We tacitly teach narcissism and individualization as parents and teachers. Each child must have his/her own room, his/her own toys, etc. Grades, in school, reward individual achievement. Competition, whether it's athletic or having the best car or luxury lifestyle encourages it. One of the colonial statesmen commented that part of the "Indian problem" was that they weren't selfish enough. Native Americans practiced "give-aways" and communal property. If there was ownership, it was, among the Pueblos, in the hands of the women, and grandmothers were more powerful than chiefs in some tribes: they chose them, and if they didn't live up to their responsibilities, the grandmothers removed them. Even today, tribal casinos use the profits to build health clinics, centers for old folks, child care and after-school activities. I believe it was either Vine Deloria Jr. or Daniel R. Wildcat who, looking towards America's future, suggested Americans "tribalize," meaning we need to learn to look after each other. The welfare of the individual depends on the group; and the welfare of the group depends on the individual.
When you look at the history of this country this behavior isn’t so surprising. The country was “founded”—forgive me, Native Americans—by two kinds of people: those who were so far out of the mainstream that they couldn’t function within the societies in which they lived (Puritans, etc.), and those seeking profit, from Columbus, Ferdinand, and Isabella onward. South Carolina is a good example. Europeans who settled in the Caribbean came there in search of ways to make money, and so rice and indigo plantations were born. Then what happened? They needed labor and we got slavery. The people who rebelled against England did so for profit, but they cloaked their rebellion in terms of “freedom” to attract poorer people to the fight. Is it any wonder we have the nonsense we’ve got today? Americans have bought into capitalism like a religion as well as the myth of exceptionalism that goes back to the revolution. Throw slavery and its terrible effects into the mix and you get Trump, anti-vaxxers, and a narcissism that’s so toxic it’s destroying our society.
What you are seeing here is the effect of atomization and the me me aspect of the baby boomer generation.
Our ruling class has convinced people that they do not have common interests, they do not have the ability to organize to effect change, and they better look out for number one in order to survive.
Add to that the effect of entitlement and bourgeois values of conspicuous consumption and conformity.
Like the people in NYC who see black grime on their windows and don’t make the association between auto exhaust and what they breathe into their lungs and is on their windows your friends would be surprised at how many chemicals are floating around in their blood streams from the food they eat, water they drink and air they breathe.
Body purity is a myth. Drag out the articles finding micro plastics in the bodies of seals in the arctic. If they only knew how modern industrial energy and food production contaminated their pure bodies every day they might be more focused on doing something about it other than refusing to take vaccines.
I think the anti-vaxxers you spoke with are absolutely correct in their assessment of the “BIG” corporate establishments. These BIG corporations are running America with their BIG dollars and lobbyists buying and controlling politicians. We, the American people, have become mere pawns in their quest to see who can accumulate the most wealth.
This is no small reason why and how Trump got elected. But, obviously, Trump is NOT the solution.
We, the people, need to wrest control of our country back from the BIG corporations. This, of course, will take time. I see our position today similar to America’s position of the late 1800’s - early 1900’s. If we can end this gilded age as we did to end that gilded age we will be all the more better for it.
Robert, as usual your on it. Individualism is running amuck in our country and mindset. It has become for some people the ego in the extreme. I, me, mine. That is all that matters, others be damed. The Impeached Con Man being the societal manifestation of ego turned deadly. Sadly it has connected itself to Capitalism in negative ways now causing global disasters on a daily basis. When ego disconnects from spirit, well here we are. Compassion, personal truth, love and service does create better worlds. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” - Spock
I just subscribed for a year on the basis of this column, because it speaks to my frustration so eloquently. My liberal neighbor insists that the Covid numbers for our town are bogus. My artist neighbor across the street will not get vaxxed because she's sure she's too pure for the vaccine. (A line of dried food she tried to market has already failed, because it was, well, too dry.) Normally, I like living among liberal and creative people, but sometimes our self-involvement is just over the top, not to mention self-destructive. Yes, a third neighbor is a diehard right-winger, and I don't dare ask if he and his wife have had the shots, but at least that's no surprise. Thank you, Mr. Reich.
I agree with your take right up until the last word - individualism. This makes these people seem heroic when in fact they are just unjustifiably stubborn and most tragically selfish.
