"Moral Narcissism and the Least-Great Generation"

[Deleted]

Moral Narcissism and the Least-Great Generation

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/a...at-generation/

TLDR: Fascinating commentary from an old man, summary quotes below, do read the rest of the article in the link:

"But a better title for us would be the Least Great Generation, because that’s what we were. Maybe the Ungrateful Generation. We may have contributed significant amounts to the lifestyle—music, films, fashion, food—but as the years rolled on and centuries turned, it became ever clearer that we were callow, even selfish, inside. All our neo-Marxist declarations, recycled through hippiedom or not, were meaningless. We were just Eliot’s “Hollow Men” in hipster attire. Worse than that, we had—consciously or unconsciously or both—worked to unwind everything our parents had built.

And it had its result, although not all of us desired it—or were later surprised by what we had wrought. These days the robust American exceptionalism that defeated the Germans and the Japanese and then rebuilt those despotic societies as still-functioning democracies in a virtually unprecedented manner is a distant, almost forgotten, memory. What was the overweening psychology of this Least Great Generation that impelled it to attempt to dismantle a great country? The word “narcissism” gets bandied about a lot.

-------------------

We were constantly seeking attention from the outside world, making us a nation of insecure weaklings forever in search of validation to tell us we were alive, to give us a raison d’être. Lasch saw the radicals of the ’60s, like the Weather Underground, as manifestations of this pathology. He also cited the “personal growth” movements of the seventies—est, Rolfing, Hare Krishna, various forms of Buddhism, organic food, vegetarianism, and so forth.

These belief systems and quasi ideologies continued to gain adherents during the ’80s and ’90s and on into the current century with writers like David Brooks and Charles Murray documenting how what was once youthful rebellion became the norms of the contemporary bourgeoisie. The Generation of ’68 and its followers had gone mainstream, transmogrifying radical symbols into specific forms of conspicuous consumption. Everything was smeared. A trip to Whole Foods in a Tesla became the equivalent of striking a blow against world hunger.
The election of Barack Obama was the apotheosis of this melding of lifestyle with political worldview.

---------------

Narcissism has taken over our society to such an extent that we cannot see straight. It has disconnected us, or a great many of us, from reality, and is in the process of undermining what tiny bit of democracy we have left. Every even mildly unconventional thought has a “trigger warning” lest someone be offended. Narcissism is making us blind. It is the secret sauce destroying America from within. It is also the handmaiden of perpetual distraction, the misdirection that prevents us ever from solving anything.

---------------

That form is moral narcissism—a pathology that underlies the whole liberal left ethic today and some of the right as well. What exactly is this form of narcissism that is destroying—if it hasn’t already destroyed—our families, friendships, workplace atmosphere, and democratic republic?

--------------

This is a narcissism of political and social thought, a narcissism that evolved as religion declined, a narcissism of ideas and attitudes, a narcissism of “I know best,” of “I believe therefore I am.” It is our identity tied up inextricably to our belief system in a way that brooks no examination. It is a narcissism of groupthink that makes you assume you are better than you are because you have the same received and conventional ideas as your peers

--------------

Not only are we good. We are the best, and therefore we can do anything we wish. We have permission. Moral narcissism is the ultimate “Get out of jail free” card in a real-life Monopoly game. No matter what you do, if you have the right opinions, if you say the right things to the right people, you’re exempt from punishment. People will remember your pronouncements, not your actions."

[Gheld]

To quote my grandmother; "So many words for a man with so little to say."

[Independent voter]

He was born in 1943 so he's what 70?

Comparing generations doesn't make much sense, not every generation faces the same threats. WWII and The Great Depression? We don't have to face those so the challenge level isn't the same.

[Wildtree]

The most narcissistic generation was the one that's been between 20 and 35 yrs of age during the wild 1920s.
Yes those times had incredible hardships in store too. And still, or despise of it, people partied like there's no tomorrow.

[Endus]

He was born in 1943 so he's what 70?

Comparing generations doesn't make much sense, not every generation faces the same threats. WWII and The Great Depression? We don't have to face those so the challenge level isn't the same.

Right. It's the root of the "these kids today don't know how to be" complaints that are an inevitability of humanity.

People who grew up in the Great Depression/WWII knew what horror and hardship were, so they (I'll be speaking in deliberately broad strokes; exceptions abound) were mostly fairly fiscally conservative in their own spending habits, buying modest houses that they could pay off, keeping jobs that were steady paychecks, etc. Stability was prized, because they'd had so little growing up, rather than pushing for the highest achievement and risking failure. Their kids, the Baby Boomers, grew up in that stable environment, and saw their parents passing on opportunities that carried risk, and so they rebelled and tried to upset that stability to take those risks, to make things "better". Gen X/Y are now dealing with the fallout from that, and going their own way. And "going their own way" is probably the best way to put it; there's been a pretty heavy rise in individualism in these generations. There isn't a "counterculture", like there was for the Boomers, there's just hundreds of mini-cultures, all doing their own thing. Their kids will inevitably deal with new challenges as a result of whatever that brings about for the world.

