If there is one thing I agree with Ann Barnhardt about is her view that the central moral evil of the modern West is narcissism. In fact, she dislikes it so much she calls it diabolical narcissism and has video lectures about it.
Not long ago I read an excellent book called The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, written by two PhD’s in psychology who devoted their career to researching narcissism. Their thesis is that beyond the small percentage of people who suffer from full blown Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or similar personality disorders exhibiting the dark triad traits, narcissistic traits have become wide and common due to the culture, in what they identified as cultural narcissism.
In the US at least, it is nearly everywhere, and it affects the majority of people, including practicing, believing Catholics. It’s basically a moral virus that has spread everywhere like an epidemic. Hyper focus on beauty, health, self-esteem, financial success, and social status, while downplaying faith, values, social morality, and individual morality.
Basically, it is the predominant face of the contemporary culture acting as a bully to those who are not narcissists or overtly narcissistic. That dynamic plays out everywhere, in the family, between friends, the market place, the work place, and even at church.
At church that would morph into a religious or spiritual narcissism, the kind Christ condemned in the Pharisees.
What is the solution? Unfortunately, unless you want to become assimilated to or conform to cultural narcissism, and if you highly value authenticity, simplicity, and genuine relationships, then that means retreat from the mainstream, even the mainstream of church circles most of the time.
The fundamental problem of narcissism is a deep level of pride, vanity, and willingness to be unjustly mean when they deem it expedient to their interests.
People who know me well, including me through this blog, know this is a pet peeve, not something I personally fall into as a habit, despite my own admitted bad habits. It is nearly impossible to escape the pervasiveness of this dynamic, and unless you’re willing to sell a piece of your soul, if not all of it, it requires heroic levels of perseverance and persistence to endure and deal with.
For as narcissistic as Trump is, more in a non-malicious way, he is actually on the receiving end of narcissism as a politician. The elites that have opposed him are narcissistic bullies with far greater wealth, power, and social standing than him. But unlike them, Trump stands out as at least authentic and sincere, the victim of an incredible degree of bullying by the elites. So much so they’ve tried putting him unfairly in prison, and assassinating him, because he is anti-establishment, and pro-nationalism.
If you’re reading this, odds are you like these pages, and therefore share my experience and objections to narcissism.
If you’re in the tiny few who disagree because you might suffer from narcissism or narcissistic traits, then hear me out. It is a psychological disorder that can be treated through counseling, or at least practicing self-awareness. Are you proud and vain, prone to look down on plain ordinary people, or people struggling in this life, and treat them as inferior for that?
The solution is to go to confession, confess those sins, repent, and try and stop being proud and vain, and commit to the principle that charity is always required in every single situation with people. It not only hurts others greatly, it hurts yourself in the long run. You can chalk it up to the times we live in and cultural narcissism, and give it up.