How Does Narcissism Affect Our Society

The other day, my friend was driving his car, and someone cut him off. He assumed that he had been cut off on purpose, so he sped up and gave the other driver the “You're number one” sign… The look on that poor grandma’s face. If he had thought that it may have been a misunderstanding, then her feelings may not have been as hurt. Things like this happen frequently, but they aren’t always innocent. Regularly, people will cut other drivers off on purpose or for their own gain. These events show strong signs of narcissism, but these ethos are hurting our society in more ways than just traffic incursions. Because narcissism has become so detrimental to our society, we can no longer ignore it and something must be done. In order to accomplish such

a feat, we must first look at the problems of narcissism, and then we will look at some actual solutions to combat and deter this ever growing epidemic.
In order to be prepared to get into the car that represents understanding, we must first define the problem.

Believing that oneself is special, or somehow better or more unique than others has negative consequences to everyone, including oneself. The Narcissism Epidemic shows, “Narcissism is a disease that causes others to suffer.” (Twenge 133). The huge financial crisis back in 2008 that involved the housing market and overconfident banks and buyers investing in subpar loans and investments was caused by everyone thinking the housing market would be stable. This was in part due to the narcissistic ethos of homebuyers and greedy lenders. According to The Narcissism Epidemic, “Narcissism has a global reach” (Twenge 7). This problem is not localized to only the United States. Many cultures around the world are infected with narcissism, and an alarming number of people today are simply oblivious to others, or worse, believe that other people are not as important as themselves. This is obviously an unfortunate truth as we are dividing our society up into everyone for themselves, and nobody for everybody. Luckily, if we continue on this path, it could reverse itself by another major economic and social disaster! Well, that or the problem escalates to nuclear war, famine, and global extinction. Thus, ending life as we know it. With those impacts aside, this is a tremendous problem, and in order to ascertain the reasons as to why we are destroying ourselves and the world at

unsustainable rates, let’s look at the cause.
We must promptly learn to drive the high road, and in order to have any chance of solving narcissism we need to know how to identify it and its symptoms.

The key to identifying narcissism is to recognize where it is lying beneath the surface of our society. Now, for that special feeling. Wording is paramount, make loved ones aware that they are special to the family, and not special to everyone. The Narcissism Epidemic shows, “Feeling special is narcissism-not self-esteem, not self-confidence, and not something we should be building in our children” (Twenge 191). Inconveniently, many of us will already have these narcissistic tendencies, so instead we need to focus on being grateful. The Narcissism Epidemic shows, “Gratitude is the opposite of entitlement: you think about what you already have, instead of what you deserve to have but don’t.” (Twenge 240). Gratitude is an extremely strong sensation, in fact, it is just as strong, if not stronger, than anger. Timber Hawkeye, author of Buddhist Boot Camp, says, “If we give ourselves very little credit for how far we’ve already come, we tend to give others little to no credit for their own efforts in life.” (Hawkeye 7). Along with gratitude, mindfulness will also quiet the ego. The Narcissism Epidemic shows, “Mindfulness is the awareness of the present moment- the thought, the feeling and the physical experience- without negative judgement.” (Twenge 284). Practicing this will help block putting the self in the middle of every

situation. This will not only help see the world better, but it will promote relationships, diminish conflicts, and keep those remaining conflicts manageable. Unfortunately, none of these teachings would be beneficial if we didn’t know how to use them. These strategies require effort, and the strongest, most effective ways of learning and developing these important traits and characteristics is through consideration, reflection, and meditation. Even if we just sit down for a couple of minutes and appreciate who we are, how much we have gone through, and acknowledging that everyone has had similar experiences in his/her life, we will have an effect so insurmountable that we could literally change the entire world in the blink of an eye.
In conclusion, narcissism harms oneself, those around them, and the world in ways that are unsustainable and take away from human prosperity. We have this epidemic because of the recent and rapid shift in the home life of our children and the lack of effective adaptation thereof. There are many solutions to narcissism, and many of them are difficult because they require time and effort, but when we draw more from inspiring the initiative to earn rather than receive, from being grateful, and from being mindful, then we can change the world for the better by driving the high road.