The core issue of the Boomers is that they don't see the largesse and stability of their youth as a temporary boom in the post-war era, they (falsely) see it as the default standard, when it's unsustainable and doesn't exist any longer. This is why they have trouble understanding why "kids today" struggle with getting decent employment; jobs were widely available to anyone who wanted one, in the Boomer's day. They just don't have a framework to understand, because conditions today are so different from the '50s and '60s.

[Wildtree]

Right. It's the root of the "these kids today don't know how to be" complaints that are an inevitability of humanity.

I am in my 50s.. and I have heard this exact line in all kinds of variations from those in their 90s - 40s when I was in my teens and twens. And of course later..
Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed for that matter.

[melodramocracy]

"Psychoanalytic texts speak of grandiosity, an extreme self-centeredness to such an extent that there is a failure to distinguish between the self and the external world. Another simpler but reductive explanation might come from the old joke about actors, “Enough about me. What do you think about me?”

We were all actors."

If nothing else, it's easy to see that at least one trait has been passed onto millenials.

[Fencers]

Would not a more accurate TLDR be: "Kids these days!"?

I think the concern and assumption of a morality is problematic in his article.

[Endus]

I am in my 50s.. and I have heard this exact line in all kinds of variations from those in their 90s - 40s when I was in my teens and twens. And of course later..
Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed for that matter.

That's more or less my point.

It isn't about any generation being "better" or "worse", it's about members of older generations not understanding that the world of today is not the same world they grew up in.

[Daelak]

Moral Narcissism and the Least-Great Generation

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/a...at-generation/

TLDR: Fascinating commentary from an old man, summary quotes below, do read the rest of the article in the link:

"But a better title for us would be the Least Great Generation, because that’s what we were. Maybe the Ungrateful Generation. We may have contributed significant amounts to the lifestyle—music, films, fashion, food—but as the years rolled on and centuries turned, it became ever clearer that we were callow, even selfish, inside. All our neo-Marxist declarations, recycled through hippiedom or not, were meaningless. We were just Eliot’s “Hollow Men” in hipster attire. Worse than that, we had—consciously or unconsciously or both—worked to unwind everything our parents had built.

And it had its result, although not all of us desired it—or were later surprised by what we had wrought. These days the robust American exceptionalism that defeated the Germans and the Japanese and then rebuilt those despotic societies as still-functioning democracies in a virtually unprecedented manner is a distant, almost forgotten, memory. What was the overweening psychology of this Least Great Generation that impelled it to attempt to dismantle a great country? The word “narcissism” gets bandied about a lot.

-------------------

We were constantly seeking attention from the outside world, making us a nation of insecure weaklings forever in search of validation to tell us we were alive, to give us a raison d’être. Lasch saw the radicals of the ’60s, like the Weather Underground, as manifestations of this pathology. He also cited the “personal growth” movements of the seventies—est, Rolfing, Hare Krishna, various forms of Buddhism, organic food, vegetarianism, and so forth.

These belief systems and quasi ideologies continued to gain adherents during the ’80s and ’90s and on into the current century with writers like David Brooks and Charles Murray documenting how what was once youthful rebellion became the norms of the contemporary bourgeoisie. The Generation of ’68 and its followers had gone mainstream, transmogrifying radical symbols into specific forms of conspicuous consumption. Everything was smeared. A trip to Whole Foods in a Tesla became the equivalent of striking a blow against world hunger.
The election of Barack Obama was the apotheosis of this melding of lifestyle with political worldview.

---------------

Narcissism has taken over our society to such an extent that we cannot see straight. It has disconnected us, or a great many of us, from reality, and is in the process of undermining what tiny bit of democracy we have left. Every even mildly unconventional thought has a “trigger warning” lest someone be offended. Narcissism is making us blind. It is the secret sauce destroying America from within. It is also the handmaiden of perpetual distraction, the misdirection that prevents us ever from solving anything.

---------------

That form is moral narcissism—a pathology that underlies the whole liberal left ethic today and some of the right as well. What exactly is this form of narcissism that is destroying—if it hasn’t already destroyed—our families, friendships, workplace atmosphere, and democratic republic?

--------------

This is a narcissism of political and social thought, a narcissism that evolved as religion declined, a narcissism of ideas and attitudes, a narcissism of “I know best,” of “I believe therefore I am.” It is our identity tied up inextricably to our belief system in a way that brooks no examination. It is a narcissism of groupthink that makes you assume you are better than you are because you have the same received and conventional ideas as your peers

--------------

Not only are we good. We are the best, and therefore we can do anything we wish. We have permission. Moral narcissism is the ultimate “Get out of jail free” card in a real-life Monopoly game. No matter what you do, if you have the right opinions, if you say the right things to the right people, you’re exempt from punishment. People will remember your pronouncements, not your actions."

Just another thinly veiled attack on the pursuit of knowledge and science, as well as the progression of how our society has become more free and open, something an old person has a hard time grasping with.

[Wildtree]

That's more or less my point.

