Brother, the Holy Scriptures cries out to us, saying: Whoever is self-promoting will be humbled, and whoever is humble will be promoted. When it says this, it shows us all that self-promotion is a kind of pride. The Prophet shows that he avoids this when he says: Lord, my heart is not lifted up, nor are my eyes fixed on the heights. I have not mixed in great affairs nor in things to wonderful for me. But what if my thoughts are not humble? What if I rise up in pride? Then you will be refuse me like a mother does a weaned child. (Rule of St. Benedict 7:1-4)
“. . . Look in the mirror and see what you have become, for it may not be as you imagine.
In the past thirty years it seems that Anglo-American culture has grown increasingly narcissistic. I do not know if there are more narcissistic individuals in society now, and perhaps there are not.
But I do think that narcissism is much more widely tolerated, rewarded, and even admired now than it would have been in the period of 1930 to 1950 for example. And that is what makes all the difference. More people feel free to indulge their selfish and egotistical tendencies, and to cultivate them, in order to be fashionable and competitive.
As an aside, I think this also tends to explain the decline of literature and poetry in American culture, and the rise of reality shows and the preoccupation with extravagance. Literature calls us out of ourselves, ex stasis, in order to fill us with knowledge and the creative impulse, while spectacle merely panders, and flows in to fill the empty and undeveloped voids in our being.”
[follow this link to read the entire article]
