Selfism

We live in a society that for the past generation or so has put individualism and individual rights before the needs of the community. Since the 60's, We have taught our youth to "know yourself" and "be true to yourself" and we as a culture have begun to focus on cultivating a "self." We talk about self-image and self-confidence and reinventing oneself and we read self-help books.

We all are focused on getting ahead and marketing our selves, creating a particular image and "lifestyle" (shallower than a life) and we have put these individual desires over the community desires and freedoms.
A person would rather get in an argument with another and "be true to themselves" then let something go for the sake of peace and coexistence.
Persons in this nation exercise their individual freedom of carrying guns and weapons at the high cost of others in the community's freedom to feel safe in their homes and on the streets of their neighborhoods.

In a more trivial example, there is a great bar in my neighborhood with an outdoor patio. The patio fills up for happy hour most evenings after work. The clientele are eclectic, friendly enough, and young (between the ages of 22-35) working professionals. This past fall, a woman brought her two young children to this patio. As she sat with her friends at one of the long wooden outdoor benches, her children chased one another from table to table, picked up rocks, sat in the walkways, etc. It all culminated with the children fighting and crying. One of the  little boys ran shrieking back to his mother.
This woman is the epitome of our gluttonous american society: she wanted to have it all. She wanted to meet her friends at the bar, even though she had also made the choice to have children. She was infringing on the rest of the patrons at the bar's rights to relax, enjoy adult beverages and adult conversation, in a place without crying and the worry of children.

This is common in our society. We step on one another's toes to get ahead. We flaunt our individualism and go forth with our personal agenda's without thought of the community, and how by exercising our freedoms to their fullest extent we are imposing on others in society's basic rights.
Meyer says in Why We Hate Us, "We have now discovered that for all too many grown Aquarians and their children, liberation degenerated into narcissism. What matters most is Me: the sacred, discovered, reinvented center of the universe--Me. It is selfism."

This selfism comes at a time where many Americans are moving away from their traditions and their families and settling in cities far away. These Americans "reinvent themselves" and have no culture or traditions to build from.
Selfism is the quest for a self that no one has been before. We market these selves on our facebook pages, in the way we decorate our homes, and even with the ringtones on our phone. These selves become more important than the greater good, than living in harmony with others, or than respecting and passing on family traditions. Self-esteem and confidence, while important, have become the most important, which has lead to a narcissistic society founded loosely on individual's personal interpretations on morality and ethics. People look to themselves for answers more so than they do any standing institution, and this causes even more chaos, as individuals sense of morality will differ and will not have a source.

The more we rely on our own individual minds and perspectives to shape "worldviews," "lifestyles," and ethics, the more self-centered and divided we get.

--Megan