Matt S September 28th 2016 Part 8.
As always I try to find a picture that describes something of the content of the article. In this case the title and the picture show something that appears unearthly and evil; it also portrays a night scene with dark and swirling shapes. When I have looked at narcissism and how it appears to be increasing and becoming more acceptable the world over, there seems to be something unnatural happening. Narcissism now seems to pervade many areas of society; it is also increasingly being seen as acceptable, or certainly a more normal behaviour pattern.
How can such a destructive way of behaving become so widely accepted? If you have been alive for the last 80 years you may have seen a world go from a state of world war (WW2) into an era of peace. There were a generation of people in the developed nations who had been through a serious economic depression, and if not one, possibly two world wars. This generation especially in America, Europe the Commonwealth and parts of Asia, were determined that their children should have prosperity and peace. The frightening prospect of nuclear war appeared to act as a deterrent given the horrendous destruction wrought by two small nuclear bombs in Japan.
People were sickened by, and sick of the horrid savagery of war. World War 2 did degenerate into a savage conflict at the end. People wanted peace and a return to peaceful living devoid of conflict. This appeared to work well for a while but humanity has a short attention span, and an even shorter memory. It was not long before local conflicts were developing in Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa. Some of this war may have been fuelled by greedy arms dealers and companies, the rest was fuelled by fallen sin natured humans determined to have their own way and “other forces” that have also been at play.
From my own experience there was a time when selfish, grasping, greedy, obnoxious, discourteous, bullying, deceitful and compassionless behaviour was seen as antisocial and unacceptable. It was regarded as good if you gave to those less fortunate, courteous and kind behaviour were regarded good personality traits. Fairness in relation to others was also regarded as a sign of a healthy and normal state of being, whether you were an individual, group or company. Bullies were shunned and bullying was seen as a sign of someone who was defective in some way. If people worked hard to increase their wealth and be prosperous they were not looked down upon, they deserved their acquisitions. To live peacefully with your neighbours was the norm, to respect others privacy and property was the norm.
(However I need to say that what happened behind closed doors in some homes was very different!!)
Generally speaking I remember a time in New Zealand as a child when our house was never locked even when everybody went out. Life was easier economically for most people, anyone could save to buy a house, there were always jobs, and there was no poverty unless people placed themselves in poverty. People were not pressured in their work and life appeared to be much happier. People had regular holidays and were not obsessed with acquiring things. Many people went to Church and or identified with a Christian denomination and the “Golden Rule” was held as important even if nothing else was. Many people still accepted the Biblical 10 commandments as the guidelines for moral conduct.
So now that I have built something of a picture for you of the world as it was some time ago, how does that compare to how the world is now?
Let’s see!! The Kardashians………… Barak Hussein Obama, Hilary Clinton, Donald Trump, ISIS, George Soros, Reality TV, Master Chef, Come Dine With Me, Self Help, The Secret, On Demand, Safe Spaces, “I am Special” songs in Pre Schools, New Age, Your Rights, Comments Sections, We Value Your Opinion, You are entitled to! Let’s make this about YOU! Let’s make you richer, faster, cleaner, more beautiful, more athletic, and so the list goes on. What do all these things have in common? They are all “Self Focus”, whether they are individuals or groups (perhaps more plainly put, just pagan idolatry for many). Just think carefully about each person, group, or category that I have listed and see how the self focus may apply. Obviously the politicians listed will be easy but what about Master Chef! Isn’t that a program where budding chefs pit their skills against each other? Master Chef may have started as that, but what is it now?
There are many more examples of self focused activities, ideas, people, groups and ideologies, my guess is more than in known history. If you listen to “New Age” gurus, they tell us we are entering an age of enlightenment, peace and harmony. Really!!??
This is where I am going to ask you to think for yourself, (however I would always ask you to do that anyway). Please don’t take anything that I say in this article (or any of my articles) at face value. I would ask that you examine carefully what I have written. I am not going to provide any references as I hope that you might “Google” a few of topics and check it out for yourself if you are not already aware of it. Watch a few Master Chef or Kardashian shows if you have not already (okay maybe just one Kardashian show then). How self focused are these folk? How much false compassion, false affection do they display? How critical are they of others whilst inflating themselves in the process?
So please tell me if you were around thirty years ago (or at least know someone who was). Would these TV shows, and attitudes have been welcomed? I suspect strongly that they would not have been so widely accepted! So what has changed that makes them so acceptable now and where has that change come from. There are at least three primary areas of teaching or learning that we have in the Western world, and this is also true of developing nations. The Family, the Education System and the Media. Broadly speaking these areas are where we get most of our learning from. It stands to reason that if someone chooses one of these areas to pursue a particular ideology, it will be heavily influential in determining the outcome of our attitudes and thinking. (I could have included Government or Ruling Authorities as an influence that determines our thinking, and you would not be wrong to think this, but my perspective is that they use the Media, the Family and the Education System to indoctrinate people anyway)
Statistically speaking family life is at its lowest ebb in the Western world. What is seen as the traditional biblical family has been under assault for quite some time now. Mum, dad and the kids branching out into extended family (although still there) is under assault from every direction. With the alphabet soup sexual orientation folk (you know……. LGBTYDERSZXEJLKUIT!*$@#^?) claiming their version in ever increasing circles, the socialist/communist folk claiming that the “Village” should raise the child. That is “socialist speak” for Government Control over your thinking and actions, because they know best don’t they? Then there are the “I don’t give a flying rats rear end about anyone but myself” corporate bodies who wish to rule the world at any cost, speaking of cost! your bank balance figures heavily in this one.