There’s narcissism and there’s stupid narcissism. I, like Dr. Reich, share some of his neighbors beliefs and have no love for big Pharma. But if one just looks below the company hierarchy and finds their are real people doing diligent work and can explain what they did and how it works, and it DOES work, then “I don’t care” morphs into “I don’t care and I am stupidly going to ignore those facts.” Look at the other headlines today and you see in “The Guardian” that we stupidly ignore the facts that we are at risk of another wave of COVID-19. That would be devastating to our economy and drive even more healthcare workers from the field. These folks may be beyond reach and some are screaming mad about mandates, taking the rest of us down with them. Stupid, selfish, destructive narcissism.
I agree that Narcissism knows no political boundaries. Your analysis is a call to be more purposeful in teaching about the public good, compassion, and the interconnections among all of us -- people, animals, the earth..... We continue to lean toward "rugged individualism" as a nation which can have its moments, I guess, but is dangerous because it ignores a necessary social compact.
I agree with Bernard Baruch, we can only live with hope for the future when we use science & moral reason to solve the problems we face. Science tells us to get vaccinated. John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty" tells us to get vaccinated. Individualism & liberty have limits for those who are paying attention.
The real problem with the unvaccinated is they are filling up every hospital bed - again. That leaves no room for other critically ill patients that may be injured in an accident or having a heart attack. And nurses and doctors are quitting because they are exhausted. Time to require proof of vaccination for admittance to any hospital to be treated for COVID.
Many of us predicted this kind of outcome during the Reagan administration - the philosophy of self uber alles would have consequences. And now we have at least one generation, maybe more, who were not taught Society as a value, a necessity. Their public school education stank because it's in the interest of the GOP to turn public education into a class-based prison system. And there is no way to talk to them when they just don't care. The only choices we have are fantasies: we all become instant experts in manipulative psychology, drug them with psilocybin and talk about Society until the feel the Love and Responsibility, ostracize them, imprison them, kill them. Fantasies. The question is why are other wealthy nations not falling prey to these Self people?
Narcissism. 'I matter- to hell with everyone else.' I think that they are sociopathic in their approach to life. They don't really believe that the 'others' are people worthy of consideration. It is a variant of the Nazi mindset. It may be a cultural problem but these people CHOOSE to act as they do.
I think you are Exactly Correct. We live in a time where it's very hard to see the Government or the Big Corporations caring about The People and so we get THAT trickle down to the citizens not caring about each other. The US is a very Dog Eat Dog Country on the Whole. We are not a collective Society, where as one does well, we all do well. That is just not an ingrain idea in the US as it is in say a European Country.
When healthcare companies make billions a year in profits in the US market - but we see inferior healthcare outcomes- we see that the success of these companies is not correlated to successfully delivered healthcare - we learn not to trust.
I am vaccinated - and would encourage everyone to get the vaccine - but how do you actually appeal to the American people. Patriotism has become a tool of empire. Solidarity has been abandoned by politicians who were supposed to have the working classes back. Our system has become predatory towards its people.
Make America great again works in the republican base becuase they feel the animus that through US history has been reserved for "the other" - African slaves, native people, non-white immigrants ( Asian, Italian, Irish, ...) to different degrees. Now that US hegemony has reached or passed its peak - profits must be extracted from Americans- including the previously protected and sacrosanct "white" people..
We don't have trust in our institutions- we don't have or share a single set of cultural ideals - or even share a set of fundemental truths. To get people vaccinated you would need counter narratives based on the specific identity of the people you want to reach.
Unfortunately the republican party thrives on creating mistrust in government - and once Biden was elected it was inevitable they would callously create doubt about the vaccine for political capital and to create a crisis.
And our institutions have been hollowed out. Why does the FDA for example allow drug companies to do their own studies - like the national vehicle safety crash test ratings- government should be taking potential drugs and performing independent testing and providing transparency and objectivity. Why is the FDA funded by the drug companies- it creates perverse incentives especially in leadership where the revolving door only opens for people who play ball.
I hate to sound callous but they cannot die fast enough. They are beyond reaching with logic, science, self-interest, empathy or compassion. They don’t care about my survival so why should I give a damn about theirs?
Darwinism is correct. Survival of the fittest is an immutable fact.
A side benefit of their untimely suicidal demise is fewer stupid or ignorant voters in upcoming elections.
