By Alfred Oshin
In my almost 37 years of life, I thought nothing could surprise me. Now I'm not so full of hubris to think I've seen or experienced it all in my journey down life's pathways. However, what I have encountered made me anti-shockproof. There is nothing that life could show me which would heat up my karmic cool. Or so I thought.
Recently, a 33-year-old American woman underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) to give birth to six children and, Heaven knows why, went back for more and gave birth to eight children. Now she is the mother of 14 children. I consider myself, as do many others who know me, an articulate person. My eloquence left me, and my karmic cool evaporated. I had neither words nor philosophical ideas to explain why a woman in this day and age decides to have 14 children when she is single and not wealthy.
It took me a while but I've recovered my erudite tongue and aura of coolness from the shock and awe of this story. I think I have an explanation for this mother's choice. This mother is symbolic of a British and American plague which has existed for some time. It is a sickness that destroys families, communities and no doubt will be the undoing of both peoples.
This plague is to be feared more than terrorism, crime or even the current global recession. What is it I hear you ask? Selfishness. In Britain and America today, selfishness is the force that generates almost all actions. It is the malignant muse that inspires all thoughts and feelings in British and American society.
The culture of human rights that our grandparents fought for against Imperial Japan, Fascist Germany and Italy has mutated into a culture of selfishness. Many people feel that because they want something, it is their God-given right to have it. The mother in America with 14 children and no father is an icon of the plague of selfishness that is omnipresent in British and American society.
In the European Union, the closest thing that Europe has to a single government, its parliament, has spent a lot of time and energy on codifying the rights of European citizens. The politicians would also do well to codify the responsibilities of European citizens. It is de rigueur in Britain for people to say and do the most shocking and insensitive things under the banner of free speech. A healthy society needs free speech but it is made unhealthy when freedom has no responsibility. In most cases, free speech is just a license to offend racial and religious minorities.
So what is the cure to the pandemic of selfishness? Are British and American civilizations doomed? That depends on one country: America. For we in Britain know that when America sneezes, it's the British that catch the same cold, in keeping with the plague metaphor.
America's Statue of Liberty is the British Statue of Liberty. The torch that is held in the hand of the Statue of Liberty has long shown the American people, and by extension the British people, the route to liberty when both societies lost their moral way.
America needs more than a statue to liberties if we are to cure both our societies from the plague of selfishness. America needs a new statue. The Statue of Liberty needs a twin. I propose America erect a Statue of Responsibility as a reminder that freedom must be weighed against the consequences to others and society.
The writer taught English at Honam University in Gwangju. He has a bachelor's degree in ancient history and is currently studying for a master's degree in the same field at King's College, London. He can be reached at alfredoshin@hotmail.co.uk.