DR KEITH ABLOW has a wondergul article on Fox.com, which i wish he had published here instead, or better yet, i had written. That's mighty high praise. Oh well, at least i can tell you about it. I suggest you read it first, then come back here, lol
The gist of the article is that current american culture is raising a generation of deluded narcissistic people, as he puts it, with a falsely inflated self view which is destined to crumble into anger and violence.
Every year for the past thirty years a higher percentage of college freshmen describe themeslves on surveys as gifted, talented, and driven to success, even though study habits and test scores do not indicate this.
We award trophies to second placers, and losers. Manufactured, false, politically correct success. We, or at least our young, live in an imaginary electronic world where everyone is a celebrity, with thousands of "friends" on facebook and twitter who are really nothing more than names on a screen. Imaginary friends, imaginary importance.
According to Ablow, false pride cannot be sustained, hence the inevitable disappointment, disillusionment, anger, and, in many cases, violence. Ablow predicts an epidemic of violence in the wake of the ultimated bursting of the delusional narcissistic bubble.
Couple of quick points. Are there two kinds of pride, true and false, or, is all pride, in a sense, false? And just who in the hell seays it can't be sustained? Hell, I bet i can sustain false pride as long as i damned well want to!
And has there ever been a time in human history when the noble human animal was utterly without any trace of delusional narcicism, and is this necessarily always a bad thing?...don't we all need a li'l delusion and vanity now and again? and isn't the "epidemic" of violence already hap'nin', and hasn't it been happening for, oh, what, several thousand years now?
Since when was american culture not been delusional and narcissistic? Welcome to the fun house, my fellow narcissistic american friends! Hell, even the great davy crockett promoted his own celebrity status, thus initiating a great american tradition.
Davy thought it was hilarious that perfeclty intelligent people actually believed that he, davy crockett, could swim any river, whip any man, and climb any mountain. It wa all imaginary man, just like facebook and twitter.
What Ablow says is true, undeniably. But maybe, just maybe, he is reacting a bit too strongly about it, too forbodingly, too alarmingly. Might do him some good just to sit back, open a cold one, and laugh at it all.
Why not laugh? Hell, if current american culture were a horse, it would be shot out of mercy. We all know ahat. Our enslavement to our own corporations, celebrity worship, and materialistic lust, spiritual poverty and lonliness are sadly tragic, and yet, somehow, at least a wee bit humorous.
And yet, here we all are, for the moment, and so far today, nobody has taken a shot at me. Knock on wood.
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