Just another reason why I left the United states to live a better quality of life as an expat living overseas,
We tacitly teach narcissism and individualization as parents and teachers. Each child must have his/her own room, his/her own toys, etc. Grades, in school, reward individual achievement. Competition, whether it's athletic or having the best car or luxury lifestyle encourages it. One of the colonial statesmen commented that part of the "Indian problem" was that they weren't selfish enough. Native Americans practiced "give-aways" and communal property. If there was ownership, it was, among the Pueblos, in the hands of the women, and grandmothers were more powerful than chiefs in some tribes: they chose them, and if they didn't live up to their responsibilities, the grandmothers removed them. Even today, tribal casinos use the profits to build health clinics, centers for old folks, child care and after-school activities. I believe it was either Vine Deloria Jr. or Daniel R. Wildcat who, looking towards America's future, suggested Americans "tribalize," meaning we need to learn to look after each other. The welfare of the individual depends on the group; and the welfare of the group depends on the individual.
When you look at the history of this country this behavior isn’t so surprising. The country was “founded”—forgive me, Native Americans—by two kinds of people: those who were so far out of the mainstream that they couldn’t function within the societies in which they lived (Puritans, etc.), and those seeking profit, from Columbus, Ferdinand, and Isabella onward. South Carolina is a good example. Europeans who settled in the Caribbean came there in search of ways to make money, and so rice and indigo plantations were born. Then what happened? They needed labor and we got slavery. The people who rebelled against England did so for profit, but they cloaked their rebellion in terms of “freedom” to attract poorer people to the fight. Is it any wonder we have the nonsense we’ve got today? Americans have bought into capitalism like a religion as well as the myth of exceptionalism that goes back to the revolution. Throw slavery and its terrible effects into the mix and you get Trump, anti-vaxxers, and a narcissism that’s so toxic it’s destroying our society.
What you are seeing here is the effect of atomization and the me me aspect of the baby boomer generation.
Our ruling class has convinced people that they do not have common interests, they do not have the ability to organize to effect change, and they better look out for number one in order to survive.
Add to that the effect of entitlement and bourgeois values of conspicuous consumption and conformity.
Like the people in NYC who see black grime on their windows and don’t make the association between auto exhaust and what they breathe into their lungs and is on their windows your friends would be surprised at how many chemicals are floating around in their blood streams from the food they eat, water they drink and air they breathe.
Body purity is a myth. Drag out the articles finding micro plastics in the bodies of seals in the arctic. If they only knew how modern industrial energy and food production contaminated their pure bodies every day they might be more focused on doing something about it other than refusing to take vaccines.
What do I think?
I think the anti-vaxxers you spoke with are absolutely correct in their assessment of the “BIG” corporate establishments. These BIG corporations are running America with their BIG dollars and lobbyists buying and controlling politicians. We, the American people, have become mere pawns in their quest to see who can accumulate the most wealth.
This is no small reason why and how Trump got elected. But, obviously, Trump is NOT the solution.
We, the people, need to wrest control of our country back from the BIG corporations. This, of course, will take time. I see our position today similar to America’s position of the late 1800’s - early 1900’s. If we can end this gilded age as we did to end that gilded age we will be all the more better for it.
Robert, as usual your on it. Individualism is running amuck in our country and mindset. It has become for some people the ego in the extreme. I, me, mine. That is all that matters, others be damed. The Impeached Con Man being the societal manifestation of ego turned deadly. Sadly it has connected itself to Capitalism in negative ways now causing global disasters on a daily basis. When ego disconnects from spirit, well here we are. Compassion, personal truth, love and service does create better worlds. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” - Spock
I just subscribed for a year on the basis of this column, because it speaks to my frustration so eloquently. My liberal neighbor insists that the Covid numbers for our town are bogus. My artist neighbor across the street will not get vaxxed because she's sure she's too pure for the vaccine. (A line of dried food she tried to market has already failed, because it was, well, too dry.) Normally, I like living among liberal and creative people, but sometimes our self-involvement is just over the top, not to mention self-destructive. Yes, a third neighbor is a diehard right-winger, and I don't dare ask if he and his wife have had the shots, but at least that's no surprise. Thank you, Mr. Reich.
I agree with your take right up until the last word - individualism. This makes these people seem heroic when in fact they are just unjustifiably stubborn and most tragically selfish.
