Yes, I find section on "selective compassion" illuminating. Most of outrage over war crimes is pretty one sided and selective, I believe. It would take a person with truly internalized universal ethics to literally feel pain of own and enemy's civilian victims alike.
Given the penchant of many people's willingness to either "go with the crowd" or remain out of the fray, perhaps the best antidote to "Communal Narcissism" and its malignant drive to social conformity must necessarily be an individual overt narcissist, one who is not only impervious to the critiques of certain groups, but actually thrives on them?
Some have argued that only a person with a character like Trump could stand up to the Progressive left and take that entire edifice head on?
History seems to have quite a few examples of what you suggest here David. In fact Victor Davis Hanson calls such people "flawed, tragic heroes". Narcissists like Trump, Churchill, The Seven Samurai, Dirty Harry, John Wayne, all the way back to Ajax have been called in by polite society being preyed upon by predators or authoritarians of whatever persuasion. Such "heroic narcissists" are unconcerned with how they present or what impression they make. They have work to do. They see the threat and confront it, even when it means that the same polite society would like to show them the door after the work is done.
"Narcissists like Trump, Churchill, The Seven Samurai, Dirty Harry, John Wayne, all the way back to Ajax have been called in by polite society being preyed upon by predators or authoritarians of whatever persuasion."
I refused to take the covid vax, and the management of my employer of over 30 years, who I thought were friends, bullied me into early retirement, which meant I lost over $1.25 million in foregone income.
Seeing half a dozen of my colleagues mysteriously drop dead without warning in the space of 6 months after being vaccinated made the experience slightly easier, but I'm still bitter about how I was treated.
I liked the part where you say collective narcissism is on a continuum, because wanting to do the right thing for oneself and/or society is a good impulse; even if we sometimes enjoy the collective adulation. Therefore I would suggest that a better assessment or diagnosis of communal narcissism must include the term, “addiction”. In this case, an impervious resistance to rational doubt being fed by the drug of righteous pleasure within a circle of Superiority. Yikes! What on earth to do?
Here in the land of Substack we have examples of refugees from “wokeism”, so we know that just trying to get wokeists to see reason, or appealing to their better selves does not usually end well for us. Perhaps we need to admit that our former friends and loved ones are just like us! Have we not been addicted to our own set of mistaken issues? It’s just that they cannot yet admit that “woke” is an addiction just as we could not see the log in our own eyes. Like maybe we are addicted to “MAGA”??.
WOKE communities are addicted to their condition. We must empathize and yet separate. We have to believe that addicts need to accept their condition and want recovery before any solution is palatable. Until then, we just need to win, baby! But that’s just me.
The addiction moniker meets the mark. What any narcissist is addicted to is knowing that he or she is right about what they believe and whatever they are up to. Not having the "faith to doubt" the absolute certainty of one's position reflects an egoic addiction to my identity as someone who is correct about they see themselves and their world. This is why, what is also mentioned in these responses is an actual immunity to what would be the antidote of evidence-based information, data and facts. Only intentions, feelings and beliefs sustain the addiction.
“Totalitarian movements thrive by ‘manufacturing consent’. Ordinary people are forced to operate within ‘permission structures’ designed by elites with power and authority. As a consequence, they come to believe things that they would not have otherwise entertained…”
In many cases they don’t really come to believe the falsehood, but forcing them to claim that they do makes them feel compelled and cowardly and, counter-intuitively, makes them react against dissenters with especially viciousness. They’re ‘forced’ (incentivized) to assent to the lie, and so the liars become their new group, which must be protected against threats. The fact that they envy (and so revile) the brave dissenters only strengthens that response.
All participants end up feeling soiled and cowardly… and this makes them feel invested in the system. For life.
'It was F. Scott Fitzgerald who noted that the mark of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time without losing the ability to function—for instance, accepting that there are differences between individuals and groups'.
In what sense are the differences between individuals and groups 'opposing ideas'?
In Episodes 1 and 2 of my youtube series, Unfriended, I describe a co-worker at the Institute of Higher Stupidity that I left last year, who got on my case in a private message for quoting the detectives who'd come to my door when a black infant was slain in gang crossfire. I also quoted the black grandmother of the dead child saying that she did not want the police defunded.
Imagine going after someone for posting QUOTES -- from BLACK PEOPLE -- (the detectives included) -- without showing a shred of sympathy for the grandmother of the dead baby -- or even exhibiting an ounce of concern that a child had been killed!
He finally unfriended me for suggesting that people donate to a person with exorbitant medical bills, as opposed to Luigi Mangioni, who didn't need the money.
Of course, why would anyone take seriously a grown man in his early 50s who reads TEEN VOGUE...
"It had previously been assumed that these characteristics were healthy—unlike the well-known characteristics of overt narcissism so readily apparent in people like Trump."
Trump's bloviating narcissism is so extreme as to be comical. Talk about no self-awareness. The guy is stupid on a stick, as are his supporters!
Good point Jack. It is meant to suggest "Despite the victim's (imagined) dedication to peace". I'm reminded of a Steely Dan song about John Lennon's "Imagine". It's called "Only a Fool Would Say That". As Tom Sowell might say "Ideals are peaceful. History is violent".
Yes, I find section on "selective compassion" illuminating. Most of outrage over war crimes is pretty one sided and selective, I believe. It would take a person with truly internalized universal ethics to literally feel pain of own and enemy's civilian victims alike.
Well presented, thank you!
Given the penchant of many people's willingness to either "go with the crowd" or remain out of the fray, perhaps the best antidote to "Communal Narcissism" and its malignant drive to social conformity must necessarily be an individual overt narcissist, one who is not only impervious to the critiques of certain groups, but actually thrives on them?
