The original text comes from: academic things.
Image source | "in the name of people"
Wen | Jiao, Su Chunjing (ludong university College of Education Science)
This article is excerpted from the 3rd issue of China Youth Studies 20 19.
0 1 Basic characteristics of contemporary young exquisite egoists
China is currently transforming into an information society. With the popularization of compulsory education and the rapid development of higher education, the cultural level of teenagers has generally improved. In this context, the "exquisite egoist" among contemporary youth groups has been branded with the brand of the times, and its basic psychological and behavioral characteristics are as follows.
1. Psychological characteristics
First, it shows high IQ in rational cognition. The original meaning of "essence" is "selection", which can be extended to optimization, selection and calculation. Used in the word "exquisite egoist", it can be understood as choosing the most labor-saving, convenient and beneficial one among many paths to the goal. The "exquisite egoists" among contemporary youth are often alert, good at finding and seizing opportunities in time, strong in planning, good at understanding and analyzing rules, using rules and finding loopholes in laws and rules to achieve their goals. What they have done is seemingly reasonable, legal and impeccable. Take a high-speed rail "bullying" a young man as an example. Afterwards, netizens revealed that he was a doctoral student at a university. It can be said that his IQ must be not low, even higher than the average person.
In the eyes of British philosopher Bacon, these people are just "people who are proficient in self-help"-people who love themselves more than anyone else. Their intelligence is actually a despicable intelligence-the intelligence of a mouse that fled quickly before the house collapsed, the intelligence of a fox that deliberately seized the badger's nest, and the intelligence of a crocodile that cried when it swallowed something else by mistake. " Many historical facts show that the cleverer a person who has no moral bottom line is, the greater the harm he will do to mankind. Remember the tragedy of Auschwitz concentration camp? Clever and talented chemists and engineers designed "exquisite" laboratories, incinerators and gas chambers, creating a terrible "hell on earth". When the intelligent mind has no moral constraints, mankind has embarked on the road of self-destruction.
Second, show high emotional intelligence in interpersonal communication. Exquisite egoists in contemporary youth are well versed in human nature, secular affairs and sophisticated in handling affairs. Even excuses or excuses can hide people's eyes and ears, making people feel very reasonable and it is difficult to find flaws. They can not only quickly and accurately capture the emotional changes of others, but also accurately perceive and control their own emotions.
Third, it shows high adversity quotient in specific situations. Exquisite egoists among contemporary youth are not necessarily smooth sailing in the process of achieving their goals. They often show endurance and resilience for a long time, and can persist even after being questioned or rejected many times. In reality, some young and sophisticated egoists may cheat the trust of teachers and leaders with false reasons, or gain valuable scores or opportunities by means of soft grinding and hard foam, kneeling down and pleasing. On the positive side, they did not give up chasing their own goals easily, but showed the spirit of "never giving up until they reach their goals" and showed a high ability to resist setbacks. However, it can not be ignored that they did not abide by the established rules, and finally achieved their goals by deceiving and subverting the three views. After the job is done, they will still be complacent and playful. This will create a bad impression on the vast number of young people, that is, they will lie, use others, and even do whatever it takes to succeed. If young people imitate such people and follow their example, then our society will be full of crisis.
Fourth, the achievement motivation is high and the demand level is low. People are social animals and have social needs such as communication and respect. On this basis, people will form social motivations such as power motivation, communication motivation and achievement motivation. These motivations can inspire and encourage people to join certain social groups, actively communicate with others, and hope and make efforts to win the recognition of others and improve their social status. In terms of social motivation, the exquisite egoists among contemporary youth show high achievement motivation and power motivation, and are keen on pursuing fame and fortune. But from the demand level, the demand level they pursue is not high, and they are satisfied with the acquisition of material benefits and the comfort of life. They often use external "success" and temporary enjoyment to gain satisfaction, existence and self-confidence, but lack a sense of belonging, self-esteem and self-potential. Generally speaking, the higher the demand level and the stronger the sociality, the stronger the individual's synaesthesia ability and the more obvious the empathy effect. Individuals can pay more attention to the interests of stakeholders while pursuing their own interests, so they are more inclined to follow the behavioral mechanism of' altruism for themselves'. On the other hand, it will lead to the behavior of "harming others for yourself". Based on this need, we can understand that exquisite egoists can achieve their goals with ulterior motives.
