張 弛

To View the Extreme Egoism from the Transportation

張 弛

Since the reform and opening up, China’s economy has developed rapidly and has been fully developed in all aspects, especially the development of the transportation industry. While during this time, China not only has economic growth opportunities, also faced with the extremely self-serving system provocation. This article attempts to demonstrate the self-centre through the aspect of traffic topics. It aims to expose the origin and disadvantages of extreme egoism, and tries to find a new way to deal with this problem.

transportation extreme egoism the reform and opening up

We all know that China’s GDP has risen tenfold since the beginning of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms and transportation industry realized from very poor condition to comprehensive and rapid development. However, we are confronted with a series of adversity which posted a threat to our society and environment. And more and more people cast doubt on this phenomenon. In fact, the root reason lies in the emergence of extreme self-interest.

The origin of extreme egoism began in earnest after China carried out reform and open policy since 1978. And extreme selfishness is developed on the basis of egocentrism which is the inability to differentiate between self and others. More specifically, it is the inability to untangle subjective schemas from objective reality; an inability to understand any perspective other than their own (Anderman, Eric M.; Anderman, Lynley H p.355). However, egocentrism is unstable, and it is easily goes to be an extreme egoism which would make bad effect on our life. Once the egoism has not been correct guidance and out of control, people began to regard themselves as the master of the world, to put their own interests over the others and the community. And this kind of drastic mind we called ---the extreme egoism which claims an action to assert one’s benef i ts without thinking morally right or not.

The harm of radical self-interest to the development of society is enormous. Extreme egoists who put their own personal interests prior to the social interests pose a danger and threat not only to friends and acquaintances but also to the community. Regarding the environment: People buy private cars just to his own self driving tour without taking into account the pollution of automobile. We are only concerned with the acquisition of wealth and possessions at the expense of natural resources and beautiful environment. Therefore, we need to change it in time. We need to fi nd an effective way to alter our home for the better.

The government has developed a series measures to solve these tuff issues. However, the fundamental measure is to guide people to change their minds. Just as the saying goes “Practice Is the Sole Criterion for the Truth”, the relationship between ideology and decision-making was a deductive one, meaning that policy-making was derived from ideological knowledge (Shambaugh p.105). Thus we can restrain the thought of extreme self - interest and transform it into a self - serving which we can also call rational egoism. Rational self i shness is the principle that an action is rational if and only if it maximizes one’s self-interest(Shaver p.33). So, there is a kind of subjective spirit which is worth aff i rmation: Respecting other’benefits. Although this spirit may not be moral sympathy, be morally justif i ed. Under certain conditions, this justif i cation can be seen as the basic stone to promote people more generous.

All of being said, the one person and our community are closely related and cannot be separated. We buy cars or trains depending on the undeniable fact that we live in the community, we live with family, friends, and nature. So the key to realizing the social steadiness is in spreading the notion of rational egoism. And we should learn from extreme egoism to the rational egoism, cultivating the conception of “we”generation not only ‘me’ generation. This kind of sordid society can alter for the better only when people fi nally realize our life is moral, precisely because it enshrines rational egoism, independence, mutually-advantageous trade, liberty, and the pursuit of our personal happiness.

Reference：

[1]Anderman, Eric M.and Anderman,Lynley H. Psychology of Classroom Learning: An Encyclopedia[M].New York: Routledge ,2009.

[2]Shambaugh, David China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation[M].Berkeley: University of California ,2008.

[3]Shaver, Robert Rational Egoism: A Selective and Critical History[M]. New York: Cambridge University ,1998.

（作者單位：西華師范大學外國語學院）