Thoughts on American Narcissism

[Wolfeye]

Just thought of something that might inform on the narcissism common to American culture that so many have noticed & wrote books about. I think that a major point (follow me on this) is that awareness doesn't require acceptance- or even any affirmative feelings on the matter. These people have a tendency to think that nothing is good enough for them, so that's likely to be a problem. There's even the potential that they feel like they're being "Jedi Mind Tricked" by someone else's actions- the person doing them conveys that it's a good enough course of action by doing them. When the observer doesn't find it suitable for themselves or plain doesn't find anything suitable enough for them, this will lead to a "false battle for freedom." Maybe people should talk in the third person or at least think in those terms- that way, it reduces hi-jacking tendencies & keeps people from feeling bullied by actions that are not applied to them that they might do differently in their own situation.

There's also the concept that approval isn't conducive to attack & is potentially seen as a "lower" emotion- kind of like how someone might think a wrench is better than an orange, because it's a more effective weapon. If nothing else, they seem to have an "anti non-self" mentality that actually might be more at the heart of their behavior than simple arrogance. After all, someone can have extremely high self-esteem simply because they DON'T act like that. So I figure it's got to do with instigatory malice.