The American Spectator : The Land of Narcissus

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The Land of Narcissus

What Arnold Toynbee and Charles Murray understood about a society in disintegration.

She was complaining in print about the fact that 437 "friends" were following her on Facebook or MySpace as she described her eventful walk to the refrigerator to make a sandwich. Her complaint was that these people were not really friends, but faceless voyeurs with only a glancing interest in the important details of her daily life. It reminded one of those Hollywood celebrities who rail against the paparazzi, but crave their attention.

Welcome to the Me-Myself-and-I Generation. It is not made entirely of teenagers desperate to be in constant contact with their friends. It's them, but also many who glide into young adulthood addicted to "texting," Twitter messages and the aforementioned "social network" web sites. These are people who think the world--or at least their acquaintances-- is itching to know the quotidian aspects of their lives. Perusing MySpace and Facebook one wonders how anyone could be interested in this stuff. Apparently, though, millions are.

There is even a new online service that let's users tell their friends exactly where they are. The user can peg this global tracking to the moment of transmission or keep it active for hours. So, one's adoring "friends" may keep one in their sights for extended periods. Just the ticket for those Hollywood celebrates.

Columnist Cheryl Wetzstein says that all this self-absorption emanates from the generation born to the "Me Generation" of the 1970s. She worries that too many teenagers and young adults try to emulate the faux celebrities who till our television screens and YouTube snippets, people obsessed with their bodies, sexuality, drugs and outrageous behavior.

Granted the celebrities seem to care only for themselves, like the legendary Narcissus who spurned all advances because he had fallen in love with a reflection in a pool--his own. Now, they seem to have millions of mimics.

To be self-absorbed is to care little for others, even to exploit them. Certainly more than a few are addicted to social networks and seek self-reinforcement by collecting large numbers of "friends" who will admire whatever it is they describe or any photos they may post to glorify themselves. They also rattle off their tastes in this or that.

Along with all this craving for attention from others is a short attention span. Short, monosyllabic text messages on cell phones take the place of conversations or letters. Running comments on one's social networking slot are stream-of-consciousness, not requiring advance thought or writing in coherent sentences and paragraphs.

Is rampant self-absorption related to the ongoing coarsening of the culture? Social scientists will have to decide that. Some already have. In 2001, Charles Murray, in an article in the Wall Street Journal, mused on Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History (1961) in which he said that a healthy civilization is led by a creative minority, setting society's behavioral standards. Conversely, in a "disintegrating" society, Murray says, "the upper levels degenerate and abandon the role of leadership...This leads to a behavioral code that rejects the values of being 'brave, loyal and true'--one that rejects acceptance of responsibility and blame, when appropriate...one that rejects beings modest and gracious in victory and a good sport in defeat...Many of the accepted 'rules' collapse and are viewed as old-fashioned, out of touch...Peer pressure expands exponentially to enforce strict adherence to 'political correctness.'"

Murray summarizes Toynbee's conclusion of 48 years ago this way: "To recognize a disintegrating society, look for a culture that is in the process of being shattered, riven, torn apart. Those who sound wake-up calls of alarm and try to invoke the 'old norms' are shouted down, ridiculed, marginalized and censured."

Sound familiar?

topics:
Self-Absorption, Facebook

About the Author

Peter Hannaford was closely associated with the late President Ronald Reagan for a number of years. His latest book is Reagan's Roots: The People and Places That Shaped His Character.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (21) | Leave a comment

Tony in Central PA| 7.6.09 @ 9:34AM

I have remarked that, as a middle - aged guy, I sometimes feel like I'm living in a bad science fiction movie about the US that was made around 30 years ago. What I find most astonishing is the accelerating pace of our society - wide loss of common sense. If you took somebody from our past, even the recent past, and gave them a tour of America, they would likely be impressed by little and disgusted by much.

Jeannine| 7.6.09 @ 10:39AM

Why is it that people are shocked that this country is in a decline? The election of BO is just accelerating it. As far as I know, no man-made organization has survived more than a few hundred yrs in its current form.

Appleby| 7.6.09 @ 10:39AM

I got started with the idea of social networking in 1998 through a motorsport chat board called 10-Tenths Motorsport, and for about five or six years it was a great way to network with people I actually met in person as I travelled world-wide. Then it disintegrated as it was taken over by the TwitterBots and the Short Attention Span Theatre who think *you suck!* is reasoned debate. I spend very little time on any chat board now because the language and the behaviour is so juvenile and so lacking in content.

