Selfishness to a sickening degree

In our time, we are all capitalists and egomaniacs to an extent in which it is almost despicable. Everyone wants to be rewarded with material goods for all services they do, no matter how small they may be. If you do not agree with me, then keep reading and maybe you will see what I mean.

I must confess quite quickly that I am somewhat guilty of this crime myself as well, though I have improved myself from the way I used to be. I can remember people, including myself, doing quite a lot of weird stuff back at elementary school to earn a couple of bucks. Some of those things were down right harmful. But we all accepted it, because either you were the performer, doing it to gain some more money, or you were the payee, who had simply given the performer the option of gaining some money from doing something stupid to entertain the rest of us. Someone even drank a glass of water which had been used to cleanse paintbrushes.

This behavior isn't only found among kids, though. No, don't believe that for a second. We live in a world where people are being killed nearly everyday because of money. People are killing people they have no idea who are because it will pay them. And still, people are PROUD of this behavior! That may actually be the sickest part of it all. I can get that some people would kill someone else if it was to earn money when you're so broke your family is starving and you're the provider of your family, but even then only to a certain extent. Murder should always be the very last way to solve a situation.

You may now sit and think that was quite a leap of me, going from "child pranks" to murder, but really, the line isn't as long as it should be. In both situations is there someone paying someone else to do something stupid that they probably wouldn't have done if it weren't for the money.

Then there's my generation which we can in a way call the "rewarded generation". Someone recently made it clear to me, that we were far from as innocent as I had believed up until then. There isn't a long time since we had a fundraiser for children with cancer, where there really weren't anyone showing up before they were offered a day off. Then there were suddenly 90% of all the ones asked showing up. This was quite a wake up call to me. What is really going on with the world today? Are we really so selfish that we won't do anything we know to be good unless it rewards us somehow?