A more nefarious virus than Zika virus

As a baby dolphin arrived on a beach in Argentina recently, huge crowd gathered to touch the small mammal and took selfies with it. Unfortunately, the dolphin died on the spot. The World Wild Fund for Nature said that the poor dolphin was a La Plata dolphin, an endangered species which are numbered only 30,000, inhabiting only in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

Pope Francis lost his cool during his visit to Mexico last week. While the pope greeted worshipers in the city of Morelia, a citizen tugged his cuff roughly, making the pontiff almost fall onto a boy in a wheel chair. The person rushed to the pope to get rosaries. The pope, who is known for generosity, first checked if the boy is safe and shouted with a stern face, “Don’t be selfish!”

David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, diagnosed today’s culture in his book “The Road to Character.” He said there was a shift from a culture of self-effacement that says “Nobody’s better than me, but I’m no better than anyone else” to a culture of self-promotion that says “Recognize my accomplishments, I’m pretty special.” He reminded us of the value of the “Little Me” culture that stresses inner maturity rather than the “Big Me” culture that excessively promotes oneself. In this sense, life is not a story of success but of growth.

A virus is sweeping the world: the excessive self-love virus, which is made up of selfishness and is more threatening than the Zika virus in that it is not infected but it is created by itself. People have changed little internally at a time when a spaceship is sent to Mars and a gravity wave is measured. It is an era of “excessive self-love” when people take selfies while watching a little dolphin dying and put a disabled child in danger to get what they want. It is why “Don’t be selfish!” sounds so desperate.

고미석기자 mskoh119@donga.com