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"Narcissus"
...
But I have reached
my destination and,
kneeling at water's
edge, look and see
myself framed by
everything that goes
on - endlessly
beginning all around
ME.
~~~~~~~~
By Robert Cording

Driven From the Garden of Narcissus

Gerald L. Rowles, Ph.D.

America is "a very different country than we were 200 years ago,'' intoned the newly elected Senator Hillary.

And indeed she is right, but arguably not, in the way she intended. America is different in at least three intertwined ways from the time of its birth more than two hundred years ago.

First, we are a country of celebrity. The motion picture and television industries have created the mega-star; one who is seen on the larger than life screens of theatres, or seen ubiquitously in every home with a television set. There are sports stars, drama stars, comedy stars, political stars, music stars, media stars, sidewalk stars and infamous stars. From Michael Jordan to O.J. Simpson; from Ted Bundy to Jeffrey Dahlmer; from Mother Theresa to Jane Fonda, America is infused with celebrity - good and wicked share equal billing. Celebrity has displaced heroism, valor and humility as the sine qua non of human achievement.

Secondly, we are a nation of victims. The larger than life heroes of our long past and near past who fought to establish and sustain this nation - giving of their lives, fortunes and futures - but not their integrity, have been diminished in favor of the "oppressed" whose freedoms they sought to protect. Women, minorities, sexual deviates, homeless, and sub-human species (insects, rodents, finned and feathered creatures) have been placed on the pedestal of victimhood - a pedestal that rises well above the stature of the Washington monument.

And thirdly, but certainly not last, we have become a Godless nation that seeks to crumble its foundation in the Judao-Christian, God and Christ-centered, Ethic of moral dignity / humility.

At the very beginning of the last (20th) century, it was the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who issued the judgement "God is dead." It was Nietzsche's belief, according to author Samuel Stumpf, that "the Judao-Christian ethic is so contrary to man's basic nature that its anti-natural morality debilitates man and produces only 'botched and bungled lives.'" "'Exploitation is', he said, 'a consequence of the intrinsic Will to Power.'"

In God's place, this philosopher proposed the Ubermensch or Superman. This was not the comic book fable, but rather "the truly free man for whom nothing is forbidden except what obstructs the Will to Power." "...Nietzsche's program of revaluation" ... involved rejecting the "dominant morality ... in favor of man's original and deepest nature." What was man's original and deepest nature? As Nietzsche saw it, "Man's psychological makeup shows that his preoccupation with pleasure and pain reflects a striving after an increase in power."

On the cusp of the new century, it appears that Nietzsche was well heard.

Elsewhere, I have written about the difference between vanity and narcissism in the context of what has become everyday foolishness. Such foolishness involves a murderous or violent attack against another person or their property over a perceived slight as small as scuffing a shoe, or having a nicer vehicle to drive, or receiving a failing grade. That, I would call "stupid" narcissism - sacrificing personal freedom for momentary pleasure/revenge. But Nietzschean, or "smart" narcissism is far more dangerous than the stupid or "garden" variety. "Smart Narcissism" involves the interplay of Intellect, Lust and ultimate Power-seeking, triangulated in such a way as to exploit the weakness of unbridled pleasure-seeking in the masses by those of the celebrity class.

And in the latter half of the twentieth century, both stupid and smart narcissism have become commonplace in the "Me" generation. So much so that both stupid and smart narcissists can vehemently demand that they not be bridled by anything as antiquated as God, and His Ten Commandments.

Writing in the early part of the last century, Nietzsche employed the parlance "man" (Uber-mensch, or over-man / Superman) as the diminutive for "mankind" or "humankind." But as we have witnessed late in the century, Ubermensch has become interchangeable with Superwoman/feminist as well. Along with this we have Superminorities, Superhomosexuals and Superpoliticians, to name a few.

And all have in common an allegiance to Supervictimhood, as a means to exercising the "Will to Power", and the exploitation of others for their own gratification. That this is not a selfless act on behalf of the greater good is evidenced in countless demands that they and their victim cohort be compensated, by the productive members of society, as a function of their special status as victims and victim-enablers. In true Nietzschean terms and actions, the late twentieth century has evidenced the "skillful creation of psychological weapons with which moral pygmies domesticated natural giants."

And what are those psychological weapons? Ironically they are the characteristic flaws of that truly wicked personality. In contrast to the stupid narcissist, the smart narcissist is not so foolish as to paint themself in what might be regarded as a grand manner.

Their celebrity is that of sackcloth and ashes:
I, says the smart narcissist, am more feeling, more caring and more victimized than you.
I, tower above you in my victimhood.

But in their towering victimhood, the smart narcissist retains the essence of narcissism - the delusion of superiority (and in some cases, "the love of, or sexual desire for, one's own body" - Webster).

A derivative, overarching psychological weapon is that of "Political Correctness". Political Correctness is the secular bible, and litigious truncheon of the narcissist. The non-celebrity politically correct are self-aggrandized through their psuedo-empathy for victims, for subspecies, for the "sexually diverse", and their pagan devotion to the goddess mother-nature and her "environment."

But neither the victim-narcissist nor the empathy-narcissist can tolerate the presence of a Judao-Christian God. As THE superior being, God is perceived by the narcissist as their secular anti-christ. It is ego dystonic for the narcissist to acknowledge God because to do so mandates a sense of humility; the omnipresent Being larger than themselves. God is antithetic to delusional self-esteem and self-indulgence. And to make things excruciatingly more uncomfortable, the Judao-Christian ethic acknowledges the divine command that humankind exhibit and practice humility before both man and God.

Unlike the founding fathers, and their subsequent defenders on foreign shores of war, the Me generation has rewritten the book of Genesis wherein God cast out Adam and Eve for their act of hubris. Belief in a deity, even without the trappings of organized religion; belief in the great teachings and wisdom of the Biblical writers, even without acknowledging divine inspiration; belief in a Superior Being beyond self is antithetic to the True Narcissist.

And therefore, God must be driven out of the Garden of Narcissus. For in that garden, humility is a despicable weed that threatens the growth of the flower, and power, of Self.


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