In the wealthy nations of the world we face nothing less than a thorough redefinition of retirement. To be sure, people will continue to retire from their jobs. But ... retirement will no longer be the twilight of life, focused on rest, recreation, and recuperation; it will now be a time in which people will marshall their experience and intelligence to create entirely new lives for themselves.
PETER SCHWARTZ, Inevitable Surprises
People disagree on a vast range of important issues. They argue over whether God exists, whether man has free will, whether capitalism is superior to socialism, whether rights pertain to fetuses. But one crucial question generates almost no debate: the question of whether self-sacrifice is morally good. Sacrificing yourself for the needs of others is universally seen as the essence of morality. The tenets of altruism are widely regarded not simply as true, but as practically self-evident. Acting for the benefit of others is deemed virtuous, while acting for your own benefit is not. People may, of course, choose not to behave ethically, but they take as incontrovertible the premise that if one does wish to be ethical one must be altruistic. Even questioning this premise is, to most people, equivalent to entertaining the notion that the earth is flat.
PETER SCHWARTZ, In Defense of Selfishness: Why the Code of Self-Sacrifice is Unjust and Destructive
