A Word on Collective Narcissism

From Why I'm Right Wing: Culture:

Today, decades after the foundations of economic dependency were laid, the individualism persists, but in a culture now changed by that encouraged dependency and it goes well beyond simply being on the dole. Having the government at your back no matter what happens to you or what you do to yourself creates a underlying lethargy not only economically, for those who do not wish to excel at their job, but it also encourages protest against difficult education. The parents that were pushed to learn Latin, algebra and know every Founder and their views in middle school have children who don't know any Latin, are failing basic math and can't describe what federalism is in college.

I made up the title Generation Patriot because I believe that there is a need to get off the shoulders of the previous generational ideologies and find a way to get the current generation (that of the mid 80s to 1990) to reconnect with the core values of the American nation. I also believe that my generation and the generations to mature after us need to do what the Boomers and the Me generations have collectively refused to do: to become humble.

As a symbol for the past two generations, Barack Obama is the perfect choice. Bi-racial, born into poverty, worldly, a professor, a self-proclaimed protector of the middle class; he encompasses everything that has defined the Boomer's communist dreams and the Me's material desires. Obama promises not only a national rebirth as a nation of heart, he also promises that your pocket book will be balanced and your healthcare will be backed by the government.

Obama promotes a collective narcissism. A world where you can have your cake and eat it too, and the bill is footed by the taxpayer. A world where you can save the world by driving a car that runs on corn whose cost was partly paid for by the government. A world where you are taken care of materially, but are left to explore every facet of human experience no matter the physical or emotional consequences and without material consequence factoring in.

I do not think that this collective narcissism is peaking with President Obama nor do I think it'll peak anytime in the next decade, but I believe it is imperative that, as a people, we need to turn our eyes off what we have and to what exactly we are creating. This is not a moral question, as some may want to frame it, but a cultural one. Do we want a culture that believes material dependency is freedom and that limitless, unjudged action is just? Do we really want to end up so consumed with what we think we're owed we don't even think about what we owe?

Now, I am not blaming every single person born before me. That's plain stupid. But, unlike the faux collective morality some like to talk about, cultural trends are real, they are a real collective aspect of a nation, and those trends are promoted, in my ways by the actions of the government, which is made up by the people. What we have today is at least a major slice (not necessarily a majority) of the American public voting in people who will, in turn, vote themselves more and more guaranteed material wealth without seeing the consequence of their votes. The consequence being less and less material liberty.

Individualism, as advocated by conservatives, isn't that of the selfish banker, but that of the responsible citizen. It's one thing to believe that the government should stay out of the individual's way, it's another thing to believe the government should stay out of the way and clean up the mess left behind.