Fifth, moral behavior is inconsistent with moral cognition. Knowing may not be done, but it may not be virtuous. As Zi Tong Zhi Jian said: "A gentleman thinks that it is good, and a villain thinks that it is evil. Think that what you are good is good; Those who think they are evil are all evil. " Zhang Rongwei believes that the so-called "exquisite egoists" may be particularly smart people, but they are not educated and tasteful people, because they lack a virtue, and their moral judgment becomes a "short board" of personality. It can be inferred that the reason why exquisite egoists do immoral things is because they lack the judgment of whether something is moral or not. But the author believes that this view is not comprehensive. For a well-educated young and exquisite egoist, especially a college student, it can be said that he has long known whether a certain behavior is moral or immoral. Their problem is not a lack of judgment, but that they still do it after knowing it is immoral. What we should pay attention to is that knowing something is immoral, but knowing it and doing it, knowing it. According to burrow, the refined egoist is "extremely clear in cognitive expression, but the specific moral behavior cannot be consistent with cognition, and there is a phenomenon similar to' dual moral personality'". They clearly know that a certain behavior is wrong, but they still choose to do something wrong for the benefit, exchange principles for money, and exchange morality for opportunities, especially for the defects in integrity.
behavior characteristics
First, the contradiction of behavior. Contemporary young and exquisite egoists lack consistency in their behavior, which is mainly manifested in different times, different behaviors and even contradictions. In reality, the behavioral contradictions of contemporary young exquisite egoists are also reflected in the inconsistency before and after achieving their goals, such as inconsistency before and after joining the party, inconsistency before and after the promotion of cadres, inconsistency in test scores, and so on. Their behavior is short-term, purposeful, performative and deceptive, and its purpose is to arouse the trust and goodwill of teachers or leaders in this behavior, thinking that he is "always like this and has this excellent quality", but in fact they do not have the long-term and stable behavior or quality they show. They show a certain behavior to special people (often people with certain power) at a specific time and on a specific occasion. This behavior is "to their liking" and is appreciated and encouraged by special people. If a college student suddenly behaves well in front of the teacher in a certain period of time, he not only actively answers questions in class, but also asks questions around the teacher after class. After a while, I will tell my teacher that I want to go abroad, take the postgraduate entrance examination, take a doctoral examination or submit a thesis, and ask the teacher to recommend me. The result is that these students will never raise their hands to answer questions in class, discuss with the teacher after class, or even come to class after receiving the teacher's recommendation letter or evaluation score. At this time, the teacher will have a feeling of "flashing back", and then he will understand that he has been "routine".
Therefore, the limitations of the "good" behavior of exquisite egoists in time, space and object should mislead or induce others to think that it is a kind of stability across time and space. Fundamentally speaking, the behavior of exquisite egoists is deceptive, which is the fundamental contradiction of their behavior.
Second, the exquisite means. We know that egoism is not a commendatory term, and no one wants to be labeled as "egoist", so some people start to use their brains and play "two-faced". Even though they think of arrogance, extravagance and selfishness, they are full of benevolence, righteousness and morality in appearance. Therefore, the worldly egoists of contemporary youth are no longer "rough" or "rough" in achieving their goals, but clever in means. They are very delicate and meticulous from planning to implementation, and their behavior is hidden, which is difficult for ordinary people to find.
Third, the purpose is self-serving. No matter how exquisite the external means are, the starting point and ultimate goal of refined egoists are the same, that is, profit. They are concerned about their own personal interests. Before doing anything, they should think about "what benefits can I get from it", take active action when it is beneficial to them, and find various excuses to evade when it is unprofitable.
Fourth, the breakthrough of the rules. Exquisite egoists don't follow the rules, like playing a power game of "cat and mouse", and spend more time studying the rules in order to exploit loopholes. Their mantra is "rules are dead, people are alive" and "systems are made by people", and their inner contempt for rules leads to behavioral trampling. After they are familiar with various social rules and norms, they use their loopholes to achieve their selfish goals. They are anti-social in nature, but they are covered with a false and deceptive veil. From this point of view, exquisite egoists often show the characteristics of "anti-social personality".
