Quote of the Day: Social Narcissism and Illusions

 

“As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.”

“We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in their place.” — Daniel J. Boorstin

I couldn’t decide between these two quotations, so I decided to include both of them. They both have to do with the way we see our lives.

The first focuses on the inflated and exaggerated image of ourselves that seems to permeate the culture—especially in the generations coming up. Not all of them, but many of them think they are a gift to the world and should be treated as such. They expect to get high-paying jobs out of college without putting in the time to learn the ropes. They see themselves as so special, possibly from an upbringing by over-indulgent parents, and they will not be denied. They are insufferable.

The second quote focuses on a different type of illusion. Sometimes the world doesn’t quite match up to expectations, and some people believe that if we can transform the world to meet our desires, we will be happy. If the world doesn’t measure up, then we will angrily try to change it, even resorting to violence when necessary.

Both of these quotations shine a light on the way people in our culture choose to see themselves and the world around them. They create a mental list of expectations, are often told early on that they can have anything they want, and then convince themselves that the rest of us should meet their needs. When we don’t, there is a sense of betrayal. They will protest against an imaginary adversary and demand that we, someone, fulfill those original promises.

Welcome to the real world, comrades.

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    We will not be happy when the world conforms to our dreams. We become happy when we forget ourselves and live in the moment in the world as it is.


    This is the Quote of the Day. If you would like to share a quotation to educate, honor another, celebrate yourself, or just so you can rant, our sign-up sheet for November is here.

    Or, if you’re looking to write something a bit more creative, you might try our Group Writing Project this month: It was a dark and stormy night…

    • #1
  2. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Arahant (View Comment):
    We will not be happy when the world conforms to our dreams. We become happy when we forget ourselves and live in the moment in the world as it is.

    Brilliant. Thanks (and thanks, too, for putting up the link). 

    • #2
  3. Kephalithos Member
    Kephalithos
    @Kephalithos

    Susan Quinn: Both of these quotations shine a light on the way people in our culture choose to see themselves and the world around them. They create a mental list of expectations, are often told early on that they can have anything they want, and then convince themselves that the rest of us should meet their needs. When we don’t, there is a sense of betrayal. They will protest against an imaginary adversary and demand that we, someone, fulfill those original promises.

    They do this, in part, because the world often doesn’t meet their needs. (Our culture is broken. Is it any surprise that it begets broken people?) But their “solution” usually involves breaking culture even further and wrecking the few good things which remain — all in the name of liberation or tolerance.

    • #3
  4. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Kephalithos (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn: Both of these quotations shine a light on the way people in our culture choose to see themselves and the world around them. They create a mental list of expectations, are often told early on that they can have anything they want, and then convince themselves that the rest of us should meet their needs. When we don’t, there is a sense of betrayal. They will protest against an imaginary adversary and demand that we, someone, fulfill those original promises.

    They do this, in part, because the world often doesn’t meet their needs. (Our culture is broken. Is it any surprise that it begets broken people?) But their “solution” usually involves breaking culture even further and wrecking the few good things which remain — all in the name of liberation or tolerance.

    It is a twisted and destructive attitude, destroying people, places and things in its path. And we’re struggling to figure out how to turn things around. Will we get to a place where there’s so much confusion and disarray where we can see clear of where we are? Thanks.

    • #4
  5. Old Buckeye Inactive
    Old Buckeye
    @OldBuckeye

    Susan Quinn: They create a mental list of expectations, are often told early on that they can have anything they want, and then convince themselves that the rest of us should meet their needs.

    The rest of us = The Government. The Government = the Sugar Daddy for this type of person.

    • #5
  6. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Susan Quinn: As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism.

    Which is how Obama got elected. Twice.

    • #6
  7. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn: As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism.

    Which is how Obama got elected. Twice.

    Excellent point. And he hasn’t changed one bit either. Thanks, OTLC.

    • #7
  8. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    Kephalitos: “But their “solution” usually involves breaking culture even further and wrecking the few good things which remain — all in the name of liberation or tolerance.”

     Susan: “It is a twisted and destructive attitude, destroying people, places and things in its path. And we’re struggling to figure out how to turn things around. Will we get to a place where there’s so much confusion and disarray where we can see clear of where we are?”

    My twenty something daughter is very social and has a lot of friends her age. The vast majority  of them have either Mommy or Daddy issues or both,  because they have grown up in dysfunctional households where there is either no functioning father or mother or sometimes one just so self absorbed that they no longer function in their parental role. 

    Many of these kids struggle mightily because of these parental issues, which essentially came about because the Totalitarian Left decided long ago to destroy the American Family and has pretty much succeeded.  These emotionally wounded kids then are  easy pickings for the Social Mind Predators of the Left who lead them down the path of self absorption and the idea that the world revolves around them and will and undeniably should conform to their wishes.  But as my daughter has noted of these emotionally wounded kids, the ones that are most sad and depressed are the ones most likely to be the Hard Core Leftist  True Believers  who are more than willing to have something else tell them what to do because they are so confused they can’t figure it out for themselves. 

    • #8
  9. Mim526 Inactive
    Mim526
    @Mim526

    About the beloved of [American] ancestors, reading this today incensed me:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/ScottGreenfield/status/1322205090258784256

    President who fought a Civil War to abolish slavery is a White Supremacist?! Yet another indication the Left truly has no basis in or grasp of reality. By this dishonor to one of greatest among Americans, they again show themselves incapable of civil discourse & unfit for a civil society.

    I agree with other commenters, especially Unsk’s observations regarding family dysfunction (your daughter sounds like a lovely young woman, @unsk) and its attending problems/consequences. It may be small justice but I think at times as long as these Woke locusts take without giving, they will never know the deep satisfaction that comes from achieving something through your own merit and hard work.  In the meantime, the rest of us have work to do saving the Republic Ben Franklin et al bequeathed us ‘if you can keep it’.

    • #9
  10. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Mim526 (View Comment):
    President who fought a Civil War to abolish slavery is a White Supremacist?!

    Now wait a minute. It was a very different time then, and lots of folks had beliefs that would not fit as well in the Twenty-First Century, just as people in Sixteenth Century England had some odd ideas about how to treat Roman Catholics. I don’t think we should excoriate a man for being a man of his time, especially if he managed in some way to stand above his contemporaries. On the other hand, we should not whitewash who the man was or what his beliefs were. Part of Lincoln’s idea was to send the freed slaves back to Africa (even those who were generations removed from that soil), such as Liberia, a country the Lincoln Administration acknowledged. He was by no means an egalitarian. Was he a White Supremacist? There is definite evidence of such in his writings.

    Did that make him some sort of monster? Not at all. He was just a man of his time, and a believer in science. The science of the time said the matter was settled. There was a consensus. That same science (and pseudo-science) was believed in some areas of the world for another eighty years after Lincoln’s death.

    Why are you against science? 😜

    • #10
  11. Mim526 Inactive
    Mim526
    @Mim526

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Mim526 (View Comment):
    President who fought a Civil War to abolish slavery is a White Supremacist?!

    Now wait a minute. It was a very different time then, and lots of folks had beliefs that would not fit as well in the Twenty-First Century, just as people in Sixteenth Century England had some odd ideas about how to treat Roman Catholics. I don’t think we should excoriate a man for being a man of his time, especially if he managed in some way to stand above his contemporaries. On the other hand, we should not whitewash who the man was or what his beliefs were. Part of Lincoln’s idea was to send the freed slaves back to Africa (even those who were generations removed from that soil), such as Liberia, a country the Lincoln Administration acknowledged. He was by no means an egalitarian. Was he a White Supremacist? There is definite evidence of such in his writings.

    Did that make him some sort of monster? Not at all. He was just a man of his time, and a believer in science. The science of the time said the matter was settled. There was a consensus. That same science (and pseudo-science) was believed in some areas of the world for another eighty years after Lincoln’s death.

    Why are you against science? 😜

    Not helping here, @arahant.  The man who left office in a body bag thanks to a full fledged white supremacist was not the man who first went in.

    Science?  What about historical significance?  Wonder if it occurred to those student govt whited sepulchers there wouldn’t be a USA were it not for the man whose memory they intend to erase….

    thx for making me laugh.

    • #11
  12. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Mim526 (View Comment):
    thx for making me laugh

    I’m glad I managed that, anyway.

    • #12
  13. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    The perceived condescension of Lincoln is to be decried, while the real condescension of LBJ is to be celebrated?! That is the message. Emancipation vs the Great Society. One did an imperfect good; the other reversed it. The post-modern attack on history will doom us all.

    • #13
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