Reflecting on the American Narcissus

What is most perplexing to me at this moment in American history, when we are at our wealthiest, most secure, and technologically advanced, is how we seem to be so completely riven with fear and anxiety when we come face to face with fellow citizens who hold a different world-view, that we are now willing to contemplate (and create ex nihilo) utterly apocalyptic scenarios, even to the point of picking up arms and dehumanizing our neighbors as if they were wartime enemies.

We faced down real Nazis, Communists, and bloody dictators within the lifetimes of living Americans with dignity and without fear, yet now panic at false shadows of the same. I never bought the media hyperbole that my grandparents belonged to the “Greatest Generation,” which had the benefit of strong leaders who were able to enforce compliance among the recalcitrant when it came to rationing, wartime belt-tightening, and military service, and who actively coerced them to adopt a sense of common purpose. But I do believe the vast majority ultimately grew to be magnificently fearless and selfless in the face of truly horrific enemies and it saved us from a true apocalypse.

And because of their relative lack of narcissism, my grandparent's generation was able to prevail and create a shared “new story” for themselves after the threats of their day had passed, which resulted in the great, prosperous nation that we now enjoy. Historically, that same selfless, hopeful dynamic has produced all of the greatest periods of human advancement born of a shared reality—Greek philosophy, Enlightenment, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution, and our current post-war, post industrial era. And paradoxically, these periods also spark the individual creativity and advancement that we so desperately crave today but which currently elude most of us.

Faced with the new crises of pending environmental collapse, neo-luddism, and rising authoritarianism, our nation's very survival necessitates that we abandon our all-encompassing narcissism, enabled by our current non-leaders, and realize that we aren’t special. We are not the End Times generation. This current socio-political schism is not the final battle of good vs evil. Believing that is just a facile way to achieve fleeting relevance and a sense of self importance when we don't want do the hard work of building our future together. It is also a dangerous way inadvertently to transform ourselves into scared narcissistic children alienated from our community and our fellow Americans into looming boogie men.

We only need to look again at history—the end times mindset of the post Black Death Middle Ages, the religious millenarianism of some of today's Christian sects, Marxist theory on the final proletarian defeat of capitalism, the death cults of the People's Temple and Heaven's Gate, etc. to see that such narcissism is dangerous and always ends badly.

Has America finally descended into senescence after 244 years to the point that we’ve become disconnected from our collective memories and each other? Have we devolved into irrational herd animals panicking at every crack in the underbrush? Are we so bored that we need to conjure up conspiracies and problems for ourselves? I like to think not.

At most we are just lazy, overindulged, narcissistic children distracting ourselves from solving real problems, advancing knowledge and civilization for a new generation, and developing our personal creativity. But during tumultuous times like these we need to grow up, abandon our narcissism, and reclaim our historical perspective and sense of common cause. If not for ourselves, we need to be fearless, clear-eyed, and selfless for our children, those weaker and less advantaged than us, and even our very future – all of which are more at risk from our selfish panic and fear-mongering than from any real dangers.

How? There are no easy answers. But perhaps we need to look to activists in minority and oppressed communities who don't have the luxury of submitting to narcissism and fear. You don't hear them claiming this is the end times or that they will fight their neighbors as if this is a new Civil War, or move to Canada if their preferred world view doesn't prevail. They work mostly in anonymity, step by unwavering step, to make the world tangibly more equitable for themselves and their communities and, as a by product, also elevate the rest of us morally and ethically – including, eventually, those that have historically oppressed them. That should help put an end to the American Narcissus.