Your viewpoint that the selfish people are the ones 'zooming by in the closing lane' is skewed.
To put it bluntly there are two lanes, use them. The selfish people are the ones in the not closing lane pissed off about the people trying to merge.

Two lanes carry more traffic than 1, therefore traffic should use all the lanes avaiable for as long as possible.
The shorter a 1 lane road is the more traffic it can carry, thus making a 1 lane road longer by merging early make it flow slower.

If people would use both lanes two things would happen;
1. nobody would zoom by, since all the lans are full. ( wouldn't that be nice)
2. The traffic jam would be shorter, but wider.
3. Since no one is zooming by and cutting in disruptions to traffic flow will smoother.
4. Blood pressure will drop.
5. Overall time in traffic will be shorter since merging will happen in one place not randomaly along the length of the traffic jam.