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- Robert Frost
At the end of the street onto which I drive when delivering rare blood, there WAS a beautiful vista of our lake.
WAS. Now, there is a grim brick wall being erected by the mansion being built on lake front property.
There seems no valid reason for the wall except to deny drivers along the road the view of the lake which cost some unknown person large dollars.
The grey wall seems to say: "I paid for this lovely view,
and
IT IS ALL MINE!"
The mansion is huge and blocks out the view of the lake as well. A piece of serene beauty which brought calm to my busy day is gone.
It got me to thinking about how selfishness has become acceptable and the norm these days.
I hear words echo from 1940:
"The way of Life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate,
has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.
Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little.
More than machinery, we need humanity.
More than cleverness, we need kindness, and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent, and all will be lost..."
— Charlie Chaplin’s “The Dictator.”
The problem is that in today’s society and culture, everyone is absorbed in themselves,
and how they can become richer, happier, or whatever it is that they personally are chasing.
Don’t jump — until I get this picture lined up!
How about that incident last year in the Bronx in May, when Bahsid McLean, 23, murdered his mom, Tanya Byrd,
then posed with a picture of her severed head.
The following October in Florida, high-school junior Malik Whiter snapped a selfie in a classroom while his teacher was seen going through labor in the background.
Or this Selfie:
Have we lost our souls?
In an article for Psychology Today, doctor Pamela Rutledge says that taking selfies
can be detrimental to a person’s mental health and
that indulging in them is indicative of narcissism, low self esteem, attention seeking behavior and self-indulgence.
Some experts and physicians feel that society is collectively engaged in deep denial
about how dangerous it is to interact with screens without setting limits on how much time is spent doing so.
Facebook use has been linked to depression while Twitter use has been linked to low self esteem and narcissism.
What do you think about all of this?