Hmmm….. seems I might have left one out! What about Religion and Spirituality? Would it be fair to say that these have been influential but are now outmoded in an increasingly secular world? Hang on! We have a very large percentage of the world’s population holding to some degree of religious belief, don’t take my word for it, Google it. So this must have some impact on the way we shape our attitudes and thinking also. But all these Religions and Spiritualities cover a massively diverse range of beliefs and can’t agree on anything. Oops no wait! I forgot! Pope Francis is currently sorting all that out.
Back to the main thrust of the topic.
What messages are we and our children getting (if we have children) in our day to day lives from the Media, Education, the Family and Religion? (This is my perception, having been media watching in all its forms for quite some time now) We have seen a steadily increasing diet of anti-biblical ideas, anti-family, anti-marriage, pro-homosexual, pro-secular, anti-Christianity, pro-Muslim, pro-socialist, pro-new age, pro-evolution, pro-self, anti-Jew, anti-Israel, anti-conservative, pro-liberal, pro government responsibility, pro-feminist, anti-masculinity, pro-tree, anti-chainsaw, anti-parents………… and so on, and I’m sure you will be able to add plenty to this list.
So what messages are the Education Systems promoting………….. pretty much the same from my own experience of the secular state education system in New Zealand, maybe a little more toned down, maybe not! From what I read of America and the UK, it is much the same as my own country. Check it out for yourself, there is enough information in this area to keep you going for a lifetime.
My thinking is that if we have been fed this increasing diet of anti/pro stuff (previously mentioned, check out Hegelian dialectic also) for at least the last 30 years, and now we have a generation of people who do not know anything different. This will impact families. In my opinion we have a culture of self focussed “do what thou wilt” people. The idea of ‘do what thou wilt” was promoted by a man called Aleister Crowley, one of the most despicable, satanic, occult practitioners that ever lived in the 20th century. Check him out; don’t take my word for it. We hear the MSM (Main Stream Media) talk about thinking for yourself but I struggle with this, as anyone that does not share the “current accepted version of the “Media Truth” is liable to be soundly criticized and demonised. Just try stating publically that you don’t agree with homosexuality or Islam and then I suggest you run like *!@# in the other direction if you value your life, or at the very least your front teeth.
So where does narcissism fit into all of this? It is my opinion from what I have seen that we have a generation of young people who are actively being encouraged to focus on themselves and their own concerns, love the environment and treat other humans as trash and where is God in all this?. Does this smack of loving the creation more than Creator? However I need to add that there are many of this generation that are not like this, I have met some really nice young folk who are rejecting these selfish ideals, but they are the minority.
This has created people who are narcissistic on a generational scale who see narcissism as normal behaviour. It is interesting that the last DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Diagnostic Criteria Manual used by the American Psychiatric Association for diagnosis of mental health disorders, 5th Edition was going to exclude narcissistic personality disorder (amongst several other things) from the list of diagnostic criteria. Here is a URL for a wordy academic PDF on this subject http://wkeithcampbell.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/MillerWidigerCampbell20101.pdf , it is long but it is well written and will give a really good idea about the concerns that mental health clinicians have about this disorder being excluded from the DSM 5. I have not ever heard a reasonable explanation as to why the authors of this manual wanted to exclude narcissism, but I do have an opinion on that (to discuss another time soon).
I know this opinion is shared by a number of different folk I know in a number of different countries, but “the world is going to hell in a hand basket”. At times it feels like a thick black blanket of negativity and ill feeling have enveloped many societies and cultures, much like the picture at the start of this article. It is now acceptable to be selfish, self focussed, self-entitled, self important on one hand and if you are not a tree hugging, tolerant of evil and sin, diverse, sustainable and open minded individual (code for accepting every piece of PC garbage out there), then your face does not fit.
It’s okay to save the environment but humans are viruses and need to be disposed of unless you are a migrant in Europe, (actually some of those migrants are genuine refugees, but very few) Check out the belief on Google that humans are viruses and need to be eliminated from the planet, you may be surprised who advocates this idea. Also check out the Georgia Guide-stones and the philosophy that sits behind them. Of course there are some in the world that see themselves as worthy of being saved but I’m not quite sure who determined this, or !! maybe they did!! You know the types of people, George Soros, the Rothschild family etc.
Oops! Did I mention Rothschild’s?, this might bring to mind for some of you words like “Elite”, “Illuminati”, “New World Order”, “Global Finances” etc. Next time I would like to look a little at the covert plans that these folk are deemed to have for the world and see how this might fit in with narcissism. Until then have a good week and stay in a pocket of God’s peace if you can and I will pray that you can. God bless you.
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