From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   I have heard it said that young people today care only about what they want.   
   In fact I have seen good qualities in this generation. They appear to be   
   interested in big causes, and they appear to be of an intense disposition and   
   are willing to    
   passionately embrace important issues.   
      
   I come from the former Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, people were taught   
   to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. They worked and sacrificed, only   
   to find the fruits of their work wind up in Swiss bank accounts. They   
   sacrificed themselves for    
   absolutely nothing.   
      
   When I came to America with these same values, people were calling me an   
   egomaniac and a commie. Then they decided that I was selfish and that they   
   were not. This is beyond ridiculous.   
      
   With altruism, we see many people not only not encouraging it but in fact   
   attacking it. A New Age guru once told me that altruism is based on being   
   three years old and having his whole existence depending on other people. A   
   man with lots of psychological    
   knowledge said things to the effect of that if you don't have high self-esteem   
   you have nothing to offer anyone else. So we have situations such as one I've   
   seen a long time ago, in which a naturally altruistic woman said that if she   
   cannot live for    
   herself she can't live. This is completely wrong. There are many things to   
   live for besides yourself; and the people who say that you not only should,   
   but must, live for yourself are wrong in every way that counts.   
      
   Now I, being obviously such a commie, am perfectly willing to work for the   
   benefit of things other than myself. But I do not want my work to be wasted. I   
   would not sacrifice myself for the greed of a bureaucrat. If I am to sacrifice   
   myself for someone or    
   something, it better be something good.   
      
   When people have attitudes such as ones expressed by the New Age guru, what we   
   see is people being taught to be jerks. A question that one may ask is, Why   
   would one go to war to defend people who have such convictions? According to   
   some in New Age,    
   everyone makes their destiny with their consciousness. So does this mean that   
   the 500,000 heroic Americans who died in the Second World War caused it   
   through negativity in their consciousness? Once again, why would one be   
   willing to go to war to defend    
   people who believe such a thing?   
      
   The baby boom generation started out altruistic and for a long time made an   
   ideology of selfishness. As they become older and more infirm they may   
   recognize that they need others, and that they need to be good to them. It is   
   wrong to claim that altruism    
   is somehow infantile. It is wrong to demand self-esteem. And it is completely   
   wrong to claim that people must live for themselves or else they cannot live.   
      
   So of course the young people these days have been fed this foolishness, and   
   any number of them absorbed it. However there are others who have more of a   
   clue. I feel closer to this generation than I do to my own, and I think that   
   they are excellent. And    
   I sincerely hope that their rightful efforts bear good fruit.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)