(6-minute read) – There seems to be a rise of false self in the world. This rise of false self is a collective increase in egos in our communities and societies. We are becoming narcissistic.
The rise can be seen everywhere as self importance.
Self-importance
Too many of us think we are entitled to what we want. We demand change and we expect it now. We believe that we are responsible and accountable for everything in our lives.
Self preservation without caring for anyone else has become common.
Selfishness has become a virtue in providing for bad times, retirement and even the next generation of our family or tribe. The mentality is ‘survival of the fittest’ in a world where growing human populations are competing for fewer natural resources.
Modern humanism
Modern humanism seeks enrichment of the individual and looks to blame everything on the rich and rise up against them. I’m not for one minute saying the rich aren’t doing everything they can to stay rich… but we seem to have reduced all our problems to their fault.
There’s an outward blame game going on – we blame corporations, governments, institutions – anything out there. There’s a recipe for anarchy simmering.
It smacks a bit of Karl Marx’s socialism.
Marxist socialism
Marx said institutions were used by the ruling class to keep the working class docile.
Marx showed the alienation that humans suffered due to capitalism. This alienation, according to him, was threefold. Firstly, there was an alienation of the working class person from the product of his labour due to the private ownership of the means of production. Secondly, an alienation was experienced from the work itself due to a division of labour to accommodate the industrial phenomenon of specialization. Thirdly, there was an alienation from society due to a preoccupation with material possessions.
This explanation is true. Society often robs people of control of what they make of themselves. Instead they work for someone else’s purpose, and experience limited ownership and satisfaction in their work. But there’s more to our sense of alienation that that.
Original humanism
Humanism originally arose to put a stop to exploitation of human beings. It said we humans are what we make of ourselves – and we have the right to do this for ourselves. We deserve to be free.
The humanistic tradition emphasizes the ideal of humans becoming their full true selves without any disturbances or obstacles. The best of humanism was based on love for humankind. But things went wrong…
Humanism and false self
. . .we’ve tended to emphasise the wrong aspects of our characters in this pursuit.
Humanism has tended to emphasise forceful and domineering will power as a virtue. It has tended to glorify selfishness. Instead of staying rooted in the love of true self, modern humanism has become a sort of virtuous justification for selfish false self.
Modern people in this humanistic tradition, place all their hopes of a liberated person and of a society free of oppressing institutions on the human effort to dismantle certain societal forces.
They seek a solution ONLY in societal change – in outward change to be won.
Narcissism of false self
This bold humanism causes narcissistic and indignant egotistical views – views of false self. It seeks a solution to our dissatisfaction in the outer world and not in our own inner world.
The situation has led to a sickness of violence because the next step for the ego is easily taken. That next step is violent narcissism.
The psychiatrist, Scott Peck says unbridled narcissism is the main cause of psycho spiritual illness. The failure to grow out of narcissism, although extremely common, is also extremely destructive.
Scott Peck calls injuries to pride, narcissistic injuries. He writes:
“We suffer little narcissistic injuries all the time: a classmate calls us stupid, for example; we’re the last to be chosen for someone’s volleyball team; colleges turn us down; employers criticize us; we get fired; our children reject us”.
These injuries gain huge weight when they spread in societies.
What’s the solution?
There is a need for deeper transformation of people independently of societal circumstances. As much as we can stand up and resolutely and boldly demand change and join the masses in forcing a direction to break down societal status quos, we would not have deeper answers to the human condition.
We do not make the distinction between the things that are wrong and oppress us in society and the problems which are simply as a result of the human condition. The latter are things that are inherent within us regardless of our circumstances.
The solution is deeper transformation from false self to true self.
We must look inward to accept and grow and to be the change we want to see in the world. We must understand our narcissistic injuries by spending time with the divine psychotherapist at our deepest centres.
What’s the outcome?
We are often presented the best opportunity to grow through perceived unjust treatment and oppression. Contrary to humanism, that propounds ‘outward boldness’, the mystical tradition teaches humility and inward reflection for deep self-actualization.
Thus, although criticism of society is valid, it is unable to successfully reshape society, primarily because it misunderstands the human condition. Many movements for social justice and change leave voids that require psychological and spiritual responses.
These responses must be to transform society from the inside of individuals, one mind at a time. This transformation is from domination into service, from power into love, from demands into vicarious selflessness, and from false self into true self.
Idealistic, you may say. Impossible, you may argue. But all else has failed to transform society. All else has failed to save us from ourselves… so we can only look inward and do our little part by letting go of false self.
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