One of the big takeaways from the recent US elections is just how out of touch Kamala and the Dems have been. They have next to nothing in common with ordinary Americans. Their lives are so completely removed from that of most folks. They are increasingly wealthy elites who live on the east or west coasts, and they not only know nothing about mainstream America, but they look down on it and despise it.
As I have discussed previously, Kamala and Co. spent millions and millions of dollars foisting arrogant and vacuous celebs on us during her bid to become President. It of course failed miserably. Whether it was Oprah, or Taylor Swift, or Katy Perry, or Beyoncé, or Jennifer Lopez, or Bruce Springsteen, or Lady Gaga, or some other filthy rich leftist celeb, what they had to say offered zippo to the great bulk of Americans who were struggling to put food on the table and pay their bills.
All these celeb endorsements – paid for with a very hefty price tag – did nothing. These narcissistic airheads who travel the world in their private jets while lecturing us peons on the need to tighten our belts, get rid of our cars, stop eating meat, and rely on renewables, simply turned off most of us – big time. Most said: ‘Oh just shut up and go back to one of your beachside mansions in California or Cape Cod or the Riviera. We have had a gutful of you.’
So now there is some major infighting going on among the Dems and the leftist media, with folks accusing one another of how they could blow over a billion dollars on this and other crap, and still end up in debt – not to mention end up losing the election in titanic proportions.
And still so many of the Dems, celebs and media buffoons are scratching their heads wondering what went wrong! They just don’t get it. But such is the nature of the leftist elites and the narcissists. I have long been writing about this issue of celebrity narcissism. As I said in a piece twelve years ago:
In the West we now have an entire generation of narcissists – people who really think they are the centre of the universe, and are worthy of complete self-love, attention and devotion. We are in love with ourselves and expect everyone else to be as well.
Of course the term itself goes back to the Greek myth of Narcissus who was renowned for his beauty. He was in love with himself and his own beauty, and that did not help things much as he went out in search of someone to love. Obviously under such circumstances such a perfect mate would never be found – or even exist.
So one day he looked into a pool of water, and he of course instantly fell head over heels in love – with his own reflection. So besotted was he with his reflection, that Narcissus could not take away his gaze – so he died there. Thus narcissism is the unhealthy and even fatal fixation with oneself.
But tragically this psychological disorder has affected millions of Westerners. And it is not just the Paris Hiltons of the world, nor the appalling cast of Jersey Shore like Snooki that we are talking about here. Ordinary adults, teens and preteens are totally taken up with this psychological disease as well.
In my articles, I referred to some important thinkers on all this. Let me share here three noted assessments of narcissism and celebrity culture. In 1979 American sociologist Christopher Lasch released his now classic work, The Culture of Narcissism (Norton).
I have quoted from this key work before. In part, he argues against the therapeutic culture that has unsurprisingly arisen. When we put self first and foremost, then making sure that self is fully served becomes our all-consuming purpose in life. As he said early on in his book:
To live for the moment is the prevailing passion—to live for yourself, not for your predecessors or posterity. We are fast losing the sense of historical continuity, the sense of belonging to a succession of generations originating in the past and stretching into the future….
The contemporary climate is therapeutic, not religious. People today hunger not for personal salvation, let alone for the restoration of an earlier golden age, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security. (pp. 5, 7)
And in 2009 Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell wrote The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement (Atria Books). Here are a few snippets from it. First, from the Introduction:
Understanding the narcissism epidemic is important because its long-term consequences are destructive to society. American culture’s focus on self-admiration has caused a flight from reality to the land of grandiose fantasy. We have phony rich people (with interest-only mortgages and piles of debt), phony beauty (with plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures), phony athletes (with performance-enhancing drugs), phony celebrities (via reality TV and YouTube), phony genius students (with grade inflation), a phony national economy (with $11 trillion of government debt), phony feelings of being special among children (with parenting and education focused on self-esteem), and phony friends (with the social networking explosion). All this fantasy might feel good, but, unfortunately, reality always wins. The mortgage melt-down and the resulting financial crisis are just one demonstration of how inflated desires eventually crash to earth. (p. 4)
And from Chapter 1:
