Are we selfish and inconsiderate by nature?

Just look around you - litter and garbage everywhere. Chaos at bus-stops, chaos at railway stations, stampedes at fairs and public events, and of course, the mad traffic.
Why? Dig deeper. When you stand in a queue at a bank or any counter, the first thing that happens is a hand appearing by your side, and pushing an envelope / cash ahead of you. Turn around and there is a person nonchalantly standing there, continuing to push ahead. The urge to 'get ahead of everyone else' overwhelms and suppresses any stray thought of consideration for the unfortunate being standing ahead. It is this irrational urge that makes us the laughing stock of the world when our people scramble to get ahead of the queue even at the departure gate at airports. These are educated people, many are 'knowledge workers' (knowledge? what knowledge?) - yet, their brain stops functioning logically, the 'knowledge' evaporates into thin air and they join the crowd, jostling to get ahead. The fact that they all have boarding passes with their seats marked on them, escapes their attention. And the same happens when alighting from the aircraft. If it was not for the narrow aisles, they would cause a stampede there too.
We see well-dressed men casually opening a 'gutkha' packet, emptying it into their mouths and flinging the wrapper on the street. Another equally fashionably dressed man stands at a busy street corner perusing a sheet of paper. When he is done, he tears it into pieces and scatters the pieces right there. The same person goes to Singapore and does not throw even a scrap of paper there. Why?
Of course, we are all too familiar with the unique phenomenon of men of all ages and social status, urinating against any available wall, spitting anywhere, even inside buildings, spattering staircases with pan-stained spittle, hawking and spitting on the street, and of course, people of all ages using pavements and railway tracks for defecating. Have we, as a nation, lost all sense of shame? We have self-styled brigades to 'preserve Indian culture against the decadent western influence', people who attack young couples showing affection publicly, who attack girls wearing western dress, even trousers or a sleeveless kameez, calling them 'shameless' to display affection in public or wear a sleeveless dress. These very people will then go across and urinate publicly, and litter the street with garbage. Indian culture?
No, Indian culture is now unfortunately confined to the minority of citizens who are misfits in their own society; who are derided if they show courtesy, who are violently attacked if they stand up for themselves or anyone else.
What is the root cause for this abominable situation? It is just an all-encompassing selfishness. When I want to get ahead at any cost, I will break every queue and every rule. When I am selfish, I do not care if the street is littered - it is not 'my house'. I do not care if I spit or urinate in a public place - 'my house' is clean.
Can we change? We have to change. We cannot give up. The change can only happen in the young generation - not even the teenagers and college students today - they are hardened and cynical. It is the young innocent primary school children who need to be taught right behaviour, concern for others and the concept of being considerate and courteous.
There are two ways of doing this - remember the book 'The Water Babies' by Charles Kingsley? We all read it in our childhood. There were two characters in it - 'Be-done-by-as-you-did' - who was a person who punished the wrong doer in the same way as he / she did to another, and the other was the gentle ' do-as-you-would-be-done-by' who counseled the child to put himself in the other's shoes and treat the other person as he would like to be treated.
Which approach do you think would work with our people?
I honestly do not know.