I still write letters by hand. In school we learned in grade 3 to write cursive with Palmer Method penmanship books, and in grade 5 we write with fountain pens. Our handwriting was clear and readable and we spelled our words correctly. I practice mine weekly by writing to my elderly housebound aunties, and about every 3 weeks to a friend in New Zealand who also enjoys handwriting and the thought that has to go into it.

One more thing about writing. If you compare autographed hockey cards from the 1970s to those of today, you will see that the earlier ones can be read clearly and the later ones consist of a scrawl quite similar to that which your toddler makes when first handed a crayon.

P.S. Being of the soon to retire generation I anticipate with glee the total collapse of civilization when these babies find out that there's nobody to do the work but them, and they don't know how.

Mike| 7.6.09 @ 10:51AM

From another middle-aged guy...originally from Central PA...How right you are!

Cris| 7.6.09 @ 11:14AM

"The upper levels degenerate" is a perfect description of the federal courts. My father told me in 1969 the biggest threat to our civil liberties are liberal federal judges, so true. With liberal federal judges running amok giving us busing , pornography and abortion and taking away school prayer and the ten commandments, schools, culture and the family collapsed and American society will soon collapse as well.

scott| 7.6.09 @ 11:59AM

A disturbing symptom of our society is deep insecurity. Today's youth expend incredible amounts of energy, time, and money on their appearance. Think of how many teenagers go to high school solely to show off their outfits bought at the mall. Talk in general is used as a weapon by people terrified of what others might say.

Unrealistic expectations are undoubtedly the leading cause of unhappiness, and Western civilization's youth are the least rigorous, most demanding in history. It is one thing for this to be isolated to the upper classes, it is another for it to have permeated the entire society. The ghetto is romanticized, the elite's position is worshiped with envy, and good-ol' disdain for the bourgeoisie is near permanent.

Zach| 7.6.09 @ 12:15PM

I was born in 1976, and I have many of these same symptoms described. I think what slows the pace is the love of books. Even a teen fiction takes some attention, and the reward for reading a classic is great.

Still; my handwriting is terrible. I find myself refreshing Google Reader when it doesn't fill with new blog posts quickly enough. I fidget in meetings. I recognize the problem and know that the constant flow of information is hurting my ability to think at any length.

Jeannine| 7.6.09 @ 1:33PM

Zach & others of your type,
Stay away from the electronics for a few hrs/day.
Handwriting---I've always known men to have horrible penmanship even before Microsoft. Think medical doctors writing out prescriptions!

Pat| 7.6.09 @ 3:31PM

What is it with these bash the younger generation articles - American Spectator cranks one out at least monthly. Makes one suspect their reader demographics are primarily aging Boomers. especially among their more generous benefactors.

Boomers, or more appropriately Bummers, you're going to have to face reality, your mortality is creeping up on you, you're gonna die before long and that realization has finally taken hold. Your generation now holds the senior positions of leadership in almost every field from business to politics - and what a mess you've made of things. Picking on the younger generation is sourced from your fear of impending death, but you'd be wiser to throw love and encouragement in their general direction - they will choose your old age homes and determine the generosity of your medical plans.

Cruise on back in your minds to the Woodstock generation, look at your wrinkled selves as you were then, a shallow group of drugged out losers with imperial dreams. And those grandiose dreams of your youth have come to naught. Your government funded social security and medicare wells have run dry - bet you wish now you hadn't wasted the money on ditzy social programs to save the world and aborted all those future workers. Some of you led exemplary lives, took your responsibilties seriously and matured into solid gold citizens - but the majority of your generation were dumber and more naive than the folks in Oprah's daily studio audience. Want to take your frustrations and fears out on someone? Talk to the hand.

Tony in Central PA| 7.6.09 @ 5:50PM

I'll agree that the Boomers ( of which I am one ) are the most self - aggrandizing generation in American history by a wide margin. Kids are, to some extent, products of their environment. And who created this environment ?

I heard of a story recently about some Boomer parents who bought into all the popular self esteem baloney while raising their son. The son, now in his early 30's, came home for a visit and ended up chewing out both parents at the dinner table for inflating his ego with all kinds of BS that ultimately hurt him as an adult. I can only imagine he'll do better with his kids.

Le Cracquere| 7.6.09 @ 6:28PM

Not exactly nice, Pat, but not really unfair either. For most of the social pathologies afflicting the Twitterers, there is a direct line leading back to specific character flaws of their parents' generation. Bluntly, I'm not inclined to blame kids who have obviously inherited minimal cultural capital--their elders are the ones who burnt it up.

liberty| 7.6.09 @ 7:01PM

"and get off my lawn! kids today!"

get a life you dinosaurs.

