Mental pollution

Dependence on mental pollution

Nature

Undesirable emotions, attitudes and ideas can pollute the mind.

Incidence

Mental pollution occurs in all areas of life. It ranges from the violence and sex prolific in today's visual media, to South Africa's apartheid system, to the war in the Middle East, to the cold war between the USA and the USSR.

Claim

The pollution of man's mind by such pollutants as selfishness, jealousy, greed, anger and lust is responsible for the disequilibrium apparent in all aspects of today's world. The greatest danger lies in the fact that humanity does not recognize that mental pollution has gained dangerous proportions and that a polluted mind manifests itself by making the atmosphere tense and vicious. Mental pollution has spoiled the socio-economic atmosphere and political climate everywhere and has made man fight man, nation prepare itself militarily against nation, and allowed one person to exploit many others by subjecting them monetarily, politically, militarily, sexually and in other ways. Mental pollution is a global problem because every man is affected in one may or another.

Counter-claim

Jealousy, selfishness, greed, anger and lust are, for better or for worse, inherent components of man's nature and it is unrealistic and idealistic to assume that these 'mental pollutants' will even be contained, much less disposed of.