24 Jun Ego & Narcissism Have Infected Society

Right around 2017, I started to smell something fishy brewing. An insidious disease spreading and infecting most of the people I interacted with. For the life of me, I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but I knew it derived from insecurity. It wasn’t until working with multiple clients and businesses that I began to realize what this rapidly spreading infection was. Due to inner insecurity from social media, societal pressures and standards, and piss poor parenting; people were expressing ego and narcissism at an alarming rate. Let’s break down wtf is going on.

Social Media Is A Cesspool

It all started with social media, or at least it was the exponential multiplier. In the early days of social media, it was about connecting with your friends and “hanging out” digitally when you couldn’t hang out in real life. It was new, it was fun, and it passed the time when you were bored. Now, social media seems to be more about how successful you are, what lavish life you’re living, and what crappy product or service you’re peddling that day to make money off people who don’t know how marketing and sales work. It’s less about connection and more about stroking your ego or wallet.

This has implications for how we arrived at our new way of socializing (or lack thereof). Our interactions are no longer about supporting your friends and just hanging with them, but instead about showing off who’s doing what. Who got the new job, new car, new house, or new vacay trip because, you know, travel life. It became about attention in the form of follows and friend requests, and instant gratification in the form of likes and congratulatory comments. It has shifted to being all about “me” and less about enjoying interactions with others.

Individualism Is Selfish

We went from building a community to tearing others down in order to lift ourselves up. It’s no longer about the group, the tribe, the community; but instead all about me me me. If people today had a hit theme song, it would be called “3x Me” (corny, but I had to).

Only a shallow selfish person would make the decision to change their values to ones that support this, and it’s an inevitable outcome of individualism. Individualism is inherently selfish, as your wants are more important than the groups needs. I think this perfectly describes the mantra that society lives by today. A whole lotta “F-k you, I got mine.” Narcissistic egotism at its best thanks to the gospel of individualism.

Luxuries > Livable Planet

If you want to see a big picture view of ego and narcissism running rampant, look no further than our own planet. We have a planet that supplies us food, shelter, water, light, and air to breathe for free for God’s sake. And what do we do to it? Pillage it for everything it’s worth. Kill off millions of animals to the point of extinction. We’ve even gone so far as to upset the very balance of the system of our climate so that now every other living thing on the planet must suffer so we can have our comforts and luxuries (not necessities at all). Tell me of another species that acts with such narcissism and ego… I’ll wait.

The Source Of The Infection

The entire reason why narcissism and ego exists is because someone got their feelings hurt or are feeling inferior. As I said, it is born in insecurity. It is the source of narcissistic and egotistical tendencies. It makes a person that is capable of having rational thoughts and actions, that can benefit everyone and everything, instead behave irrationally even though it may lead to its very destruction and the destruction of others. To put it simply, people are acting this way because they are emotionally F-d up.

If I was to name a cause of societies emotional disfunction of its citizens, I would vote hands down parenting. Only one person(s) is responsible for a child to develop into a healthy, productive, emotionally stable adult, and that is your parents. Not your school, not your church, not the government, not the tablet that parents hand their kids to shut them up so they can ignore you and go do something else they deem more important (you can feel the love). Single handedly, a parent is responsible for the development of their child to be a successful adult in the world. To contribute to their community, help others, and be able to provide for themselves. I’d say most have screwed the pooch on that one and now the entire world is paying the price for it.

Instead, we now have people feeling so insecure and wanting so bad to be successful (aka important) that they will do anything to make a quick buck to feed that addiction. Tricking people into buying crap they don’t need, back stabbing and throwing people under the bus to get ahead, and even young people selling their bodies so they can make that first milli. The only thing that matters is money and image, both often centered in selfishness. I’m not sure of a time in history when these have not led to selfishness. But I’ll tell you a secret, feeling secure and confident in yourself does not come from money or image, it comes from healthy emotional development and love/support within your community. Things money and image can’t buy.

So What’s The Solution?

So do I think that people today are more narcissistic and egotistical than an Instagram model with an overblown DM inbox on Valentines Day? Yup. Do I think it will improve and get better? Nope. But that’s really irrelevant. What matters is the improvements you make to your own emotional wellbeing and how you then go and help others in your community do the same. Last thing we need is another self absorbed entitled attention whore trying to sell me why I should join their butt lift fitness coaching program. Oh, btw, join my newsletter. :p

The purpose of this GI SAID IT blog is simple, to provide perspective. GI delivers this unique perspective in a style that is unapologetically honest, straight to the point, and at times a bit brutal. GI SAID IT: Brutally honest, no BS. Click for more GI SAID IT shows and articles.