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Ow selfishness is ruining our society and turning our children into monsters - Non-Fiction

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Ow selfishness is ruining our society and turning our children into monsters - Non-Fiction

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The article related to the theme, by talking about how selfishness ruins society. By selfishness ruining society, it is obviously an issue, whether it's a friendship, dating relationship, or family relationship, selfishness is still an underlying issue to the world.
Well the article did contribute to helping me understand the topic better, by listing examples of why selfishness is ruining society. For example, the article did say, "Real happiness and meaning in life comes mainly through relationships" said Gerhardt, a women.
The writer of the article helped get the point across that selfishness is ruining society, by listing examples and having good reasoning. One of the writers good supported reasonings was "...based on interviews with 35,000 children, parents and professionals, said the 'me first' attitude in adults, in which they struggle for status and success, was causing family breakdowns, competition in education, a growing gap between the rich and poor, unkindness among teenagers and premature sexualisation of children by advertisers". I thought the example talked about adults being selfish influenced children to grow up to become selfish themselves.

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It's not all about you! How selfishness is ruining our society and turning our children into monsters

Our 'must-have' culture is damaging family life as materialism and a pervading sense of selfishness become the norm in Britain. That was the stark warning from Graham Gorton, chairman of the Independent schools Association, earlier this month.

The pressure on parents to enrol their children in every conceivable club and spoil them with gadgets and clothes to keep up with their peers is just one symptom of a sense of selfishness that has proliferated in the past decade. And it's not just children who are suffering.

During last year's swine flu scare, a woman who felt ill and was sneezing and coughing decided to cheer herself up by going to the hairdressers. she was either oblivious to, or unconcerned about, the prospect of spreading her germs among the other half a dozen people in the salon.

All that mattered to her was making herself feel better. Another woman, driving to the supermarket after work, picked up her phone and started a text conversation with her friend. Perhaps she didn't realise that a huge amount of road traffic accidents are caused by texting while driving.

When she arrived at the shop, it was very crowded. exasperated, she decided to park in one of the disabled spaces near the entrance rather than take one of the many unoccupied ones a few hundred yards away. on one level, these incidents, which did not result in death or disaster, could be viewed as trivial.

Alternatively, they could be seen as everyday examples of a society in which people pursue their own interests without regard for others' needs.

It is this latter view to which sue Gerhardt, the author of a powerful new book, the selfish society, subscribes. the book calls for an end to greed and materialism, and the creation of a mature and empathic, emotionally literate society.

'It's fair enough that people work hard and want a reasonable lifestyle,' she says. 'But things have got out of balance. things like people buying these big four-wheel drives that gobble up petrol. this seems to be not just selfishness but also shortsightedness, because they're not really thinking about the long-term future of all of us. They're thinking: "this is going to make me look powerful or rich."

'But there are other values that are actually more important than our material well-being: the value of community, family, caring for other people, feeling connected to your young children.'

Instead of continuing down the path of 'consumer mania' and individualism, she believes it is time to re-assess things and prioritise our emotional rather than material well-being.

Gerhardt, a psychotherapist for the Oxford Parent Infant Project, is not alone in raising concerns about the direction we are collectively travelling in.

A couple of months ago, the Roman Catholic Church issued a report saying good citizenship and genuine neighbourliness were being overlooked and that people were being 'alienated by a selfish society'.

The church's report criticised the behaviour of MPs as well as those in financial institutions, and said it believed 'the vast majority of ordinary British people instinctively want . . . to belong to a world in which people care for one another.'

Similarly, the Good Childhood Inquiry, which was commissioned by The Children's Society, claimed that almost all the problems facing young people stem from the culture of 'excessive individualism' that has developed in recent decades.

The pioneering two-year investigation, based on interviews with 35,000 children, parents and professionals, said the 'me first' attitude of adults, in which they struggle for status and success, was causing family breakdowns, competition in education, a growing gap between rich and poor, unkindness among teenagers and premature sexualisation of children by advertisers.

The report pointed out that the number of children with emotional or behavioural problems has risen from 10 per cent in 1986 to 16 per cent, and that British children are less happy than those in almost any other developed country.