02 Strategies to Deal with Exquisite Egoists
Facing the exquisite egoists in the contemporary youth group, many people express the feeling that "the world is getting worse, but people are not old", just like the tone of a nine-pound old lady that "each generation is worse than the next". It's no use complaining. Tracing back to the source is the best policy.
At present, many domestic scholars have put forward their own views on how to deal with exquisite egoists. Tang Zhi and others think that we should start with social environment, family environment and campus environment to enhance teenagers' moral cultivation. Zhang Weiliang believes that returning to excellent traditional culture is an effective way to reject egoism in ideological and moral education. Lu Lan proposed to touch the soul and interests, so as to eliminate the internal tension in all fields of contemporary social life; Mao Yi proposed that people should have a correct outlook on life, talents and "justice and benefit".
The author believes that the necessary factors for the existence of contemporary young exquisite egoists are internal and external. The internal cause refers to the individual's strong desire to pursue additional benefits on the basis of realistic competitiveness, while the external cause refers to the fact that the risk that the individual takes in doing so is far less than the benefits he gains. Therefore, if we want to fundamentally put an end to his exquisite egoism, we must practice both inside and outside.
1. Inward-lay a solid moral foundation
The author believes that it is the most fundamental and thorough solution to cultivate contemporary youth into moral people, which needs to be started from childhood, starting with dolls. When a person firmly believes that he is a moral person from an early age, then he has a strong inner strength, and it is possible to automatically start the self-monitoring mechanism before, during and after doing things, thus reducing or even eliminating the occurrence of exquisite self-interest behavior. Some studies have found that when people's moral concepts are activated, they will pay more attention to their own behavior to meet moral standards, which leads to their enhanced motivation to maintain self-concept, thus reducing lying behavior. Therefore, all sectors of society should strengthen teenagers' awareness of "you are a moral person" and "you should be a moral person" and internalize it into their own moral standards.
We should also educate young people how to look at interests and competition. In the face of limited resources and interests, individuals' attitudes towards others can be divided into four types. The first is "I win and you lose", which is the hostile relationship of "1 or 0"; Second, "I lose and you win" is the perfect relationship of "0 or 1"; The third is "I lose, you lose", which is a lose-lose relationship of "0 and 0"; The fourth is "I win and you win" (here, winning means "I either win fame, money and other interests or gain lessons"), which is a win-win relationship of "1, 1". Our education is to cultivate people with a fourth attitude, not to "only win and not lose". If you can't win, take the side door. Fair competition under the premise of respecting the rules, "willing to gamble and admit defeat" and ultimately promoting the overall development level of society are the right way for young people to become talents.
All walks of life also need accurate moral education. For example: provide parenting education for families, improve parents' moral standards, improve parenting methods, urge them to set an example and provide positive examples for teenagers; Strengthen moral action education in schools, carry out civic education that emphasizes fairness, justice and rationality, reform academic and moral evaluation mechanisms, and provide a fair and just competitive environment for young people; In the process of adolescent peer communication, adults should obtain accurate information and timely and effectively guide them when they find bad signs; In terms of network, we advocate self-education, cultivate teenagers' ability to distinguish and choose information, think and judge independently in the fragmented knowledge age, and help them improve their control over actions and their determination to resist temptation. In addition, we should occupy the position of cultural communication, carry out excellent traditional cultural education, and inject moral and altruistic values into cultural products and works. Strengthen the cooperation between schools and families, families and peers, schools and peers, create exchange opportunities, provide communication channels, and realize the benign interaction among families, schools and society.
