narcissists

Came upon this article in DesiConnect and though the in itself had some meanderings in staying with the topic, I thought the author did a pretty concise job of drawing a bridge between narcissm and the young generation.

1. I can live my life any way I want to.
Agree or disagree?

2. It’s important to just “be yourself.”
Agree or disagree?

3. I think I’m a special person.
Agree or disagree?

If you agreed with these statements, you just might be a narcissistic
person.

The article goes on to describe why and to what extent the feeling of ‘me’ and ‘I’ has become most important in a youth’s life.
Jean Twenge, a psychologist and researcher on the above said feelings of selfishness has written a book – Generation Me. I was quite taken aback to realize I fell under the category and a little unsettling to put it mildly that I was steeped deep into being labeled ‘narcissistic or to put it in layman’s terms – self-centered.

Digesting that, as I moved on it is interesting to note that the youth of now are a lot more competitive, aggressive and well, a bit engrossed within themselves because of the way the society has structured it around. Every step seems to be a race, a competition, driving each to judge themselves and to hope to bask in the glory of success …
School, college and careers always seemed to be a rat-race – and with every passing generation, the stress levels are reaching higher grounds. I thought I had it bad, up until I see what my little ones are facing. In a bizarre twist of irony, it somehow feels that though I might personally feel the race is tantamount to intense, the reality is that the generation going through it seem to be handling it as well as they can. Is this evolution? Is this what we are meant to do? We get better with passing milestone and as the climb gets tougher, we equip ourselves to brace it and ultimately succeed. Do we really or is it just a perception? A shadow of reality and as perceived through various sets of eyes, ages and criteria.

We have to learn that we can’t always get our way. We can’t always get what
we want when we want it. That’s just the cold, hard truth about reality.

Is this reality?

The self-centered notion that “I can live my life any way I want to” needs
to be tempered by a greater sense that “I have a duty toward others.” We no
longer need a declaration of independence; we now need a declaration of
dependence.

As I see it, we seem to live in a coherently incoherent society. The network is there yet the threads that bind us togther are intangible. …but is the world ready yet to embrace each other and to become say – selfless?