I'm reading Parker J. Palmer's book A Hidden Wholeness. On page 38 he says,
"I have traveled this country extensively and have met many people. Rarely have I met people with the overweening sense of self the moralists say we have, people who put themselves first as if they possessed the divine right of kings."
I agree with Palmer on this point. While, I may not have traveled as extensively as he has I do share a similar experience. Palmer continues (on the same page) saying:
I see how identifying an "empty self" as "intentional selfishness" would have disastrous consequences for the way we live and relate to one another."Instead, I have met too many people who suffer from an empty self. They have a bottomless pit where their identity should be--an inner void they try to fill with competitive success, consumerism, sexism, racism, or anything that might give them the illusion of being better than others."