The truth is, I think we are a self-less society, not a selfish society. Because we’re so busy now.

McGraw flips the common complaint that modern life makes people “selfish,” arguing instead that busyness produces “self-less” behavior: people become depleted, distracted, and unavailable rather than actively self-centered. The line suggests a cultural diagnosis in which time pressure and overcommitment erode empathy, attention, and relational presence. It also reframes moral judgment as a problem of capacity—when individuals are chronically rushed, they may fail to show care not from malice but from exhaustion and cognitive overload. Implicitly, the remedy is not simply exhorting people to be kinder, but restructuring priorities and pace so that attentiveness and generosity are possible.