Engineered Narcissism

It may make me sound like an old fogey, but any objective analysis of my argument will prove it to be true. As time marches on, men seem to be getting ever more selfish, ever more narcissistic, ever more hedonistic, and self-centered. It’s not that such individuals haven’t always existed, it’s that the percentages have skewed during the past few decades, wherein it is getting markedly more difficult to find truly selfish individuals.

Selflessness has become such a rare virtue, that when it is spotted, it is highlighted, emphasized. People respond to selflessness with flashes of selflessness of their own, as was the case of a homeless veteran who gave his last twenty dollars to a woman in need of gas. Some three hundred thousand dollars were raised for the man until it was revealed that the whole thing was a con, and the woman and her boyfriend had stolen the lion’s share of the money they raised for the homeless veteran.

It is a difficult thing to gravitate toward selflessness, especially for the younger generations, when for as long as they’ve been alive, they’ve been engineered to be narcissistic and selfish. Whether it’s the tired trope that the customer is always right, which they aren’t, or the catchy tagline McDonald's made famous that you can have it your way, right away, rather than encourage the virtue of selflessness, we have been taught that our wants reign supreme, no matter the cost to others. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good for business, but the consequence of it is the culture and society we are currently witnessing.

To love our neighbor as ourselves has become anathema, a bygone saying that suffered a quiet, resigned death because even our spiritual leaders are more concerned about their supreme comfort than they are about starving children or homeless veterans. They all brag about being the apple of God’s eye, but not a one will admit to being more like the ingrown hair on His cheek.

Recently, a video surfaced of a wild-eyed televangelist trying to justify a 50-million-dollar jet, not his first, but his most expensive. His explanation and apparent justification for such a lavish purchase was that God wanted Him to have it.

Juxtapose this with the progenitor of our faith who didn’t have a bed to lay His head on, or His apostles who were poor, and having nothing, and you see the clear dichotomy.

The contrast could not be any clearer, yet countless souls gravitate toward those who preach self instead of Christ, who preach avarice instead of selflessness because men today do not seek the truth, they seek to be made comfortable in their current state.

If we believe that everything has a spiritual component, then we must conclude that this engineering toward narcissism is a purposeful, premeditated endeavor, and not something that happened accidentally.

The more the enemy can get us to focus on self, the less we will focus on Christ. The more we desire the things of this earth, the less we will desire the kingdom to come. If we can be compelled to exchange our yearning for the things of God for the worthless baubles of this world, then we will compromise anything to keep them once we’ve attained them.

It is a slippery slope, and it has become painfully evident as more and more of those in authority over God’s flock are compromising with the world so that they can keep flying the friendly skies in their private jet. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.