2. Strengthen the construction of the legal system abroad
The imperfection of laws, regulations and implementation also gives young and exquisite egoists an opportunity. Some foreign scholars use matrix tasks to prove that when there is an opportunity to lie, most people will get more benefits by lying. In other words, if there are no risks such as supervision, accountability afterwards, leaving evidence, etc., it is easy to produce more lying behaviors in the state of being "kept in the dark". The same is true in reality. For example, after the high-speed rail "occupying a seat" incident, Jinan Railway Bureau initially responded that the incident was a "moral issue and did not constitute an illegal act". The lack of clear regulations on the nature and punishment of forced seat occupation has also led to further fermentation of public opinion on this incident, and people have begun to question the current laws and regulations and the inaction of relevant departments, which cannot protect the rights and interests of passengers. Later, Jinan Railway Bureau announced that the passenger would be punished according to relevant laws and regulations. As soon as this news came out, people regained their confidence in a society ruled by law, which was a great pleasure for people and also sounded the alarm for others.
Therefore, when all kinds of rules and regulations are sound and well implemented, exquisite egoists will have nowhere to play, even in the face of human weakness, they will have nowhere to drill. If people are emotional animals, according to the "familiarity law" in psychology, if you get along with someone for a long time, your goodwill will naturally rise. Exquisite egoists are often good at playing this kind of "emotional card". In this case, what should raters do? Major General Jin Yinan provided us with an idea. He said: "Any army has villains. The key is whether there is a mechanism to prevent the villain from gaining power. For example, the military manual of the United States Army clearly stipulates that it is forbidden to praise leaders in person ... just to prevent sycophantic villains. In our country, the professional behavior of some industries is limited, for example, the staff of the procuratorate should not have too much contact with witnesses; The police should not get too close to the suspect; Psychologists and patients should follow the principle of emotional restriction ... only by keeping emotional distance can they achieve value neutrality and their professional judgment will not be affected by personal feelings. This is not unkind, but in order to make the executed person with certain power fair and just. These practices are worth learning from other industries.
In practice, we should pay special attention to the implementation of laws and regulations. The phrase "there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom" is widely circulated among the people, reflecting the ineffective implementation of laws and regulations. In this case, to solve the problem of difficult execution, it is necessary to let the person being executed "strictly enforce the law", be impartial within the scope of the law, not afraid of offending people, and not simply be a "good person." Adhering to the principle of openness and transparency in the process of law enforcement, strictly implementing the regulations and leaving evidence of the process will definitely make the exquisite egoists show their true colors, unprofitable and have nowhere to hide.
We can learn from some effective practices abroad. For example, the article "When China's cleverness meets international rules ..." tells a story: on the Canadian flight to Beijing, a man and a woman were lying in the rest seat of the crew on the grounds that they might get sick. As a result, the flight made an emergency landing at the American airport according to the emergency plan for passengers to get sick. They finally "reluctantly climbed onto the stretcher and got off the plane, and their carry-on luggage and checked baggage were evacuated one after another." The practice of "playing as planned" on this flight has made exquisite egoists eat their own fruit, which is worth learning.
3. Internal and external integration-deep integration of moral education and rule of law education.
On the one hand, we should draw beneficial nutrition from Chinese excellent traditional culture, infiltrate fine virtues, build a caring social environment, advocate civic education, cultivate contractual spirit and public * * * rationality, and cultivate and practice socialist core values on the basis of personal virtues such as honesty and trustworthiness, respect for the elderly and love for the young, neighborhood unity and other family virtues, and take life virtues such as helping others and courtesy and humility as the guide. On the other hand, it is particularly necessary to strengthen the rule of law education on the basis of moral education. It is worth noting that the real rule of law education can not be separated from the instillation of legal knowledge, but more importantly, it is the cultivation of legal feelings, the generation of legal awareness, and even the rooting of legal beliefs.
In short, if exquisite egoism is not stopped in time, it will not only hurt the hearts of the public, but also bring obstacles to the reasonable demands of other young people. In the long run, this selfish behavior will also pollute the social and ecological environment of contemporary youth groups, so that everyone in them will suffer greatly. At present, most of the research is theoretical and descriptive, and there is no in-depth quantitative research. How should we evaluate whether a person is an exquisite egoist? What are its distribution and characteristics in various groups? With the evolution of time, what are the characteristics of its development and situation? Under what conditions will its behavior converge or even disappear, and under what conditions will it intensify? These problems need further study by scholars.