Obsession with self

                Today we look at society and find things that we know are morally unjust. Things such as murder, rape, theft, cheating, and the list goes on. But my question is why do human beings treat each other this way? We are all in the same boat together, we live on the same planet, and we have the same problems.  I believe the reason that people treat each other in ways people should not be treated, is because our society has taught us to only care for ourselves. Our self interest wants us to find what your heart desires, then strive to that end no matter who or what gets in our way. People are so self absorbed that they have no time to talk to the homeless guy, or even help an elderly lady cross the street. It is our obsession with self that drives us to do such things. We never stop trying to become greater, richer, and or, more important. Any number of things could have been named off in the sentence above; it just depends on the person. We are all guilty of this self obsession and none of us seem to care that we do not care about most people around us.

Self obsession in and of itself does not seem all that important a social problem; ultimately it is the root of multiple social problems today. For example why do people steal, cheat, lie, embezzle money, put others down, show off, and cut corners? It is because they are trying to make their existence more favorable than it is at that moment in time. This idea of the need for more is rooted in our society today, along with the idea that more is always better. As an example take someone who makes one hundred thousand dollars a year in salary. In general is this person content? Or would this person like to make one million dollars a year? Self interest dictates the person would opt for the one million dollars a year, but which is better, A or B? This person can live on either but of course they would take the salary that pays more just because it is more. A few years down the road this person will become dissatisfied with their current one million dollar salary and want more.

This obsession with more is what dives our world today and in return we receive what we have sewn. This is a society that is so self-absorbed with its own endeavors that we can only see as far as the next goal in our seemingly important lives. We are human like the rest of the world, so why do we need a one million dollar a year salary? The unhappy truth is that we’d not want to hear that we really don’t need all of that money and that more is not always better. Monetary gain should not be the most important thing in life. Our human nature tells us that we need that new thing or more money or more power. But really all we need is air, water, food, a place to sleep and people around us who love us for who we are. If we could all just look past the smog called monetary gain and see others beyond our own self obsession. We should realize, (before it’s too late) that we are reliant on each other. Without each other, each of us would have nothing. Only then can this obsession with self be cured, from the inside out, starting with the individual.

By: Greg Benson