Selfish Self Consciousness vs. Consciousness of the Self
Julian Rose, Guest Writer
Waking Times
Throughout the past three to four decades, putting ourselves in the foreground and just about everything else in the background has become ‘the new normal’ for millions of well-off Westerners and followers of Western fashions.
This has had three outstanding affects: firstly, it has contributed to a huge increase in narcissistic wealth hoarding and the largely mindless amassing of all sorts of luxury goods from fashionable clothes to fancy gismos, shiny cars, perfect homes, exotic holidays and more. Basically, all the things that propaganda based corporate advertising has on offer to tickle the vanities of a fast moving, materialistically seduced society.
Secondly, the overtly heavy material demand associated with this burgeoning consumerism has led to a massive and brutal exploitation of planetary resources and the consequential extensive rape of mother earth. And like all ‘rape’ it is done solely for short term ego bolstering gratification.
Thirdly, putting our own desires in the foreground and everything else in the background has turned people in on themselves in a way which largely excludes the expression of our natural social instincts to support each other and share our common wealth.
A narcissistic inclination to indulge in everything to do with ‘me’ impoverishes society at a deeper level as well. It achieves this by cutting short the ‘age of innocence’ through implanting unrealistic and unwelcome diversions into the human psyche just at the time when the search for more profound answer to life’s questions should be moving strongly into the foreground.
This great quest for deeper answers and truths inevitably leads into experiencing direct collisions with life’s hidden and not so hidden hurdles. Yet it is through a non-fearing determination not to step aside from these collisions that we gain the very best chance of building real and enduring strength in the fledgling spirit of our deeper selves. In fact, the opposing urge to indulge ourselves has the capacity to derail the natural growing process to such a degree that many only ‘come back to themselves’ after a life long struggle of the soul to make itself heard above the fruitless din of empty chatter that fills the void of an otherwise often unbearably soulless existence.
Related articles
- Selfish Self Consciousness vs. Consciousness of the Self (wakingtimes.com)
- Living With A Narcissist (matthewcraddock20.wordpress.com)
- Social networking: A tale of narcissism and vulnerability (collegian.com)
- Selfish Self Consciousness vs Consciousness of the Self (zengardner.com)
