An old adage writes, “You are what you eat.”
The environment in which one grows up plays an existential impact on the decisions he makes. The circumstances of one’s lifestyle, consequently, polarize an individual’s vantage point on civic responsibilities. One must consider, however, the principle of inheritance: individuals have no fundamental control on their innate landscape and are born with opportunities both attainable and inaccessable. Among the world’s inherited privileges is wealth, the finite accumulation of money. The purchasing power of the dollar bill remains constant, but the amount of it varies; the bill addresses ___. Connected to wealth is the idea that young people also inherit their appearances. The mirror ___; it responds to ___. Nonetheless, both talk about flaws. Despite addressing dissimilar exigences, the bill and the mirror coexist as mechanisms for diagnosing vices in millennials and collectively reexamine the doctrine of self-worth.
Aristotle delineates money as a good used for “the sake of something else”: money merely is an instrument of transaction that fails to integrate itself with total gratification. Indeed, money falls short in producing long-standing civic fulfillment; it consequently serves as the primary constituent of greed, or the excessive taste for wealth. Wealth is not naturally an immoral entity: money satisfies our basic human needs and provides for luxuries to enrich our standard of living. Greed, on the contrary, is foremost a sinful matter of the heart: it is not merely caring about one’s possessions, but caring too much about them (CITATION). Greed perpetuates anxiety and civic restlessness, the emotionally strenuous process of longing for fulfillment and the false assurance that upon gaining it, we will forever be content. Greed is referenced in Catholicism as “avarice,” the act of pleasing oneself with material acquisitions instead of pleasing God. The bill is more associated with wants than needs; the Catholic code of moral conduct underscores the argument that selfish, excessive desire is a violation of divine or natural law. Contrary to the notion that greed emanates from overindulgence, the infatuation of money is oftentimes a consequence of deprivation, the need for the unavailable. As this emptiness illuminates, a young person becomes fixated on seeking what he “needs”—power, food, sex, or attention—and works arduously to eradicate the feeling of not having it. Civic life then becomes a manipulative quest to acquire as much of it as possible. ***Money controls its transactor while producing feelings of temporary significance. In exceptional cases of greed, one might achieve success in obtaining what he seeks; in this moment, when the object of his desire is in his hands, he experiences truly intoxicating feelings of triumph and relief. These instances, however, are innately brief: money fails to perpetually satisfy our closest desires. the holder then becomes frustrated at the transience of such limited pleasure; the bill therefore refutes the argument that money is the end of one’s goals and ambitions. Spenders are thwarted by brief gratification in typical purchases with money, and as a detriment of greed, buyers endure shame and guilt over the damaging effects on their relationships, reputation, and financial security. The bill makes reference to the human vice of insecurity, being that the insatiable splendor of money has the power to evoke fear and uncertainty of the future. Feeling compelled to fix this imperfection, civic individuals begin the vicious cycle of earning and spending anew. A commonplace embedded within the bill is that its civic role is powerful and valuable; money is henceforth employed as a tool of enslavement and control.
PULL-OUT QUOTE
Money determines your way of life, but not your character. The bill ultimately is a reflection of one’s purchasing power, yet the financial value earned by an individual has little contribution to his spiritual well-being, social relationships, and interpersonal connections. MORE NEEDED HERE. ***Money identifies how you are perceived by your environment and by yourself. Individuals place less significance on the bill’s function as a currency and more on the social position that their income awards them. Expanding upon in one’s income, however, will not necessarily equate to a growth in social standing. On an intrapersonal scale, money is a mechanism for comparing oneself against others. The pursuit of money takes up time and the bill distracts its owner from his civic, societal, and familial duties. As a parent, earning money may mean less time as a family. The thirst for income diverts earners from giving back to their community. Having money makes people judge you unfairly. People are critical of the wealthy. Money makes its holder a target for scams and fraudulent activity. MORE NEEDED HERE.
The civic phenomenon of greed echoes the motifs of narcissism; the infatuation of one’s appearance. The Greek tale of Narcissus—who became enamored by and pined for his own reflection in a pool of water—reflects the urge for individuals to respond innately to the “lure of the mirror” (___). Mirrors are inherent instruments of vanity, the vices of conceit and egotism. We think ahead of the mirror, aspiring for more than what we see appear; mirrors provide temporary reflections that urge its user to long for the unattainable future. When narcissism becomes greed, it coalesces into “unrealistically high levels of self-esteem” that are manifested by a “system of intrapersonal self-regulation”; in other words, individuals distort their flaws into successes and disable the inner evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses. ***Mirrors therefore deceive: they capitalize on the instantaneous reflections they provide by altering appearances. Men believe that money makes them appealing and that mirrors display physical attractiveness, yet neither of these vehicles for beauty is civically accurate. Reflection is deceptive; one’s perspective determines the intensity of the deceit. The optical illusion of mirrors serves to enforce the idea that whenever one reviews himself, bias exists according to his frame of reference.
WORK IN PROGRESS. Mirrors are physical reflections, but are naturally not spiritual reflections. The rudimentary function of mirrors to reflect physical images: we make use of rear-view mirrors in our vehicles to alert us of potential hazards, while we station mirrors around buildings and hallways to see from all directions. We spend a considerable amount of time standing before personal mirrors. Mirrors reflect light and thus reflect our surroundings. Light, however, has a symbolic and otherwise spiritual attachment to illumination, awareness, and wisdom; according to spirituality, mirrors reflect truth. Psychology refutes this principle and argues that mirrors are the symbolization of the threshold between consciousness and unconsciousness. Through mirrors, we see our cognizant, social, and “better” self as well as the natural world in which we live, while glimpsing into the darker, depraved image of our subconscious and the frightening insecurities we have about our appearances (___). The morbidity of mirrors is displayed throughout several world civilizations. Many myths, legends, and superstitions are intimately associated with the mirror and the same cultures that associate it with truth. SENTENCE NEEDED. The human eye characterizes ocule mi, “my little eye.” In the pupil was the image of the one who looked into it. In Eve’s eye—colloquially termed the “mirror of love”—Adam first learned to know himself. Many ancient cultures long believed that reflections were not of your physical self, but of the soul. Certain cultures, in fact, proposed that mirror images revealed the shadow self, the dark side of your nature. In Ancient Greece, looking at one’s reflection could mean losing one’s soul. MORE NEEDED. ***WORK IN PROGRESS. Mirrors consequently reflect how you are seen by onlookers and by yourself. Because we seek long-term gratification, we depend on mirrors. Mirrors distract people from their character and focus on outward appearances. An embedded argument in mirrors is that exteriors supersede interiors. While there is a measure of vanity in gazing at one’s own reflection, we often look to become more oriented with the elements of our countenance (___). We look to see the physical matter of our face and body and thereby assess how we appear to the world, confirming that our form and distribution of features are as we believe them to be in our subconscious. We look for signs of our hidden carnal nature and to see if the wicked secrets and sin desires we harbor have emerged from our unobservable moral surface (___). We look for the assurance of our continuity and existence (___). MORE NEEDED HERE.
PULL-OUT QUOTE
Conclusion
Who your audience is? Where does it fit (Collegian, New Yorker, The Atlantic)?