Looking At Ourselves In the Mirror

ACCORDING TO THE PSYCHIATRIC PROFESSION, over the past few decades, an increasingly large number of Americans display symptoms of advanced narcissism. People walk into shrinking offices, lie down on the couch, expecting to be treated, most usually, for depression or anxiety. They later leave having discovered that their real problem is that they are utterly insufferable. Symptoms include an exaggerated, unrealistic sense of self importance, a lack of real concern for the welfare of other people, self absorption, and a sense of entitlement which easily brings out anger due to a feeling of being neglected, underrated, or cheated by others. Sound familiar? Sounds like a normal, average American. Maybe it sounds like you. Everybody in America is a celebrity, a facebook twittering tweeting celebrity, with a long list of phony friends, and a proclivity to announce the most mundane features of one's life to the world as if they were of the utmost importance, as if anyone cared. Everyone is a celebrity wanna be, A Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian, waiting in the wings, waiting to be famous for being famous. Becoming rich, quickly, and becoming famous, instantly, are listed by most Americans as their two highest priorities. In a culture devoid of any real community, we struggle to create our own, with ourselves at the center. We have become atomized, a culture of every man and woman for himself, with dwindling membership in civic organizations of all sorts, and an explosion of social media, where we can hide behind our computer screens, and promote ourselves, and encourage strangers to push the "like button". But all is not lost. People also indicate a desire to be of service to others. In any complicated culture, competing, conflicting forces exert influence, pushing society in whatever direction the accumulated forces will. Here's hoping that we Americans start spending more time at the communtiy center, and on our front porches, sipping lemonade with our neighbors.