Are we losing objectivity?

Abstract

Some women are not afraid of dying as much as they are afraid of dying wrinkled, a plastic surgeon once said. It is probably safe to say that loss of objectivity seems to affect us often. This human frailty has afflicted society since time immemorial and has resulted on occasion in the pursuit of unworthy and even disastrous causes. Our society currently appears to be obsessed with a number of issues that suggest we are losing objectivity with regard to important matters. We seem to be fascinated with the pursuit of immortality in this world, though we know that it is unattainable. The obsessions with unlimited profit, perennial youth, physical beauty, and the fear of aging are manifested in the widespread emphasis on working longer hours in order to make more money, exercising to exhaustion, voluntary starvation diets, and multiple plastic surgery procedures1. A personal confrontation with my own lack of objectivity made me examine in earnest the meaning of many of the things that we do in our daily lives. I was visiting my mother, who at the time was celebrating her ninety-seventh birthday. Prior to this visit, a concerned relative complained to me that my mother was not walking She suggested that I use persuasion to convince my mother to change her ways. Without giving any thought to this request I said, Mother, they tell me that you are not walking You should walk more; it is good for you. Good for what? she replied. Embarrassed by my inability to find the right words to respond to her wise and pithy remark, I stuttered, Well, it is good for you. She smiled mischievously and said, Son, I have walked for ninety-seven years and think I have walked enough. She died in her bed two …