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America Is Filled With Self-Centered Jerks

Frank Bruni: Individualism trumps the public good these days

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 17, 2012 12:54 PM CDT

(Newser) – Want to know what's wrong with America? Frank Bruni advises checking out the advice of best-selling "personal improvement guru" Tim Ferriss. If you're flying anywhere, Ferriss advises putting an unloaded starter pistol in your luggage. Sure, it will cause TSA extra work, but your luggage will be sure to be flagged and thus not get lost. In Ferriss' world, it's all about me, me, me—putting "personal advantage over the public good," writes Bruni in the New York Times.

The Ferriss example isn't an anomaly. "Selfishness run amok is a national disease," writes Bruni. Think people who scam on disability payments, or brag about cheating on their taxes, or well-to-do grandparents who fight any change to Medicare and Social Security, which would benefit their own grandkids. We live in a self-centered world now, complains Bruni. "Too many people behave as if they live in a civic vacuum, no broader implications to their individual behavior." Click for Bruni's full column.

Starter pistols might cause a TSA panic, but on the bright side, your luggage won't get lost.
Starter pistols might cause a TSA panic, but on the bright side, your luggage won't get lost.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 62 comments
Tat2d2bamuse
Jul 18, 2012 2:35 PM CDT
I am SO glad that more people see this, than just myself and a the few people I do know think this way as well. It leaves me jaw dropped in awh when my neighbor complains about being broke when she and her ''husband'' both dont work and they get over $3k in state and social security benefits.  Not only that they get there rent paid for as well. Then they have the balls to knock on my door.  When she knows we just finished filing for Bankruptcy(I was in an accident and my insurance Company abandoned me with 100k in medical debt....so I consider this legit reason to file).....My hubby is just now starting to see full paycheck's again from the garnishments finally stopping.  And I have continued medical stuff going on....uninsured still. Entitlement and self centered attitudes, like that of my neighbor are the reason we can not move forward. Whether it be those who are opposed to the idea of Social Welfare completely.  OR the dislike of the horrific amounts of abuse that we have people do with it.  Making it something you see unfavorably. Then there are those people who are still living the life.  Not yet touched by the Recession.  That dont understand nor care to understand how horrifying it is to be under that poverty line now.   What most dont understand is they are one accident.  Illness.  Or something away from hitting that poverty mark.   All it takes is one big event.  Not having the lawyer or money to dig your way out of it, and then you begin to understand. We are seeing that shift in consciousness now.  At least I hope  that is what we get out of the freaking horrible mess we are in now. I mean can we really ALL stay self centered forever?  There has to be some point in someone's life when they realize the world is not a party just for them?? Ending how I started.....So happy that we are just saying this out loud now.
KerouacDon
Jul 18, 2012 12:10 PM CDT
"But in civilized society, it is only among the inferior ranks of people that the scantiness of subsistence can set limits to the further multiplication of the human species; and it can do so in no other way than by destroying a great part of the children which their fruitful marriages produce."- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776 Economic selection- before Darwin's natural selection- this was written in our modern societal DNA at its inception.
Tology
Jul 18, 2012 10:53 AM CDT
I totally agree, as a maintenance worker at a health club it is amazing to see how many people are too lazy to throw trash in a can, flush a toilet after using it, lift a toilet seat before pissing all over it or rinse down a sink after shaving.  They figure it is up to the next guy to clean up their mess before using something.  Health clubs are the filthiest most germ infested places I have ever seen other that the local Lake Hospital System facilities.
 

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