Final Term Paper

女性修养作业

exception to the general rule.

Tocqueville refers it to egoism, which he said was an “ardent and excessive love of oneself that caused people to relate everything to themselves and to prefer themselves above everything.”

The self-esteem epidemic breaks the basic rule of civilization--- the need to preserve what’s best for the group. Self-esteem demands that I must regard myself as more important than you. And I must be accommodated no matter how great the inconvenience. And following this cruel logic means that individuals not only demand that others make exceptions for them, but they show no appreciation in return. They feel absolutely no need to connect to their society---- it’s all and always just about them. Self-esteem has become the catch-all excuse for putting oneself first all the time….

2. Advertising is Killing Our Manners

All our modern advertising celebrates and indeed encourages this democratic passion for petty social advantage. We are regularly told that if we buy this brand of handbag or that brand of cell phone, we will be just that little bit better than our peers. In fact, they will no longer be our peers, for we shall have rise a delicious fraction above them.

Consider this advertisement for a Mitsubishi four-wheel drive. A young woman parks the great beast in a tight space between two average-sized cars. But she hasn’t room to open her door. Luckily she has the new sunroof feature so she simply climbs out through the top of the 4WD and gaily scrambles down the enormous hood. Solved! What the advertisement doesn’t do, of course, is to solve the problems her action has caused for others---- the drivers who return to their cars to discover they can’t open their own doors. But this is perhaps the point, for the young lady has not only found a perfect means to advantage herself, she is simultaneously inconveniencing others---- neat ways to cap off her automotive and social triumph….

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