We are a narcissistic nation, and at least according to Emily Yoffe, that is our tragic flaw. Yoffe wrote an article in Salon.com, "But Enough About You," that explores the topic through several celebrity and high-profile examples, as well as through speaking with psychologists and other experts. She suggests that the recent economic collapse was brought on by a sense of entitlement, both amongst Wall Street big wigs who thought they deserved greater and greater profits, and amongst everyday Americans, who felt that, by God, they needed the biggest house available, whether they could afford it or not. And we all know what happened afterwards: human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass chaos. But didn't we look pretty while London Bridge fell down, down, down?
I find this analysis a little simplistic, but no one can deny that narcissism is prevalent in contemporary American society. Just look at Nadya Suleman, the so-called Octomom, who recently gave birth to octuplets just because she wanted to. Now she's trying to make deals with whatever television networks or movie producers will have her. She's even had an offer to do a porn movie. She refused, not because it would be a bad example for her children, but because she still had all her baby fat. I am not making this up.
The sad thing is, in this age of reality television, Octomom is not alone. Why, for example, does anyone go on The Jerry Springer Show? These people clearly don't have much going on in their lives except for their twisted relationships. They are corralled onto the stage, where Jerry interviews them while the audience titters, and then he calls someone else on-stage to beat the living snot out of them (video here - NSFW due to adult language). Warning: If you are brought onto a bare stage with nothing but breakaway furniture and the host interviews you from a safe distance in the audience, you are in the smackdown zone.
So why do people do it? Because some defect in their brain keeps screaming, in an accent akin to the slow-witted buzzard (video here) in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons, "Ba-doop, ba-doop, ba-doop-doop, doop-doop-doop. I want to be famous!"
Lest I be mistaken for a hypocrite, let me put the facts on the table. I do, in fact, write a daily blog. I did just spend six months competing in a writing contest where the prize was a pretty banner and fame on teh Internets. I frequently post pictures of myself, and I write about things that happen in my life as if they're terribly interesting. Nowadays, my camera follows me to just about any event so that I can get pictures. You would think I was an anthropologist documenting myself. And yet, I still think that I'm superior to those Jerry Springer folk, because... hmm... narcissism? Surely I'm too good for that.
You see, there's a difference between narcissism and self-interest. Frankly, it's not that unusual to be self-interested. Here are some examples of self-interest that don't necessarily rise to the level of being narcissistic:
