Narcissism, närsəˌsizəm/ , excessive interest in oneself and one’s physical appearance. Synonyms: vanity, self-love, self-admiration, self-absorption, self-obsession, conceit, egotism, egoism. More at Wikipedia…

Narcissism is the first face of Nihilism which is the first face of Dystopianism.

The world’s cultures have become narcissistic.

Our de facto understanding of reality and the world around us defaults to a focus on self, not the other, and surely not the relation.  One of the stem roots for that focus goes back to Isaac Newton’s absolute space and time. The concept allowed things to be things unto themselves. Subjects and objects were really real.

Wilhelm Leibniz debated Newton through his correspondent, Samuel Clarke. But, he lost the debate — he died — and subjects-objects became the standard perception. That hyphen that separates them is the relation and it became entirely and clearly derivative.

This cultural narcissism has extremes and eventually it became a subject unto itself:

“Narcissism is a concept in psychoanalytic theory, which was introduced by Sigmund Freud in an essay, On Narcissism (1914). The American Psychiatric Association has had the classification narcissistic personality disorder within its manuals since 1968, drawing on the historical concept of megalomania.”

Narcissism is part of our modern life.  We have time to look into the mirrors. Our culture reinforces it and the television culture hones the skill set. “It’s all about me” begins to be sealed within the soul.

And, narcissism opens the path to nihilism.

This summary is part of a four-page series
about the inherent nihilism within the big bang theory.