(GASPS)
We live in a world of social media.
You broadcast yourself. You go for "likes".
I was seated next to a young woman on a plane who spent two hours of our flight
looking at her phone, looking at videos of herself, pulling faces —
a level of self-interest that is unusual.
(LAUGHTER)
And we've had a generational shift in moral philosophy.
From a culture that said, "You're broken inside, work on your own weakness,"
we've gone to a culture that says, "You're wonderful inside."
The clichés of what we tell our young — "Follow your passion",
"Be true to yourself", "Love yourself" — have created a large sense of self.
We've told a couple of generations how great they are and they've believed us.
In 1950, a polling organisation asked American 16-year-olds,
"Are you a very important person?" At that point 12% said, "Yes."
They asked the same question in the 1990s and at that point 80% said, "Yes."
Psychologists have the "narcissism test",
where they say, "I'm going to read a bunch of statements. Does this apply to you?"
Those statements include things like,
"I find it easy to manipulate people because I'm so remarkable."
Or, "Somebody should write a biography about me."
"I love to look at my body."
The median narcissism score has gone up 30% over the last 20 years.
With this has gone an increased desire for fame.
Fame used to rank at the bottom of what people wanted out of life.
Now it ranks second or third after financial security.
Junior high school girls in the US were asked,
"Would you rather be a celebrity's personal assistant,
"Justin Bieber's personal assistant or President of Harvard?"
By three to one, they'd rather be Justin Bieber's personal assistant.
To be fair, I asked the President of Harvard and she would rather be Justin Bieber's...
(LAUGHTER)
The more serious effect
is that people lose the capacity to conduct a sophisticated moral conversation.
I don't think people are necessarily bad, but I think they're morally inarticulate.
A sociologist named Christian Smith asked people,
"Can you name your last moral dilemma?"
70% of them couldn't name a moral dilemma.
They'd say, "I pulled into a parking space, but I didn't have any money."
We can tell by looking at all the magazines, newspapers and books that are published
what words are being used.
Over the last generation, economic words have been rising in frequency.
Moral words have been dropping.
"Gratitude" is down 49%, "humbleness" is down 52%
and "kindness" is down 56%.
We're talking about this stuff less and we're talking about economics more.
And so, we live in a romantic culture.
We think we're wonderful inside and the problems of society are outside.
And the people of great character, it's not because they have great self-discipline,
it's because they've an amazing ability to commit to
The eulogy virtues are the things they say about you after you're dead —
whether you're honest, courageous, straightforward, capable of great love.
We'd all want to lead a life where the eulogy virtues are more important.
We'd all want to be remembered for those.
But we live in a society, and certainly an educational system,
that spends a lot more time on the CV virtues.
A lot of us are more clear on how to build a good career
than how to build a good inner character.