Narcissus is the ancient one visible in the Greek Myth, who was the universally adored child of the gods, who rejected the loved-one in every form of love and relationship, and was finally condemned to the contemplation of his own image - until, as a result of his own act and obstinacy, he suffered the fate of eternal separateness and died in infinite solitude.
Narcissus is the nature of human society now. As a result, human society is becoming progressively more and more aggravated, and fundamentally dissociated from Reality, Truth and The Beautiful - leading to an absurd and insane life of competitive conflict for the totality of humankind. And that life of competitive conflict has already negatively affected even the natural systems of the Earth - and it is causing, and would continue to cause, terrible suffering everywhere, even to the extent of destroying both Humankind and the Earth-world too.
Donald Trump is of course the now time in-your-face "personification" of Narcissus.
Thanks for the interesting comment. I think narcissism is one of those words where its meaning has been spread so thinly that it does duty covering situations where it is not necessarily true or accurate. I agree with you that competitive conflict will be our demise. My original post tried to bring some nuance back to, if not the word itself, then how we think about it.
Thanks for this excellent post on the potential positive results of protective narcism.
Thank you, I am glad that you liked it. I actually prefer your version, "protective narcissism". It works as a more positive viewpoint.
Narcissus is the ancient one visible in the Greek Myth, who was the universally adored child of the gods, who rejected the loved-one in every form of love and relationship, and was finally condemned to the contemplation of his own image - until, as a result of his own act and obstinacy, he suffered the fate of eternal separateness and died in infinite solitude.
Narcissus is the nature of human society now. As a result, human society is becoming progressively more and more aggravated, and fundamentally dissociated from Reality, Truth and The Beautiful - leading to an absurd and insane life of competitive conflict for the totality of humankind. And that life of competitive conflict has already negatively affected even the natural systems of the Earth - and it is causing, and would continue to cause, terrible suffering everywhere, even to the extent of destroying both Humankind and the Earth-world too.
Donald Trump is of course the now time in-your-face "personification" of Narcissus.
Thanks for the interesting comment. I think narcissism is one of those words where its meaning has been spread so thinly that it does duty covering situations where it is not necessarily true or accurate. I agree with you that competitive conflict will be our demise. My original post tried to bring some nuance back to, if not the word itself, then how we think about it.