Thom| 7.6.09 @ 7:29PM

As a boomer, I got an advanced start on the technology that enables a lot of this narcissism to inflict the weaker minds in our society. My career field introduced me to many new and exciting marvels of gadgets of which I just had to have more and more of….

The difference between my generation’s infatuation with some of this self absorbed technology and later generations is we had to pay for it back when it really cost something to have. Later generations have either been given the technology for nothing or expect it to be given for little or nothing. What younger generations lose sight of is the shear time these technologies consume and time is truly money that could be better invested somewhere else. The last movie I saw had both the message to turn off the cell phone and stop texing during the movie. It never fails someone has to leave the movie theater to answer their cell phone on vibrate or it answering some hot tex message and light up half the theater with their phone. Add to this texing while driving a train or car or plane……

Because I’ve lived through the beginnings of the narcotic known as “on line” I go out of my way to not be wired into the Matrix 24/7. I even have a home number, not a cell number as my primary. If I’m not home and not on my cell, speak to the answering machine on the home number. My cell phone is simple, no camera. FaceBook, UTube, Twitter and all the rest are just time consuming fades that come about when young people have nothing healthy to occupy their lives with beyond looking at a reflection of themselves in the mirror 24/7. Having young adults live with their parents until their early thirties does not help this situation either.

When the younger generations have to start supporting their 78 million boomer parents get by on their old age welfare and government run health care they might start to teach their children that life if not “free” and one should not look upon a 20-30 something teenager as a gift from God….

John Blake| 7.6.09 @ 7:30PM

As for kids and childrearing: Set an example, play to your offsprings' strengths, provide a secure and loving home. Parenting is a mutual endeavor... you are not just cohabitors but Mom and Dad. This ill-defined approach is qualitative. We make opportunities available, subtly guide kids' interests; no "odious familiarity," no voyeuristic re-living one's own youth. Take inevitable crises all in stride.

We've been lucky: Our beloved elder daughter is a biochemist, the only female in her class of thirty who stuck out four grueling years ("why not just get a nice BA degree?" "But Dad, I like biochemistry"). We've been married twenty-seven years, and also have two Eagle Scouts ("Big Birds"), sterling characters who give me an inferiority complex. Fate smiles.

When at the end you face the Lord of Karma [your own self in different guise], he will only ask, "Were you loved by a child?" If yes, much can be forgiven, If no, nothing else much matters.

Tamam

Quartermaster| 7.6.09 @ 9:50PM

Obama is a symptom, not a cause. Millions of mindless idiots went into the booth to pull the lever for man with no real life experience, whose "wisdom" is mere vacuity, all because he is black.

More importantly, Obama meshes with the degraded culture we have seen grow up from the idiotic 60s. He is like so many of those who pulled the lever for him.

I'm a "boomer" and I've seen this coming for a long time. The so called greatest generation set the stage by indulging the boomer generation because they wanted them to have more than they did. Not only did so many of those parents give them more than they had, they spoiled them. You can see it in the immaturity in the liberal wings of both parties. The teenagers never grew up, and they never will.

bob| 7.7.09 @ 12:53AM

I think you can track the collapse by the ever ever lessening of the influence of life on the farm in the United States.

henry| 7.7.09 @ 3:01AM

Toynbee said that the end af an age occurs when a creative minority loses the will to be dominant. There are three characteristic phenomena
• Runaway inflation
• The growth of government. In the last few years of the Roman Empire two out of three Romans worked for the state
• A process he called mimesis, whereby the once dominant majority took on the lifestyle of the previously dominated masses. Thus, for 600 years the barbarians had dressed like Romans, listened to their music, and given their children Roman names. In the last few years Romans gave their children barbarian names and tried to assimilate barbarian culture. Sound familiar?
He also said that civilizations face the greatest threats from within. In other words, they fail because they commit suicide.

Elliott| 7.7.09 @ 4:12AM

Good article !
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Cris| 7.7.09 @ 8:59AM

Let's face it the nation began to unravel with the escalation of the Vietnam War. That unpopular undeclared war divided the nation, coarsened the culture and did irreparable harm to the military and economy. The irrational exuberance of 1960 America became a basket case by 1970 and never recovered. Greed and debt replaced frugality and saving, kids aborted, SAT scores plummeted, male leadership thwarted, religion pushed aside, history ignored, families disintegrated, rampant drug use and common sense superseded by political correctness.