A concept that I believe is overrated is the mentality that you do not owe anyone anything. This idea has been popular for a while and usually covers areas of kindness and explanation. While this saying is rooted in good intent, it promotes selfishness and a lack of empathy, and is praised too highly for what it entails. To begin, the term overrated is used when a concept, place, or ideal is considered to be more important, true, or is praised more than it should be. The phrase, "You don't own anyone anything" is a phrase that has grown in popularity as a response to the phrase "treat everyone with kindness". The idea that you don't have to treat anyone with respect, kindness, or empathy is an entitled way of living and interacting with others. …show more content…
This is seen often in both platonic and romantic relationships with people and is a cold response to confrontation about someone's lackluster effort put into maintaining the bond they have with that person. Typically this phrase is used against someone who attempts to confront the other about how little they give them compared to how much you did for them and is a disheartening response that only puts in the wellbeing of one person. While they reap the benefits of whatever you provide them, asking for the same treatment back results in being shut down simply because they don't "owe" you anything. It's a very selfish mentality which is masqueraded under the guise of "putting yourself first" and is one that should not be held to such a high standard that it is considered a truthful way to live. To continue, the phrase is overrated because of its over usage as advice to those who are struggling to be secure in themselves. Advice following these ideals focuses on uplifting yourself which on it's own is a positive thing, however quickly becomes negative when paired with ideas such as obtaining this by only caring about yourself.
People often give up everything that have for others, not because they have a lot to give, but because they know what it feels like to have nothing.
It is not wrong to have luxuries, what is measured is how we obtain them, our attitude towards them and what we do when them. Do they own us, or do we own them?
...same favors nor appreciate it. Thus, we can finally conclude that being kind and nice can in return be risky and “counter beneficial”.
Another reason for someone to give what someone deserves but at the end of the day is what
...o give to get something in return. You have to open up and let people in, even though there is the probability of being hurt. Life is full of hurt, but unless you can deal with pain, how are you to ever know what happiness is?
In Barbara Ehrenreich article “The Selfish side of gratitude” we are given a new aspect of the word gratitude. She defines gratitude as an oxymoron claiming that the gratitude we as a society tend to use is mainly a selfish gratitude. She argues that we shouldn’t do away with gratitude because expressing gratitude is important but rather “it should be a more vigorous and inclusive sort of gratitude than what is being urged on us now”. This selfish side of gratitude has caused a social issue, in which people expect to gain things from showing gratitude or have become too lazy to express it to another person. This is when you get phases like how does that benefit me or it’s not my problem, because of this mentally that
Always put others’ needs before your own. Putting others’ needs before your own is being selfless and is not always easy. In NightJohn by Gary Paulsen, a slave named NightJohn goes to help others even when putting them before himself might not be easy or safe.
...ness. We should just “love our life, poor as it is” as poor people would yield “the most sugar and the most starch.” Therefore, we should be unique and should never care about money in this material world.
...teredness stems from the constant striving for the American Dream of success and especially applies to today, when we see war, embezzlement, and natural disasters all over the news. But the philanthropic acts that lift us up and allow society to survive reverse the selfishness that often presents itself during difficult situations. So while selfishness may be the “greatest curse of the human race,” selflessness is the greatest cure (William E. Gladstone quotes, 2010).
ee cummings once said, “to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight.” That quotation is exemplified in many works of literature, but the opposite is too. No matter what people try to be or not to be, they don’t always succeed. For example, in the play, Antigone, by Sophocles, the character, Antigone displays the idea of being her own person, but Creon displays the opposite of that.
As previously stated, there is a balance to be maintained between selflessness and selfishness. Logically speaking, you would always want to help people, but overexerting yourself to try and help them solve their problems, won’t really help anyone. These ideas are expressed in Selflessness and the Loss of Self (Hampton, Jean, and Daniel Farnham). The Intrinsic Worth of Persons: Contractarianism in Moral and Political Philosophy. New York: Cambridge UP, 2007.
With the development of modern society, many people say that the society has become miserable, and people only care their own profit. The self-interest is becoming the object of attacking. Thereupon, when we mention self- interest, people always mix up the concept of self-interest with selfishness. As we all known, the idea of selfishness is, “Abusing others, exploiting others, using others for their own advantage – doing something to others.” (Hospers, 59) Selfish people have no ethics, morals and standards when they do anything. At the same time, what is self – interest? Self- interest can be defined as egoism, which means a person is, “looking out for your own welfare.” (Hospers, 39) The welfare people talk about is nothing more than
that someone else calls it a luxury that they cannot afford, he or she can't
As presented by Aristotle, generosity is the intermediate of wastefulness and ungenerosity, wastefulness being the excess and ungenerosity being the deficiency. Ungenerosity is a greater evil than wastefulness and error in this direction is more common. It is always better to be wasteful than ungenerous but one should strive to reach the intermediate.
...precedence over their selfish needs. The same theme appears in “A Time to Talk”. When the speaker sees a friend approach he goes to speak with him, despite all the work he has left. Friends and family should take priority over other concerns. Helping others and creating strong relationships proves necessary for one’s own health and that of others.