Narcissism Is Nothing New

 I always find it a little amusing when someone like Michael Offutt will rant about how people have "become" so narcissistic, as if a lot of people weren't already narcissists.  People do this kind of thing a lot, ranting about how things are so terrible now, meaning they weren't that way before.  I always wonder when was the Golden Age when people were kind, empathic, giving, and well-read.  Um, yeah, probably never.

Darker Than Amber by John D. MacDonald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So it's funny when I read a book like this that according to Goodreads was first published on New Year's Day 1966.  The book is mostly about a prostitute Travis McGee rescues from sleeping with the fishes only for her to be murdered (again) a short time later while trying to get her stash of money.  Trav then takes down the prostitute's pimps in pretty easy fashion.

At one point Trav's friend Meyer talks about a book.  According to the author, a lot of people see themselves as real but view just about everyone else as an object.  In other words, most of the people were narcissists who only thought of themselves.  Everyone else was just there to serve them or for their entertainment.  They lack the empathy to understand that other people are as real as they are.

A modern way to think of it is that these people think of life like a video game where they're the main character and everyone else is an NPC.  So it doesn't matter how crappy you treat them, because they're not real.  That certainly explains all the terrible drivers out there, doesn't it?  I run you off the road or destroy your car, so what?  You'll just regenerate, right?  It explains mass shootings too.  These aren't "real" people they're shooting, just characters who are easily replaced.  (I'm not saying that video games cause this behavior, just that this is how some people seem to view things.)

The point being, if you think narcissism is something new, it isn't.  I mean a book written in 1965 was already saying this.  These old books also rant sometimes about increasing population and urbanization leading to a lack of morals or things like that. It's a good reason to read classic books or watch classic movies.  It helps you realize that everything old is new again.

I copied this off Kindle on my computer so it's not great-looking, but if you want proof, here it is:

Ironically though we're so narcissistic that we think we're the first ones to be huge narcissists.  lol