It's All About Me

It never ceases to amaze me that as a group we seem to require "studies" to figure out what I would imagine any person possessing a reasonable amount of common sense and normal intelligence probably knows already. I'm not complaining that these studies are done, I don't care all that much one way or the other but are we really this blind? More to the point, do we do anything with the information once we have it?

This recently released study examining narcissism in "generation Y" strikes me, gah, as so many things. Obvious, funny, sad, disturbing, would be a few of the descriptives that come to mind.

I'm going to try not to write a book here but no promises, if this bores you...move on now.

This news was not news to me, I raised three of these "Y" kids. Mea culpa. Being from a massively dysfunctional and verifiably insane family myself and starting out on my own from ground zero both economically and socially I did what most damaged, socially retarded young women with no family support do.....made a horrifically bad choice to marry the wrong person at far too young an age and promptly commenced to making more humans so I could engage in my ultimate driving fantasy of having MY children have an oh-so-much-better life.

So we've now established that despite all test scores to the contrary, I am fully capable of being a retarded dimwit able to make poor choices based on fuzzy, illogical thinking and emotion. Kind of shot my own narcissistic tendencies right in the foot.

I'd be more interested in a follow up study in 20 or 30 years to see how many of them got a clue after life has had a chance to bitch-slap them around a little bit. My guess is it would be quite a few.

Marc Flacks, an assistant professor of sociology, said that he believed that narcissism was too harsh a description for current students and that it was more important to discuss why "we have a society in which narcissistic behavior is a good quality to have."

"This is a bottom-line society, so students are smart to seek the most direct route to the bottom line," he added. "If you don't have a me-first attitude, you won't succeed.

There it is, we created them. We've been out of control egomaniacs for generations and it's only getting worse, where it will stop nobody knows.

Since I blog, therefore I might be narcissistic, I decided to answer the few test questions that were presented in the article.

1. "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place."

Definitely not. I'd get bored and frustrated and tell everyone to piss off. Whole thing would blow up in a great big, fiery ball in space.

2. "I think I am a special person."

A little odd maybe. How "special" could I be with a few billion others of my kind to compete with? Not very.

3. "I can live my life any way I want to."

More or less if I can afford to but I also will reap consequences from whatever ways I choose. I could afford to become a heroin addict but prison would cramp my style.

4. "I like to be the center of attention."

Sometimes, doesn't everyone? Mostly I value privacy over attention though since while I might have rare, occasional moments of bright and shiny coolness the other 99% of the time I probably look anywhere from too mundane for words to outright assmonkey-ish so I'd just as soon not have all eyes on me. I'm too lazy to keep up a "public persona".

Not too high up on the narcissist scale. I don't think I'm "more special" but I don't think I'm any "less special" either. I blog because I've been pissed off since I learned to talk and blogging is much more socially acceptable than kicking random strangers in the shins. I'd love to see other people's answers to these questions if you are inclined to answer them.

Our young people? Wouldn't worry too much, they'll most likely figure things out after they fall on their rumps a few times. Worst case scenario, they won't figure it out and we'll extinct ourselves which does not upset me nearly as much as it used to.