Narcissism
Metrosexuals.
Metrosexual is a term coined a few years ago to identify the physical-appearance-trend among men to be more concerned with fashion, grooming, and their body. Some people believe it is evidence of extreme self love, conceit, and the pursuit of pleasure, or hedonism. Prior to the phenomenon, homosexuals would have carried the day in this category, their only competitors being the fashionable “Sex In the City” type females.
The term metrosexual picks up on the prefixes, hetero/homo, which suggests that a metro can be straight, gay or whatever. Essentially, the phenomenon reveals something about our narcissistic culture. Of course there have been male ”dandy” fashions throughout the centuries, yet our contemporary expression only really gained across the board acceptance in the late ’80’s early ’90’s, coming into full swing today. (Did I hear the term, Gen X-ers? Ka-ching! ROFL!)
Self-love.
Human beings need a basic self-love to survive as a species, and individually, to pursue what is good. Spiritual writers warn against excessive self-love and vanity, and psychologist refer to extreme self-love as Narcissistic Personality disorder. Pop culture, which embodies the cult of celebrity, taken together with our preoccupation with beauty and physique, pretty much screams at us, narcissism.
Yeah, so we know we are the “me” culture - it is all about me. (Well, it should be about me, but everybody else thinks that it should be about them! Gosh!)
Blogger narcissism.
I think we also see evidence of narcissism amongst the intellectual elite, in academia, and of course, politicians - a warm hello to the Clintons. We see it in the Church or amongst religious people as well. Every venue has its own celebrity cult, and every venue harbors those people striving for recognition of their gifts or talents. In such cases, the individual is in a sort of contest to win recognition for his intellectual and spiritual achievements, which can be highly gratifying to one’s ego, affording the person a certain status - real or imagined - amongst peers.
Take this concept down a few notches in the social spiral, and we encounter these types at the office, the gym, or the parish we belong to, and in some cases, the so-called “blogosphere”. I don’t know about you, but I’ve encountered a few narcissistic blogs and commenters in my short-lived experience on the net.
The school of self-knowledge.
In some ways, it is a good thing, because the sensitive blogger who may perceive this trait in others, may well perceive the tendency in himself. Blogging is really public journaling - hence the name web log. Therefore we often expose our personal opinions, tastes, beliefs, etc., without deliberately exposing our true selves. Actually, only a fool would do that - in this case, self-love is a virtue which inclines one towards prudence and discretion.
Sometimes our true selves are revealed to us when we are challenged, depending on our reaction, this may or may not reveal a latent narcissism behind our public writing. Oftentimes the narcissist also feels other bloggers are writing about him/her if what is written happens to resonate with them - negatively or positively. (Yet this can be good, especially if it places one in the school of self-knowledge - which is why I welcome opposing comments - but not invective or profanity.)
The cell of self-knowledge.
Catherine of Sienna writes about the cell of self knowledge. The contemporary search for self-knowledge is often more evidence of a narcissistic preoccupation with self, or a concentration on self-fulfillment and well being. St. Catherine is not speaking to that. Catherine is referring to the interior recollection and conversation with God, whom she knows loves us. Her self-knowledge begins at the point of understanding God’s loving providence in creating her and loving his creation so much he sees himself within her. The Father told Catherine: “It was with providence that I created you, and when I contemplated my creature in myself, I fell in love with the beauty of my creation.”
“In his light we see light”, hence, illumined by God’s love, we detect our faults, our sins, indeed, that of ourselves we are nothing and that everything we posses is God’s free gift - understanding God as uncreated infinite, while we ourselves are finite.
There is nothing that shatters the illusion of narcissism better than the virtue of humility. As Mother Teresa liked to remind us, “The road to humility is paved with humiliations.” And that road leads to the cell of self knowledge.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, so meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine.
