Every new age brings its own challenges and hence its monsters. It is said of Dracula and Frankenstein that they were born because of the rapid changes brought about by the second industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism. They represented a fear of the unknown.
Dracula embodied the dangers of the new capacity of the wealthy for unhampered pleasure-seeking on a global scale. Frankenstein embodied the fears of how we had reached the technological capacity to violate nature’s laws.
Our new age, brought about by the rise of digital technologies that allow for massive gatherings and instantaneous exchanges of information, brings its own challenges. It seems we have come to accept the realities feared by the creators of Frankenstein and Dracula. Indeed, pleasures are unbounded for those who can pay, and nature is what we make of it. Or at least, until we discover, possibly to our death as a species, the limits of what we can do.
It is a world of new possibilities as well, of course.
The starry-eyed in me sees that solidarity across borders — national, racial, ethnic, and all other identities — is possible as never before. In the period of intensive and extensive capitalist penetration and exploitation, the occupy movements of the new millennium have given us a new class analysis–the new proletariat is the 99 percent of humanity.
Six billion monsters
In this age, the monsters do not lurk beyond the laws of nature nor in the unbridled pleasures that capitalism wishes us to pursue.
The monsters walk among us, elected to positions of power no matter how they spread greed, hate, lies and destruction. And we elect these narcissists because we understand them all too well. In our own way we, too, are narcissists. Because it is only through this extreme denial of the other person which narcissists do, that the 99% is prevented from forming bonds of solidarity.
And I do mean everyone.
I scroll through my Meta (formerly Facebook) account and realize that several of my acquaintances are egotistical and vain. All they talk about are themselves, highlighting even the most unimportant and humdrum things they do. This is much more so when something “dramatic” happens such as when they go see their relatives. And woe, should they encounter some troubles in their life, such as when the kitchen sink clogs! Poor victims. And if their spouse, child or sibling causes them trouble — my, my, my. Indeed, let’s put our heartaches online!
But I place these egotists only a cut above myself. It isn’t as if I don’t post the same trivial things like the wonderful meal I had. It isn’t as if I don’t fight my battles online with people I feel have bullied and betrayed me. I like to think though that my posts are far more selective, more interesting, and my emotionality has a political goal. But then I suppose everyone thinks that. So, in fairness, I too have fallen to the seduction of narcissism.
Meta bumps up my estimation of myself because mere acquaintances or contacts, even that scammer I mistakenly accepted, are now all my “friends.” Golly, I am a really lucky person who has thousands of friends and followers. And I can bare myself to them instantaneously, anytime.
And look at all the like and heart reactions to what I post. I certainly get far more love on a minute-to-minute basis these days. Even if I know, really, that most of those likes and loves and even dislikes are performative. Even if those birthday greetings take very little out of the well wisher in terms of time, remembering and genuine emotion, still I am hailed by thousands.
Perhaps the difference between me and those egotists is that I curate my “brand” far better. Us oldies remember brands as names put on mass produced bulk items. Not people. Certainly not as something inherent to an individual and curated as an act of personal will. But we are all brands now.
The point is, for all of us, we are big fish in our ponds. The only real question is how big our pond is. The only real measure of big is how much we get from the monetization of all that influence.
Monster Leftists
Little wonder that the Left, with its supposed allegiance to solidarity, has fallen prey to its own brand of narcissism.
Nowadays identity politics has fallen into the extreme divisiveness of the affirmation of “me” — my oppression, my oppressed group, my struggles, my identity. Affirm me above all else, affirm my identity or else you are a racist, a misogynist, transphobic. We have moved so radically far from the time when we did not necessarily wish to take away the privileges of the dominant as much as we wanted all the privileges that a just and environmentally sustainable world had to offer to everyone — regardless of what identity markers they bore.
Nowadays we no longer want our identities, created by oppression, to end; we want them recognized and given privileges first before we decide what should go around to everyone. Little wonder progressives turn everyone else off even as we squabble amongst ourselves. Intersectionality, the idea that the 99% suffers from some form of oppression, has not led to the humble acceptance of one’s own privilege, but a form of competition as to which oppression our audience should prioritize — preferably ours.
Little wonder that the culture features so well a current form of narcissistic psychopathy: the feeling of perpetual victimization. Everyone perversely is now celebrating their empathy as we call on each other to be kind and sensitive in an endless celebration of fragility. And where community and friendship and joy is celebrated, it is increasingly done in tight in-groups of similarity — of race, class, ethnicity and ideology. This is empathy individualized to the extreme so that altruism for the unknown other person cannot find space.
So we elect them and empower them. The narcissists who will say anything at all to gain our momentary hearts and likes. No matter that they lie and contradict themselves. We too curate our truths when we create our brands. It is no longer a question of whether they are good people, because the public persona is in itself a mere mirage, a lie and an amusement.
And so we elect them, those that create divisiveness and hatred of the other identities. Because we have given up on solidarities and altruism. Hence we see egotism and the celebration of the “me” and the exclusive “us” as “authentic.” We have a clear terminology for this in Philippine culture. The “kami” as opposed to the “tayo.”
We are indeed at the beginning of an age but the monsters are no longer external forces that can be fought and put to flight. If they war the 99 percent could so easily put the 1 percent to flight. These days the monsters are within us.
Hold on to values
And yet all is not lost. We need to know who our real friends are. They do not abide in your social media accounts. Indeed it is the pathological narcissists whose friendships are as shallow as those in social media and whose being does not go beyond the performative. These still suffer from dysfunctional family relationships. Their abuse has real life consequences. Their emotions are as superficial, dark and empty as their public personas.
We need to realize that politics is a mass exercise and not a personal act of blame and recrimination. What we need is discussion and not cancellation. That agreeing to disagree can only be respectful if we have taken the time to discover what it is exactly we cannot agree on. That personal conversations, well-crafted opinions and public debate are the real life line of democracy and that these are rarely divisive.
It will require that we understand that our identities are subject to negotiation with other people’s identities. That self care includes the proper putting together of the self along lines of solidarity and altruism. One of the most enduring findings in health research is that a commitment to the well-being of others leads to better mental and physical outcomes.
What it takes in the age of narcissism is to not reaffirm the self. Rather it is to reaffirm the values that will guide ourselves as we move in the world of others—all of whom deserve to be treated with kindness and fairness regardless of who they happen to be. And thus the kind of person we elect or admire matters so much still, regardless of how much we may disagree with their politics.
In the age of monsters there were still monster slayers. And those who like to think of themselves as slaying monsters must reaffirm that there is still value to seeking the truth together, to avoiding lies and misinformation, to human rights and the rule of law, to a disgust for violence and killings and for reaching out to the person who has less than we have in life.
These days, I see myself as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings as the balrog of narcissism approaches me to engulf me in its flames and bring me down to the abyss. And I say to it, “You shall not pass!” – Rappler.com
Sylvia Estrada Claudio is a doctor of medicine who also has a PhD in psychology. She is Professor Emerita of the University of the Philippines, Diliman.