Perhaps you just saw on your phone, among the many stories being told, the one about the young Cuban woman who chose to leave the prestigious Florida Sunshine State and return to her darkened and threatened homeland because she could no longer endure so much selfishness in a society that is suffocating in this way.

But it's not just in sunny Florida; it's across an entire nation where ruthless rulers try to impose their will on the rest of the world.

The cult of selfishness is killing America, where Donald Trump has made irresponsible behavior a core principle of the right wing he represents.

Despite the legal and ethical condemnations surrounding him, Trump operates in a context that values notoriety over ethics and economic gain over the common good.

He is not only a controversial president but also a symbol of mass manipulation. Throughout his career, he has spread insults, lies, hatred, and division, even orchestrating an attack on the Capitol Hill, in what was essentially a political tantrum that resulted in one of the most flagrant violations of so-called modern representative democracy. The president's statements on issues like immigration, where he even went so far as to claim that migrants "ate their own pets," exemplify how fear and prejudice are used to stir up public emotions, moving away from respect and empathy.

Trump's current aggressive policies, disregarding the rights of smaller nations that are being massacred; his tremendously self-destructive behavior and that of his allies, who also fear him, have a deeper explanation: they all worship American selfishness.

The modern American right is committed to the proposition that greed is good, that we are all better off when individuals engage in the unrestricted pursuit of self-interest. In their view, the unrestricted maximization of profits by corporations and the unregulated choice of consumers is the recipe for a good society.

The intensity of the right's anger against relatively trivial regulations, such as bans on phosphates in detergents and other efficiency standards, has long been striking, because they are bothered by any suggestion that their actions should take into account the well-being of others.

This anger masquerades as a love for freedom. However, those who insist on the right to pollute don't seem particularly bothered, for example, by federal agents firing tear gas at peaceful protesters. What they call "freedom" is actually a lack of responsibility.

It would take volumes to explain the gun culture and the profits that this freedom to acquire and use them generates, which are shaking the United States itself—as seen in the murder of eight children in Louisiana this past Sunday—and why more than 1.5 million Americans have perished due to the intentionally negligent handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by Trump during his first term.

Not to mention genocidal aggressions, this anger at any suggestion of social responsibility also helps explain the looming fiscal catastrophe. It's astonishing how opposed the Trump-aligned right wing is to the temporary increase in unemployment benefits; some have even declared it would be over their dead bodies, without explaining the reason for such hatred.

It's not because the benefits are making workers less willing to take jobs. There's no evidence that this is happening; it's just something reactionaries want to believe. And, in any case, economic arguments can't explain the anger.

Again, it's the same principle. Helping the unemployed, even if their unemployment isn't their fault, is a tacit admission that fortunate Americans should help their less fortunate fellow citizens. And that's an admission the right wing doesn't want to make.

In short, with Trump, selfishness has been sanctified, damaging his own political prospects with his insistence on the right to act selfishly even when it's to the detriment of others.

For Trump's America, as can also be said of other capitalist eras, as well as the regimes that now blindly follow the billionaire president, intelligence, ethics, and morality have vanished from the political and business landscape. Those who hold positions of power do not represent ideals of leadership, but rather a culture that glorifies wealth and fame at the expense of humanity and decency.

It’s forgotten that the greatness of a nation is not determined by the power or fortune of its leaders, but by their capacity to promote the common good. Only through leadership committed to justice, equity, and respect for all citizens can a truly dignified and just society be built.