¶ … Dry White Season
In Andre Brink's novel A Dry White Season, the background of apartheid-era South Africa sets the stage for a legal battle which challenged the racial policies of the period. During Apartheid, the governmental regime set about a system of government-sanctioned racism which forced the black people of the area to suffer greatly. The story is on the surface a murder mystery which then enters the genre of political thriller. The central character of the story is white school teacher Ben du Toit. Although he begins the story as a selfish man concerned more with preserving the status quo and with it his own protection than in investigating the brutality of an assault on an innocent young man. Through the course of the story, du Toit evolves into a man who cannot stand by while allowing the present racist government policy to continue on unquestioned. His selfishness morphs from a single-minded determination to stay out of the situation into a single-minded determination to find the answer regarding who murdered his gardener Jonathan. In that regard, Ben du Toit begins the story as a selfish man and ends the story as a selfish man as well. Although the target of his selfishness changes from himself to the society around him, he still allows his determination to prohibit him from being influenced by the people around him or fulfilling his responsibilities to the people who care about him, including his wife.
Schoolteacher Ben du Toit had never been an exciting man. He was a teacher with an ambitious wife who made dollhouses to relax. When Gordon Ngubene, a man who was both the janitor at du Toit's school and a personal friend, comes to du Toit for help when he cannot find his son after a violent excursion with police forces, du Toit's instinct is to protect himself. Instead of going to the police directly for information...
Selfishness Like any other sort of human vice, selfishness -- or the excessive concern with one's own individual desires and appetites -- can be threatening to the established social order if it slips out of control. Our own definition of selfishness takes into account its social effects: we establish selfishness as a vice by emphasizing not only the excessive self-regard it demonstrates, but also the excessive disregard for the well-being of
Selfishness of Employees There are a number of problems that need to be addressed by the company, and to do this will require decisive leadership. That leadership must combine a common strategic vision with the ability to transfer ideas between cultures. This paper will explain this concept of leadership as it pertains to running a global organization that faces some difficulties. There are a number of different communications issues that have lead
Rand's Rational Self Interest Rand’s philosophy regarding selfishness and altruism contains a crucial dichotomy, as virtually anyone’s philosophy regarding opposite concepts would. However, the opposition in Rand’s concept may surprise those who are not familiar with her philosophy. At a very basic level, Rand is stating that selfishness is actually good, and that altruism is really evil in “Introduction to the Virtue of Selfishness”. Thus, there is opposition found within this
Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand The Rationalization and Pursuit of Self-interest of Humanity in "The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand Ayn Rand's collection of essays in the book "The Virtue of Selfishness" provides insightful thoughts about the emergence of rationalization and individualism within the individual. The author discusses how the dawn of humankind had already seen the emergence of individualism and rationalization. It is only in the process of
Self-compassion is an important concept to understand because it falls under the category of self-care. Selfishness on the other hand does not. Selfishness is commonly associated with actions that may satisfy a certain desire but that do not actually promote a holistic good. Self-compassion on the other hand is oriented towards helping the self. Bowen (2017) states that one should look at it this way: self-compassion is about showing love
Others argue against Ethical Egoism. The work of Pecorino states as an argument against Ethical Egoism the facts as follows: Ethical Egoism "provides no moral basis for solving conflicts between people; (2) Ethical Egoism "obligates each person to prevent others from doing the right thing; (3) Has the same logical basis as racism"; (4) "The egoist cannot advise others to be egoists because it works against the first egoists
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