Gym or no gym it seems we spend more time taking care of that thin surface layer of dead skin than on any other organ in our bodies. “Taking care of our head” is likely a matter of doing something with our (dead) hair rather than any kind of learning. Then there’s the obsession with clothes et cetera. Even deeper within, beyond our used but unseen organs, lies the less tangible and further underdeveloped consciousness. There, unexplored emotions, unutilized instincts and innate wisdom remain on the back burners while the societies we live in thrive on quantifiable intelligence that has evolved into the dogma of marketing and the religious usury of spirituality.
Articles in Time, and Newsweek, and on CNN say today’s generation of self-centered youth are part of narcissistic epidemic. The compounded effects of a youth obsessed pop culture constantly focusing on teens and college age people who feel entitled to automatic satisfaction is deemed a sure sign of humanity in decline. Young adults equipped with parental plastic feel entitled to the best in personalized product demographics.
Human history is decorated with a long list of individuals who became wayward souls due to the distractions of vanity. The introductory lesson in the Old Testament is of Eve breaking the only rule in the universe at the time, only to follow reptilian advice on how to accessorize the human ego.
The Greco-Roman lesson of Narcissus described a young character being so impressed with his appearance that he ignored the love, emotions, and thoughts of others till cursed by the gods as a result, and became catatonic and lost in a fatal reflection of himself. He reduced himself first to his image, and then was further reduced to isolation, and then the further solitude of death.
In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, it is suggested that we are all born into an environment where we see superficial shadows as reality rather than the source of the light, and the forms between that cause the shadow shapes. But picking any one piece, the light, forms, or the shadows, and saying it alone, along with the metaphorical meaning we assign is the true reality, is still superficial. Taking all components in and seeing past the horizon is difficult, but not impossible.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, tells of a young man who is much like Narcissus, recognized as beautiful while in an age of hedonism, and hopes to sell his soul believing the only things worth pursuing in life are beauty and desires. Fearing time and its effects on his appearance, he trades the aging process off to a portrait of himself only to lose his moral compass, sanity, and eventually every remaining shred of happiness.
A non-mythological version of the characters I’ve listed is the Spanish Explorer Ponce De Leon who lost track of his original mission and died searching for The Fountain of Youth. As the first governor of Puerto Rico, he heard stories from the natives of a spring that offered eternal youth to those who drank from it. See the pattern here? He took off to an area that he felt was described, and ended up in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida, one of my hometowns. He never found the Fountain of Youth, and the one you visit in town is based on nothing but the story.
Are we more obsessed with ourselves than ever before? Like anyone else living in these times, I can only speculate on the vanity level of any past generation in history. It's safe to say though that there is a support system in place for the vain like never before. Becoming self-centered seems to be part of our natural psychology. It's as if our primordial survival instincts wander astray and self preservation becomes self love. But even that's a misphrase. The vain are miserable. Michael Jackson, just as an example, had a clinically narcissistic, if not solipsistic view of reality. Pedophile? Musical genius? I don't know, but he was lost in illusions of himself that made him miserable, and if today's youth are in an epidemic of selfishness, they may "feel good" from time but they're not happy for any lasting period. Not knowing the difference between happiness and feeling good might just be the very root of our problems.
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