Sunday Dialogue - Are Americans Selfish? - NYTimes.com Readers debate whether our political culture has changed. This disparity has only grown worse in the past 60 years.The prognosis for a political culture in which citizens have been conditioned to think only in terms of "me" is grim since democracy requires, for its continued vitality, an understanding that we are all in this together. There is clearly a crisis in America today, but it is not that we have become more selfish. Research simply doesn't support that assertion. Numerous surveys show that Americans remain, generally speaking, generous and community-oriented. For example, a significant majority of the American public supports most of the key elements of health care reform when presented to them piecemeal as opposed to as "Obamacare"; believes the very rich should pay more in taxes; and supports safety net programs such as Social Security. These are not the beliefs of a selfish nation. What, then, is the problem? The problem is the emergence of 24-hour propaganda-spewing partisan media and the blogosphere at the same time that traditional media, particularly print media, are being both drowned out and financially battered by the Internet. Special interests have taken advantage of the resulting chaos. The result is that many well-meaning and decent Americans who are anything but selfish simply don't know where and whom to turn to for facts and leadership anymore. Unable to decipher the truth from spin on issues ranging from climate change to deficit spending during a recession, and facing a scary and rapidly changing global economy, more Americans than ever are susceptible to the snake-oil-selling agents of special interests. Mr. Nevins claims that our political and economic problems are due to "selfishness." But since "selfishness" is in the eye of the beholder, it can be used to characterize almost any position and used (as Mr. Nevins does here) to demonize opponents. Thus, for example, those who oppose health care reform on the ground that it will lead to an even more wasteful and expensive health care system are merely being selfish, in the author's view - and their arguments need not be taken seriously.