Material Success & Ethos of Cooperation

White makes the case that Western cultural presumptions about the benefits of material success outweigh such abstract features of cultural awareness in the West as love, family, community service, and religion, with mass media conveying the message that "successful" people "make a lot of money and fill their lives with material comforts. . . . In the United States, as long as you have enough money, you are considered successful" (336). The contention that abstract elements of human experience are directly antithetical to material success simply because they belong to an exercise different from its material elements is a tempting one, not least because the evidence of the popular culture is compelling. This explains the tolerance--not to say enthusiasm--with which the popular imagination encounters the spectacle of (say) a white Ford Bronco leading a low-speed chase that disrupts the typical rush-hour behavior of the Southern California freeway system. To put it another way, the mere existenc

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Approximate Word count = 1085
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)

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