It isn't about any generation being "better" or "worse", it's about members of older generations not understanding that the world of today is not the same world they grew up in.

Yes, hence why I responded to your post.

And it should be noted further..
Any young person today being upset about this.. safe your anger for later.
One day you be one of those old geezers telling the next generations how yours was so much better than theirs.

[Afrospinach]

Well I think it is pretty insightful.

It is a narcissism of groupthink that makes you assume you are better than you are because you have the same received and conventional ideas as your peers

I particularly like this. I think it is about time we had another mmo champion iq poll. Bets on 70-80% of us being in the 130+ borderline genius region again? Yes, intelligence to the average person is most definitely about "wavelength" than actual intelligence.

I look at entertainment as an example, particularly music. You have so many bloody child stars to appeal to the tween age group. I just do not remember this being so focused even 20 years ago and I find it highly vicarious and yes, narcissistic. That is just a symptom of an ever more pervasive narcissistic mentality imo. Put another way I think we have moved from creative/thought leadership to pandering. There is probably a balance to be found in there somewhere but right now I think we are watching the pendulum swing.

[Wildtree]

I look at entertainment as an example, particularly music. You have so many bloody child stars to appeal to the tween age group. I just do not remember this being so focused even 20 years ago and I find it highly vicarious and yes, narcissistic. That is just a symptom of an ever more pervasive narcissistic mentality imo. Put another way I think we have moved from creative/thought leadership to pandering. There is probably a balance to be found in there somewhere but right now I think we are watching the pendulum swing.

The decline of the Entertainment industry quality, incl the music quality cannot be denied. But...
That is not a generational result. That is an outright economical result.
Business trumped the quality.
It's all about the fast buck. Stars are assigned some shelf life to them. And for as long as they're a hot commodity, they're milked. Popular music was only briefly attributed to actual craftsmanship and quality of the musicians.
Right now we don't have such episode. Right now it's just consumerism that prevails in mainstream.

[Afrospinach]

The decline of the Entertainment industry, incl the music quality cannot be denied. But...
That is not a generational result. That is an outright economical result.
Business trumped the quality.
It's all about the fast buck. Stars are assigned some shelf life to them. And for as long as they're a hot commodity, they're milked. Popular music was only briefly attributed to actual craftsmanship and quality of the musicians.
Right now we don't have such episode. Right now it's just consumerism that prevails in mainstream.

Oh I agree, but they are totally playing to a demand It is just so damned clinical. Don't get me started on x factor et al.

All that kind of stuff to me more than artistry just screams "it could be you"

[Deleted]

Worse than that, we had—consciously or unconsciously or both—worked to unwind everything our parents had built.

There's truth in that. I don't think there has been any other bunch of people in known history that has as enthusiastically and systematically attempted to undermine and weaken their own civilization as the post-WW2 marxists/hippies/multiculturalists/SJWs of the West have. Like the modern-day Ephialtes.

[Daelak]

There's truth in that. I don't think there has been any other generation in known history that has as systematically attempted to undermine their own civilization as the post-WW2 marxists/hippies/SJWs of the West have done.

How is any of that undermining. What you consider undermining, all of developed western nations call is "prosperity". You have no quantifiable data to show this "undermining" so you leave it to your fucking emotions and your feeeeeeelingsss.

[Endus]

There's truth in that. I don't think there has been any other bunch of people in known history that has as enthusiastically and systematically attempted to undermine and weaken their own civilization as the post-WW2 marxists/hippies/multiculturalists/SJWs of the West have.

Change the buzzwords, and this is the kind of thing that a Confederate sympathiser would've said, leading up to the US Civil War. Or the Loyalists, about the rebels, during the American Revolution. And so forth. There's no actual meat to the complaint, other than you not agreeing with their political views.

[primalmatter]

We have all know for a while now that boomers are awful and have burnt down much of what made the country strong in a vague sense that it was the morally right thing to do.

This is kind of a common sentiment actually. They know they fucked up they are just hoping the concept of pensions and giving money to the elderly and the crippled holds out long enough they don't die starving on the street.

[Daelak]

We have all know for a while now that boomers are awful and have burnt down much of what made the country strong in a vague sense that it was the morally right thing to do.

This is kind of a common sentiment actually. They know they fucked up they are just hoping the concept of pensions and giving money to the elderly and the crippled holds out long enough they don't die starving on the street.

Why don't you viziers of what "made America great" speak in fucking vague platitudes all the time? Just tell us simpletons "what made the country strong"?

[primalmatter]

Change the buzzwords, and this is the kind of thing that a Confederate sympathiser would've said, leading up to the US Civil War. Or the Loyalists, about the rebels, during the American Revolution. And so forth. There's no actual meat to the complaint, other than you not agreeing with their political views.

Would have to disagree... Maybe its because I can still look back on before we started this globalist suicide pact but things used to be better. Slowly we traded it away for things that really have no value. Especially tolerance and apathy we are at the point we just surrender things in fear of being called a racist or simply being unable to give enough of a shit to contest snowflakes anymore.

See that thread you locked about people and their preferred pronouns.