In a recent article, Umair Haque explained pretty well why the spreading attitude of me-me-me and to hell with society and the related phenomenon of splintering into tribes are so damaging for all of us, including for those who live this attitude. You may know people who need this explained to them. I sure do. Hence this article.
Salient Quotes:
“What’s a place where there’s no trust? A jungle. Maybe a prison. … Without trust, a society can’t be a society. It becomes something else entirely: a place where predators rule. … There must be some level of trust that binds people together, or else a society will almost inevitably decay into demagoguery, collapse, and ruin.”
“Americans can’t have what the rest of the rich world takes for granted: public healthcare, education, finance. They live profoundly crippled lives: precarious, anxious, afraid. They will never retire, can’t afford to educate their kids, and their incomes have been stagnant for decades. No wonder there is widespread rage.”
“First, trust is lost. Then, society loses the ability to function. Then, public goods are lost. Without public goods, people’s lives shatter. The rage that results from broken dreams produces demagoguery. Today’s gilded demagogue, then, isn’t the issue: the loss of trust is.”
Here is the link to the full article: The Five Letter Word That Spells the End of Societies
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