Many self-help books maintain that loving yourself is a cure-all. If we just believe in ourselves, this advice goes, anything is possible. The 2007 megabest-seller The Secret promises that you can get anything you want (especially material things) simply by visualizing it. (Apparently neither of us authors really wanted to win the MegaMillions jackpot, because we didn’t.) Interviewed on Larry King Live about Lindsay Lohan and other young stars’ troubles with alcohol and drugs, The View’s Joy Behar said, “They have everything you’d ever want in life—they’ve finally achieved their faces on TV. Meanwhile that little voice inside is saying, ‘You’re not good enough. Not good enough.’ And yet there are people who live in poverty who say I am good enough. It’s all what you think of yourself.” According to this view, young stars like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton wouldn’t have as many problems if they just loved themselves enough. (Lohan declared herself “a role model to younger generations as well as generations older than me,” and Hilton has a large picture of herself over her living room couch, so we’ll leave it to you to decide if either one of them is lacking in self-admiration.) Britney Spears, another young star not known for her humility, also just needs more self-admiration, according to a psychologist quoted in a celebrity magazine. Britney should look at herself in the mirror every day and say, “I love me,” she advised. “Britney needs that capital ‘I’.” (pp. 15-16)
Chapter 6 of their book looks more closely at celebs. One brief quote:
Not all celebrities are narcissistic, of course. But unfortunately the ones we hear about the most often are. Narcissists are masters at staying in the spotlight; they love attention and will do almost anything to get it. This is also one of the few realms where narcissism is helpful—narcissists thrive on public performance. Unlike many people who find it extremely anxiety-provoking to be in front of a crowd, narcissists love it. With the advent of reality TV, nonstop celebrity coverage, and instant fame, more and more narcissistic people are spreading their disease far and wide. The queen of narcissistic celebrity superspreaders just might be Paris Hilton… (p. 91)
And finally, in 2009 Canadian thinker Gad Saad penned an article for Psychology Today titled “The Narcissism and Grandiosity of Celebrities,” asking “What do Jenny McCarthy, Oprah, and Madonna have in common?” Here is most of what he had to say in that piece:
My point in today’s post is not to provide rebuttals to the drivel that such celebrities espouse. Rather, I’d like to speculate about possible psychological reasons that drive celebrities to engage in such nonsense.
1. Celebrities are a self-selected group of narcissists. Whereas it is certainly true that some individuals decide to pursue acting or singing careers for the pure love of the artistic forms in question, the great majority of celebrity wannabes are largely driven by the outcomes (e.g., fame, money, adulation). A recent study by S. Mark Young and Drew Pinsky (yes, this is Dr. Pinsky, host of the Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew) supports the contention that celebrities are narcissists.
2. The extraordinary attention that is lavished on celebrities (not to mention the outlandish sums of money) makes it easy to succumb to one’s hype. People line up for hours to get a glimpse of Tom Cruise coming out of his limousine, and will scream with a visceral religious fervor at his mere sight. Take a narcissist, and feed his or her ego in such a manner twenty-four hours a day, and it is not difficult to guess that Tom Cruise starts to actually believe that he is a superhero (rather than playing one in the movies).
3. This next point is somewhat speculative so I hope that you’ll grant me some leeway. You may have heard about survival guilt, namely the intense feelings of remorse that survivors of a plane crash might experience. A survivor might think: Why did I cheat death when so many others die? What is so special about me that my life was spared? I propose a similar mechanism to explain celebrities’ “interventions” in making a better world. I believe that they suffer from a form of existential guilt. They know in the deep recesses of their minds that they are not deserving of the accolades and privileged lives that they lead. One of the ways by which they can assuage this persistent guilt is to demonstrate to the world that they are much more than a “mere celebrity.” Hence, they “cure” mental illness; they “eradicate” autism; they “neutralize” radiation! Some of you might have noticed a possible contradiction here: If celebrities are narcissists why would they experience existential guilt? I think that such celebrities are perhaps slightly less narcissistic and hence maintain some elements of self-insight. Think Sean Penn (tortured artist) versus Paris Hilton (oblivious narcissist).
4. Postmodernism, the most virulent of anti-science dogma, proposes that all viewpoints are welcome and none is privileged. This creates a democratization of opinions. It is apparently “arrogant” to think that psychiatrists, physicists, and epidemiologists might know more about their areas of expertise than say Oprah or Jenny McCarthy. Most celebrities have at best graduated from high school. Hence, it is quite extraordinary that they should feel sufficiently knowledgeable as to “contribute” to complex issues in physics, psychiatry, or medicine. Here is a thought: Entertain us at the movies and in concert halls, and leave the science for scientists. Celebrities might wish to take heed of a famous quote by Confucius: “When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it—this is knowledge.”
Kamala, most Dems, most media elites, and most celebs are so full of themselves – are such classic narcissists – that they actually thought they would easily win this election. The endless line of celebrities were again paraded in the spotlight, further increasing their already far too large egos and sense of self-importance.
But thankfully the American people voted with their feet – and their wallets – choosing to have a viable economy, secure borders, and traditional values being affirmed, instead of worshipping at the altar of narcissistic and leftist celebs. Thank God for that.
