People today are selfish and greedy. Do you agree? essay English
The statement is a generalisation. There is no doubt that some people are selfish and greedy, but there are a lot more people in the world who are selfless and generous. The idea that people are selfish probably came from a common tendency to exaggerate negative aspects or unhappy aspects of life.
For example we often come across the sign "Beware of Dogs," warning us. Has anyone ever seen a sign which said “Relax, Friendly Dog”, even though it is very true that many dogs are indeed friendly animals.
The newspapers play up on every bit of nasty news to attract more readers. At least all the local newspapers seem to report only murders, rapes, thefts and robberies. If we were to do a survey, we will see that more bad news is reported than good.
One of the local papers, a typical sensation seeker, writes eye-catching exaggerated reports of local bad news and splashes the front page with coloured pictures and the rest of the paper comprises of stale and old news. The same paper is very popular ! “Newspapers are great culprits in playing up selfishness and greed.
Books and cinemas too portray selfishness and greed. Somehow there seems to be a fascination for selfishness and greed. Some of the villainy of cinema, villains and evil characters in books are incredible. It is obvious that great trouble has been taken to portray such characters.
People who read the books and watch the movies will soon come to believe that there really are a lot of such people around and look at anyone they meet with distrust. This belief will no doubt be reinforced by the news of greed and selfishness reported in the news
The majority of the people of the world are neither selfish nor greedy. It is just the continuous harping, by the mass media, of selfish and greedy behaviour that makes it appear as if everyone is selfish and greedy.
We do hear of remarkable feats of selfless sacrifice by people for their fellow men. Hearing of these reinforces my belief that people are mostly selfless and generous.