Some have argued that only a person with a character like Trump could stand up to the Progressive left and take that entire edifice head on?
History seems to have quite a few examples of what you suggest here David. In fact Victor Davis Hanson calls such people "flawed, tragic heroes". Narcissists like Trump, Churchill, The Seven Samurai, Dirty Harry, John Wayne, all the way back to Ajax have been called in by polite society being preyed upon by predators or authoritarians of whatever persuasion. Such "heroic narcissists" are unconcerned with how they present or what impression they make. They have work to do. They see the threat and confront it, even when it means that the same polite society would like to show them the door after the work is done.
"Narcissists like Trump, Churchill, The Seven Samurai, Dirty Harry, John Wayne, all the way back to Ajax have been called in by polite society being preyed upon by predators or authoritarians of whatever persuasion."
Trump does not belong on that list.
The only known antidote to narcissism, regardless of its variety, is a dose of reality.
The narcissist has an elaborate image he projects. Anything that challenges this is thwarted and rejected, regardless of its veracity.
But real life actually exists. That really is the only thing that can penetrate their delusional worldview.
"That really is the only thing that can penetrate their delusional worldview."
It is sure as hell having a hard time penetrating Trump's delusional worldview
All narcissists have this problem. Most underestimate the lengths a narcissist will go to to preserve their image of themselves. Extreme distortions.
Trump remains unmoved by all the evidence against the vaccines. He still boasts about the operation and his part in it. That is typical.
That said, real life does exist. But the last to convert will always be the narc.
I refused to take the covid vax, and the management of my employer of over 30 years, who I thought were friends, bullied me into early retirement, which meant I lost over $1.25 million in foregone income.
Seeing half a dozen of my colleagues mysteriously drop dead without warning in the space of 6 months after being vaccinated made the experience slightly easier, but I'm still bitter about how I was treated.
Soft totalitarianism, exactly.
I liked the part where you say collective narcissism is on a continuum, because wanting to do the right thing for oneself and/or society is a good impulse; even if we sometimes enjoy the collective adulation. Therefore I would suggest that a better assessment or diagnosis of communal narcissism must include the term, “addiction”. In this case, an impervious resistance to rational doubt being fed by the drug of righteous pleasure within a circle of Superiority. Yikes! What on earth to do?
Here in the land of Substack we have examples of refugees from “wokeism”, so we know that just trying to get wokeists to see reason, or appealing to their better selves does not usually end well for us. Perhaps we need to admit that our former friends and loved ones are just like us! Have we not been addicted to our own set of mistaken issues? It’s just that they cannot yet admit that “woke” is an addiction just as we could not see the log in our own eyes. Like maybe we are addicted to “MAGA”??.
WOKE communities are addicted to their condition. We must empathize and yet separate. We have to believe that addicts need to accept their condition and want recovery before any solution is palatable. Until then, we just need to win, baby! But that’s just me.
The addiction moniker meets the mark. What any narcissist is addicted to is knowing that he or she is right about what they believe and whatever they are up to. Not having the "faith to doubt" the absolute certainty of one's position reflects an egoic addiction to my identity as someone who is correct about they see themselves and their world. This is why, what is also mentioned in these responses is an actual immunity to what would be the antidote of evidence-based information, data and facts. Only intentions, feelings and beliefs sustain the addiction.
This is spot on and is the reason I left academia. It has only gotten worse. I will never be able to go back. A leopard does not change his spots.
“Totalitarian movements thrive by ‘manufacturing consent’. Ordinary people are forced to operate within ‘permission structures’ designed by elites with power and authority. As a consequence, they come to believe things that they would not have otherwise entertained…”
In many cases they don’t really come to believe the falsehood, but forcing them to claim that they do makes them feel compelled and cowardly and, counter-intuitively, makes them react against dissenters with especially viciousness. They’re ‘forced’ (incentivized) to assent to the lie, and so the liars become their new group, which must be protected against threats. The fact that they envy (and so revile) the brave dissenters only strengthens that response.
All participants end up feeling soiled and cowardly… and this makes them feel invested in the system. For life.
https://jmpolemic.substack.com/p/soft-totalitarianism
Very good piece though I didn't understand this:
'It was F. Scott Fitzgerald who noted that the mark of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time without losing the ability to function—for instance, accepting that there are differences between individuals and groups'.
In what sense are the differences between individuals and groups 'opposing ideas'?
In Episodes 1 and 2 of my youtube series, Unfriended, I describe a co-worker at the Institute of Higher Stupidity that I left last year, who got on my case in a private message for quoting the detectives who'd come to my door when a black infant was slain in gang crossfire. I also quoted the black grandmother of the dead child saying that she did not want the police defunded.
Imagine going after someone for posting QUOTES -- from BLACK PEOPLE -- (the detectives included) -- without showing a shred of sympathy for the grandmother of the dead baby -- or even exhibiting an ounce of concern that a child had been killed!
He finally unfriended me for suggesting that people donate to a person with exorbitant medical bills, as opposed to Luigi Mangioni, who didn't need the money.
Of course, why would anyone take seriously a grown man in his early 50s who reads TEEN VOGUE...
"It had previously been assumed that these characteristics were healthy—unlike the well-known characteristics of overt narcissism so readily apparent in people like Trump."
Trump's bloviating narcissism is so extreme as to be comical. Talk about no self-awareness. The guy is stupid on a stick, as are his supporters!
Good point Jack. It is meant to suggest "Despite the victim's (imagined) dedication to peace". I'm reminded of a Steely Dan song about John Lennon's "Imagine". It's called "Only a Fool Would Say That". As Tom Sowell might say "Ideals are peaceful. History is violent".