Bob Reitemeier, the chief executive of The Children's Society, said the report was a wake-up call and that 'the aggressive pursuit of individual success by adults today is the greatest threat to our children'.

He says the one common theme that linked all of the problems facing children was 'excessive individualism', which had filled the vacuum created by the decline of religious belief and community spirit.

'The widespread belief among adults is that the prime duty of the individual is to make the most of their own life, rather than to contribute to the lives of others,' he adds

This view chimes with Gerhardt's. She says: 'There has been this great drive to be good consumers. We've been encouraged to be greedy and to spend money we didn't have.

'If everyone around you is behaving selfishly, if our culture and society tells us this is the norm, it can be difficult not to join in. It's almost as if we think it's a good thing to override our feelings and just work, work, work, and consume, consume, consume.'

Children from broken homes are 50 per cent more likely to suffer problems at school or become depressed

The consequences, she believes, affect us all. 'It may look different at different ends of the social scale: for the poorest socio-economic groups it can result in being caught up in violent crime or in the benefits culture, while for the rich it is more likely to result in being caught up in excessive consumption or fraudulent financial dealings.'

Sceptics have accused Gerhardt of having an idealistic vision. But as countless studies have shown, we might have become wealthier over the past 50 years, but there has been no corresponding rise in happiness.

Depression is rising, and is expected to be the second most disabling condition in the world by 2020, behind heart disease. Chronic anxiety and stress are also sharply increasing.

We have become used to hearing that we live in a 'broken society'. And we're certainly living in a broken economy. We tend to blame politicians for all that is wrong; the politicians tend to blame each other. But pointing the finger elsewhere is the easy option.

Gerhardt believes it is a collective, deep- rooted ' impoverished emotional culture' that has led to the breakdown in our society.

The only way to reverse this trend, she believes, is to change the way we think, which is easier said than done, because it is a thousand times easier to notice the selfish behaviour and flaws in other people than it is to acknowledge them in ourselves.

We also, according to Gerhardt, need to fundamentally re-assess the way we raise children and actually pay mums and dads to stay at home during a child's formative years.

'Today, an increasingly common and worrying manifestation of parenting is the combination of material indulgence with emotional neglect,' she says, adding that she sees it across all social classes.

'I have met some parents who are devoted to their babies, and take great pride in their child's appearance - whether they express it through a fondness for "bling" such as gold chains and bracelets, or whether they lavish money on high-end designer clothes - yet they fail to recognise their babies' need for personal attention.'

For these parents, Gerhardt argues, love is more easily expressed through buying things rather than by giving their time. But as she says, a child is not born wanting a Gucci T-shirt. A child is born wanting love, attention, security and boundaries.

Other parents, perhaps uncomfortable dealing with conflict, will try to smooth things over with material items. But a consequence of showering children with gifts is that they grow up believing they solve all problems and lead to a satisfying and happy life.

It has also resulted in a growing phenomenon of emotional neglect among children in the midst of material plenty. Being equipped with emotional security and good social skills can be a far better recipe for a happy, meaningful and rewarding life.

To try to create a better society, she would like to see the right to flexible working hours, access to parent-infant psychotherapy and a 'parenting wage' of £16,000 guaranteed for everyone who wants to stay at home for two years to raise their baby so that they can focus on it as a real job.

Gerhardt believes the first two years of a child's life are critically important in determining the kind of adult he or she will grow into.

She also believes babies thrive during this period if they are raised in a responsive, loving, consistent one-to-one relationship, preferably with their mother, rather than the patchy childcare frequently on offer to overstretched working parents.

She believes that taking the time to invest in these early foundations is far more important than striving to have a bigger house or getting into the best school.

'If we don't change the way we bring up children, beginning from the moment that they are born,' she says, 'then we will stay depressed and in debt.'

Gerhardt has no doubt that a more emotionally-aware, less selfish society would be a healthier and happier one. 'Real happiness and meaning in life comes mainly through relationships,' she says.

