Or in significant moments of self-expression, we can first count to 10. Such thoughtful filtering can multiply our offering by 10 as a mesh of reflective meekness filters out destructive and effusive ego. We can also meekly let our ideas have a life of their own without oversponsoring them. Rather, let the Spirit impel our worthy ideas. Alas, gross, individual selfishness is finally acculturated.
Society thereby reflects a grim, cumulative tally which signals a major cultural decline.
Cultural decline is accelerated when single-interest segments of society become indifferent to general values once widely shared. Some may not join in this drift, but instead they step aside, whereas once they might have constrained, as is their representative right. Today, in place of some traditionally shared values is a demanding conformity pushed, ironically, by those who eventually will not tolerate those who once tolerated them. Selfishness is actually the detonator of all the cardinal sins. It is the hammer for the breaking of the Ten Commandments, whether by neglecting parents, the Sabbath, or by inducing false witness, murder, and envy.