Post Narcissism
June 13, 2022
Think about this: have we ever lived in a time where the average human being has been ever so self-obsessed?
Or, if that's not palatable to you, I know a lot of people who cannot bear to even think of themselves badly, have humans ever lived in a time where they gave so little thought to others collectively on average? (I assume though if you're esoteric enough to be surfing a neocities site, you're probably not remotely narcissistic.)
I'm sure you know a few outliers here or there, or even you're a philanthropic person and think of others all the time, but for the majority of people this period of time has produced so many narcissists who can only think of themselves. Our society continues to reward this sort of behaviour, that, we can all agree on, and in the future we can agree we will be seeing more and more narcissists as a result.
We live in a spiritual dark age, where the average person you meet is probably going to be an asshole. But, to be fair, even in Marcus Aurelius' time it was the same. He mentions in one of his passages that when he wakes up every morning, he tells himself that he's going to have to deal with (paraphrased a little bit here) "a bunch of fucking morons."
And even to this day, I really do feel the same way. Not that I'm not a fucking moron, because I really am, but at least I can be nice about it. I feel as if the common decency to be polite to strangers has all but disappeared from the recesses of people's minds. (Yes, everyone is going crazy except for me. Yadda yadda.) Besides that idea, you can at least agree with me that something is up with this generation and TikTok.
In fact, did you know that TikTok has a beauty algorithm that pushes only the prettiest people to the top? Gee, it's a wonder how some people are successful on TikTok and others can't even snag a view. Then those same people will shame you for not achieving the same level of success as them as some sort of status symbol, and then everyone just moronically gobbles up that load of bullshit. You feel me?
It's just watching this process makes me want to gag and puke a little bit. Sure, maybe you can call me a coping monkey or a fox and his sour grapes, but seriously, are you seeing this shit? How we're glorifying the 1% and then shaming the 99% of other people even though we are a part of that 99%? I think it's honestly masochistic, moronic, and utterly miserable.
I say FUCK TikTok! Fuck the media, fuck this non-stop spew of pretty influencers (FUCK! I hate that word. Who the fuck is influencing you and why are you letting them!?) and chicken-shit glamour news. Fuck this non-stop spew of racebait/sexbait nonsense propagated fucking everywhere! Fuck all that bullshit. Fuck your money-grubbing money-posing Instagram pictures and status coping. Who the fuck cares!?
Listen, I'd love to be rich. I'd love to be a billionaire and not have to work. But that's not me, so why should I care if some random dude on the internet is? Why should you care? Unless, you go and contact them and get some connections, of course, but why should we watch their content? Why? I hate seeing all these people around me just click this bullshit and try to show me these clips of rich frat boys partying like that's supposed to be the life. Why the fuck should that be the ideal life? That looks like chicken-bullshit. Call me a coper, but I'm much happier this way. At least, at the very least, I'm free from that bullshit.
Instead of looking to other people for guidance how to live your fucking life, why don't you go outside and figure it out yourself? I think that's the biggest problem of this generation. Why the fuck are we watching influencers give their rehashed life philosophy dribble that they stole after reading some shitty self-help book released three years ago on a New York Times' best-sellers list (which means the book only sold in the thousands, mind you)? Why the fuck do we trust these sons of bitches to have our best inerests in mind?
It's all dumb mindless fun, in my opinion. The question is, what do you live for? And influencers, surely, do not have the answer for you. They are nothing like me, and they're nothing like you. They paint themselves as is, but you know, deep down, that they aren't your friends and they certainly aren't you. They wouldn't associate with you. It's a purely parasocial relationship that you've formed in your head. The human mind wasn't built for this kind of bullshit to enter your retinas, and yet we're attracted to it purely through some rough, accidental social engineering.
But, if you're all out to go have your mindless fun, by all means. Go download TikTok. Go ruin your mental health. Go see what your brain thinks about that. I'm just saying: it's not worth the trouble all that social media brings.
If you could find a way to personally connect one on one with people, that would be healthiest. Where are you going to find down-to-earth people in this day in age though? People who just want to talk to you. People who don't want to talk about things, rather people who want to talk to you and more importantly, people you want to talk to.
Isn't it ironic? In such a narcissistic world, it's still just as hard to find who you are in this world. I know I've become more narcissistic as I get older, I have to to serve my own needs. But, I still haven't got a clue to that answer. I sure as hell know that the internet isn't it. Maybe I'll go backpacking somewhere and leave a recollection of my experiences. I don't know.