Reflection on the self-made man and self awareness

Blog Post Four: Reflection on the self-made man and self awareness Wenqin Weng
Among various successful people in our society, generally the most respected are the self-made men. In today’s presentation, we discussed how no one can actually be a self-made person. Indeed, without some help from the outside almost no one could succeed. However, many ignore all the exterior factors and are often stuck in the hellucination that they themselves are self-made. They live a satisfying life and only give credit to themselves for their success. Some argue that in a society such as the United States, everyone has a chance to succeed if one works hard. Therefore whoever is in poverty must be the ones who do not work hard. This belief is ridiculous, yet widespread. However, they forget that sometimes their success are based on someone else’s misfortune. In the “free market” system in the United States, the freedom is only meant for those who has solid background, and it is increasingly hard for the poor to get the same opportunities when they are mired in the vicious cycle.
It then all comes back to the problem of awareness. I further recalled a few years ago, some representatives of the developed countries argued that China is the main country that causes the environmental pollution today and in 2017 president Trump even opted out the Paris Agreement. However, the environmental pollution we are facing today are the direct results of the industrialization of the developed countries dozens of years ago. Unfortunately, it seems that this obvious fact is ignored by most people in the western atmosphere. It seems, thus, that when it comes to interest, personal or national, one tend to be less self aware.
At the end of day, perhaps we should examine ourselves three times a day, as Master Zeng suggests. Instead of focusing on our successes, we should be more aware of what helps us succeed and what privileges we enjoy, so that we can better understand the inequality in our society.

Comments

  1. jdoutMarch 4, 2018 at 5:32 PM

    Hi Oscar, for some reason your articles end up going way beyond the margins. I just cut and pasted here for ease of reading.
    jdv

    Blog Post Four: Reflection on the self-made man and self awareness Wenqin Weng

    Among various successful people in our society, generally the most respected are the self-made men. In today’s presentation, we discussed how no one can actually be a self-made person. Indeed, without some help from the outside almost no one could succeed. However, many ignore all the exterior factors and are often stuck in the hellucination that they themselves are self-made. They live a satisfying life and only give credit to themselves for their success. Some argue that in a society such as the United States, everyone has a chance to succeed if one works hard. Therefore whoever is in poverty must be the ones who do not work hard. This belief is ridiculous, yet widespread. However, they forget that sometimes their success are based on someone else’s misfortune. In the “free market” system in the United States, the freedom is only meant for those who has solid background, and it is increasingly hard for the poor to get the same opportunities when they are mired in the vicious cycle.
    It then all comes back to the problem of awareness. I further recalled a few years ago, some representatives of the developed countries argued that China is the main country that causes the environmental pollution today and in 2017 president Trump even opted out the Paris Agreement. However, the environmental pollution we are facing today are the direct results of the industrialization of the developed countries dozens of years ago. Unfortunately, it seems that this obvious fact is ignored by most people in the western atmosphere. It seems, thus, that when it comes to interest, personal or national, one tend to be less self aware.
    At the end of day, perhaps we should examine ourselves three times a day, as Master Zeng suggests. Instead of focusing on our successes, we should be more aware of what helps us succeed and what privileges we enjoy, so that we can better understand the inequality in our society.

    Comments

    What a great typo: "hellucination"
    Who is Master Zeng? And where did he write those wise words?!
    I totally agree. Integrity is in a fragile equilibrium: one has to think of it constantly and yet forget it too, if it is to remain alive in the center of one's actions.

    ReplyDelete

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