'There are a lot of very caring people out there, people who support charities, volunteer and help their neighbours. People do these things not only because they're worth doing but also because being part of that caring mentality gives you self-respect.

'That "I'm just going to look after myself and get what I can get" mentality tends to leave a nasty taste in the mouth. It's not satisfying. In the West, we have acquired so much stuff, but it has failed to make people feel good inside. On the contrary, it has made us increasingly depressed.'

The Selfish Society by Sue Gerhardt is published by Simon & Schuster at £12.99.

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It's not all about you! How selfishness is ruining our society and turning our children into monsters

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Our 'must-have' culture is damaging family life as materialism and a pervading sense of selfishness become the norm in Britain. That was the stark warning from Graham Gorton, chairman of the Independent schools Association, earlier this month.

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The poem relates to the topic or theme, by defining that selfishness takes over, but assures that there is a choice that people could make instead. The poem was saying that people don't have to let selfishness ruin their friendships, because people have the option to cancel out being selfish.
The poem helped me understand the theme better, because the poem illustrated that someone could lose or keep a friendship depending on their actions for letting selfish acts controll them or not. In other words, someone could let selfish acts control who they are or the person could choose the right to not let that be the case.
Alistair Muir, the author of the poem, demonstrated that selfishness is a choice, by stating, "...That others have the right to choose, to keep your friendship or lose it, ...the selfishness must die...". Those parts of the poem really are the main points of the poem. They show the true meaning and gist of the whole thing.

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We have to focus less on me, / in life must there a freedom be. / To like and love or not . Published at the web's largest poetry site.

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This image relates to the theme, by expressing that the little girl is being selfish with her food by not wanting to share with anyone. She seems to not care whether or not another person is wanting some. She seems to be only wanting the hashbrown for herself and only herself.
This image helped me understand the theme better, by the image showing me that a selfish person only cares for themselves, even if it means that person won't share their food with anyone else. The sentence in the image helped suggest that someone asked the girl to share her hashbrown and by the look on her face she was not willing to share any of it with anyone.
Whoever took the photograph or image collected the expression on the girl's face that showed no interest in sharing what she had, which helped the idea that some people don't like sharing food with others, because it's theirs.

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Toy Story 3 Where Woody decided to leave Sunnyside - Multi-Media 

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Toy Story 3 Where Woody decided to leave Sunnyside - Multi-Media 

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This scene related to the theme or the topic by demonstrating some of Andy's toys being selfish, because they wanted to stay and get played with by kids, instead of going back to Andy's, which was what Woody was planning to do. Woody tried explaining to the toys that Andy cared for them, but they believed Andy didn't care anymore, so they were going to stay at the daycare, Sunnyside.
The conflict helped show me that selfishness can split friendship apart, because Woody did get frustrated with the toys and left there without him. All Woody was trying to do was get the toys all on the same idea as him. Mainly to not disappoint or hurt Andy when he notices all his toys have disappeared.
Walt Disney Pictures created the film and expressed to the audience that selfishness can break apart friendship, by Woody saying, " I can't believe how selfish you all are" to the toys, then all the toys expressing displeasing looks, and ending the scene with Woody leaving.

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Toy story 3 Woody decide to leave Sunnyside

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Uploaded by Ultimate Woody fan on 2015-10-09.

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Selfishness is an underlying issue that ruins friendship - Theme of Topic 

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Selfishness is an underlying issue that ruins friendship - Theme of Topic 

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This theme symbolizes that being a selfish person can ruin their friendship. Selfishness is when someone shows that he or she only truly cares and is concerned for themselves. When being a friend is when someone cares for the other person and is involved in their life somehow. Being a selfish person and trying to be involved in a friendship do not workout together, because being in a friend relationship means one does care of the other person. It's either be a selfish individual or include others into their life, the person deciding between these two really only have one or the other option. Someone can't choose both, because one ends up canceling out the other. What that meant was that being committed to a friendship understood that the person wouldn't continue to be selfish or if the person was selfish that person wouldn't continue to have friends, probably because the friends would end up getting tired of dealing with that person.