There’s narcissism and there’s stupid narcissism. I, like Dr. Reich, share some of his neighbors beliefs and have no love for big Pharma. But if one just looks below the company hierarchy and finds their are real people doing diligent work and can explain what they did and how it works, and it DOES work, then “I don’t care” morphs into “I don’t care and I am stupidly going to ignore those facts.” Look at the other headlines today and you see in “The Guardian” that we stupidly ignore the facts that we are at risk of another wave of COVID-19. That would be devastating to our economy and drive even more healthcare workers from the field. These folks may be beyond reach and some are screaming mad about mandates, taking the rest of us down with them. Stupid, selfish, destructive narcissism.
I agree that Narcissism knows no political boundaries. Your analysis is a call to be more purposeful in teaching about the public good, compassion, and the interconnections among all of us -- people, animals, the earth..... We continue to lean toward "rugged individualism" as a nation which can have its moments, I guess, but is dangerous because it ignores a necessary social compact.
I agree with Bernard Baruch, we can only live with hope for the future when we use science & moral reason to solve the problems we face. Science tells us to get vaccinated. John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty" tells us to get vaccinated. Individualism & liberty have limits for those who are paying attention.
The real problem with the unvaccinated is they are filling up every hospital bed - again. That leaves no room for other critically ill patients that may be injured in an accident or having a heart attack. And nurses and doctors are quitting because they are exhausted. Time to require proof of vaccination for admittance to any hospital to be treated for COVID.
Many of us predicted this kind of outcome during the Reagan administration - the philosophy of self uber alles would have consequences. And now we have at least one generation, maybe more, who were not taught Society as a value, a necessity. Their public school education stank because it's in the interest of the GOP to turn public education into a class-based prison system. And there is no way to talk to them when they just don't care. The only choices we have are fantasies: we all become instant experts in manipulative psychology, drug them with psilocybin and talk about Society until the feel the Love and Responsibility, ostracize them, imprison them, kill them. Fantasies. The question is why are other wealthy nations not falling prey to these Self people?
Narcissism. 'I matter- to hell with everyone else.' I think that they are sociopathic in their approach to life. They don't really believe that the 'others' are people worthy of consideration. It is a variant of the Nazi mindset. It may be a cultural problem but these people CHOOSE to act as they do.
I think you are Exactly Correct. We live in a time where it's very hard to see the Government or the Big Corporations caring about The People and so we get THAT trickle down to the citizens not caring about each other. The US is a very Dog Eat Dog Country on the Whole. We are not a collective Society, where as one does well, we all do well. That is just not an ingrain idea in the US as it is in say a European Country.
When healthcare companies make billions a year in profits in the US market - but we see inferior healthcare outcomes- we see that the success of these companies is not correlated to successfully delivered healthcare - we learn not to trust.
I am vaccinated - and would encourage everyone to get the vaccine - but how do you actually appeal to the American people. Patriotism has become a tool of empire. Solidarity has been abandoned by politicians who were supposed to have the working classes back. Our system has become predatory towards its people.
Make America great again works in the republican base becuase they feel the animus that through US history has been reserved for "the other" - African slaves, native people, non-white immigrants ( Asian, Italian, Irish, ...) to different degrees. Now that US hegemony has reached or passed its peak - profits must be extracted from Americans- including the previously protected and sacrosanct "white" people..
We don't have trust in our institutions- we don't have or share a single set of cultural ideals - or even share a set of fundemental truths. To get people vaccinated you would need counter narratives based on the specific identity of the people you want to reach.
Unfortunately the republican party thrives on creating mistrust in government - and once Biden was elected it was inevitable they would callously create doubt about the vaccine for political capital and to create a crisis.
And our institutions have been hollowed out. Why does the FDA for example allow drug companies to do their own studies - like the national vehicle safety crash test ratings- government should be taking potential drugs and performing independent testing and providing transparency and objectivity. Why is the FDA funded by the drug companies- it creates perverse incentives especially in leadership where the revolving door only opens for people who play ball.
Suicide is not a crime but manslaughter is.
I hate to sound callous but they cannot die fast enough. They are beyond reaching with logic, science, self-interest, empathy or compassion. They don’t care about my survival so why should I give a damn about theirs?
Darwinism is correct. Survival of the fittest is an immutable fact.
A side benefit of their untimely suicidal demise is fewer stupid or ignorant voters in upcoming elections.
Just another reason why I left the United states to live a better quality of life as an expat living overseas,