will, only the will of those around him. sounds like a great guy, no? he isn't, every corrupt dictator, politician, and lawyer is included in this group. but how is that possible? those people are "EVIL", they aren't selfless, but instead selfish. I say this is incorrect, while this people are driven by ambition, their ambition is to gain power, and what is power but what is power but a trade off of own's abilities to gain the trust (or power) of those around him. all he ends up becoming is a mirror of the ambitions around him, thus he is truly selfless.

now the point of a selfish person not giving his time, talent, or treasure to those around him, this must make him bad. what is charity but a means to bring down others to try and "help" the lowest of the low. but what are your thoughts when you give to charity? would you want people to just give you money? a man is entitled to the sweat of his own brow, not to the sweat of another. charity is just another form of selflessness. a truly charitable person stops being who they are to serve the people around him. but what about the people around him? what do they do with it? do they become independent? no, they simply become the same as the man who helped them, but with less means. does this make them good people? I personally would be frightened of this society. a person acting off of what the man next to him thinks, that man acting off of what the man next to him thinks, and that next man doing the same on into infinity, until no action has any person or group that caused it, it just happens. that's when the majority stops being individuals, and becomes an ocean, crushing all who opposes their ideals of no ideals.

I had a dream last night about this, a demon who wishes to crush people, so he creates a world where he has power over everyone. eventually what happens is that man becomes nothing but a husk, having no purpose but to please or anger his people, which is impossible unless he wishes them to be angry or pleased.

Every selfish man sees that every man has the ability to do what he wishes. to be independent. and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit.