In the credits for "Eternal Devotion to the Dark Goddess" I made mention to something I called the church of the Ego, the Trendy, and the Almighty Dollar. This was a direct reference to the forces that have corrupted the recording industry over the decades and turned it into a vapid, exploitative, chop shop filled with pathological liars, ruthless scumbags, and self-absorbed egotists whose only measure of success is the number of outrageously overpriced CDs that they can sell regardless of what they contain. At least, that's my opinion. And when I look closer at the evolution of modern ideologies it seems that those same forces are also hard at work reshaping almost every aspect of our society and ourselves, changing the ways we think and act towards each other, and slowly but surely corrupting everything of lasting value. As I outlined above, both liberal and conservative ideologies have been greatly altered by an embrace of individualism and a distrust of the consolidation of power, especially in government. And growing hand in hand with the rise of individualism are egotism, the superficiality of trendiness, and the worship of the almighty dollar. Our culture is suffering greatly because of it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fierce defender of individuality. My strength lies in my creativity and I am at my best when I am given a more or less free reign to meet a defined target or goal. I know others who are the same way. When people are allowed to try new things or find their own way to a solution they can sometimes find a better way to do things than before or discover something new and useful along the way. When that happens we all end up better because of it. But it doesn't happen nearly as often when everyone is forced to conform to a certain ideal and is made to do things the same way as they have always been done. However, when taken to an extreme, an emphasis on individuality will eventually result in a lack of social cohesion and a sharp deterioration in our overall effectiveness due to a lack of cooperation and a reluctance to sacrifice for the benefit of others. While some individuals may end up doing quite well an individualistic culture, the whole is worse off than before. Both conformity and individuality have their merits and a blending of the two ideals allows a culture to reap the benefits of both while avoiding their weaknesses, but over the last half century our ideologies have moved from an extreme embrace of conformism to an extreme embrace of individuality and as a result our ideologies are coming apart right before our eyes.

For most of us, the freedom to express ourselves how we want to has become an almost sacred rite. We have absorbed the dogma of individualism: that we are unique, that our uniqueness makes us exceptional or at least will enable us to become exceptional, and that who we are is intimately linked to the material things that we amass, to the many things we have accomplished, and to anything else which makes us, as individuals, noteworthy . Our personal needs and desires are what motivate us and give us purpose. "Me" has far surpassed "we". And even when we are doing things for others we often see our actions as being things which build up our own self image. As a people, and as individuals, we have become narcissistic, but since all mental disorders are defined by a person's diversion from the norm, we do not see our self-absorption as a sign that something is wrong with us. We are all that way after all, and therefore we are all normal. Furthermore, we can all point to someone who is more narcissistic than we are and say that they are the one who has the problem while we are sane, balanced, and healthy. But over the years, and step by step, we have moved towards being people who are at the center of our own private universes, kings and queens of our domains, without fully realizing just how far away we have moved from what we used to call normal.

Take music for example. Half a century ago the music scene was essentially divided in two with "respectable" music played by white musicians and "scandalous" music played by black musicians. The divide was such that if a song performed by a black musician threatened to become popular, a white musician would do a cover of it, with the lyrics cleansed of their risqué content, and that version would be released to mainstream America. It was an age of rigid social norms, conformity, and uniformity, and everyone was encouraged to join a church, behave morally, and be a part of their local community. The music of that period reflected those preferences as was not particularly challenging or threatening. Of course, not everyone conformed. The fifties gave birth to rock-n-roll music as well as the beat poets, rebellion which would later grow into a massive non-conformist movement, but for the most part people listened to the few musical genres of the era and were content with the limited choices. People had more of a group identity back then, putting things such as the community or the church first and their own interests second. Music mirrored the times, and existed mostly as part of a larger cultural context: something to dance to or to enjoy in a public setting with others rather than something private and personal to be experienced alone.

The sixties and seventies were a time of great change, both in music and in society, and it can be argued that music was the driving force behind social change. In the sixties, television was responsible for creating the first rock stars, photogenic teen idols and girl groups, making them into national sensations. At first only respectable stars were allowed on television, but the growing popularity of rock-n-roll musicians allowed them, or at least the white ones, to spread their influence far and wide. And although mainstream America fought against rock-n-roll and other "corrosive" influences every step of the way, the non-conformist message of the new music could not be stopped. Teens now had idols who were brazenly sexual, egotistical, and who did things their own way. Many teens emulated their idols and broke out of the conformist mold, ushering in an age of self-exploration and experimentation. Music now served as a vehicle to deliver the message of individuality, of freedom to be who you were rather than what society expected you to be. But even with all the emphasis on individuality, the non-conformist movement was itself rather conformist. Those who broke free of the mainstream would join the counterculture movement and conform to its ideals and ways of thinking. Likewise, the music scene was still essentially divided into two parts, one for the mainstream and one for the growing subculture.

In the eighties and nineties the music scene exploded with new bands, genres, and ways to access music springing up all over the place. Now people could express and indulge their individuality with a style of music that seemed to be specifically for them and do so wherever and whenever they pleased. Teenagers everywhere could listen to their favorite bands in their cars or on portable music players and often proudly wore T-shirts with their favorite band's name and logo on their chests. The type of music we liked became a part of our identities. Music was everywhere and cable channels featuring nothing but music helped to create an army of teen idols. It seemed that anyone could become a rock star and garages and basements all across America were filled with hopeful groups of teens and young adults emulating their heroes and trying to become the next big sensation. Indeed, for many it wasn't enough to just listen to music, they wanted to be just like their idols: performing on stage, living the wild rock star lifestyle of sex, drugs, and overindulgence in everything, and being worshipped by thousands of adoring fans. The age of conformity and restraint had passed, and few mourned its death for more and more people were coming to think that mainstream America did nothing but stand between them and their dreams. Conformism just told us to grow up, be responsible, and cast aside our childish fantasies, and seemed to give back nothing in return so good riddance to it. We had been liberated. Now everyone was free to become a superstar, either in music, television, movies, or in whatever path to fame and riches that they wanted to pursue.

The turn of the century saw the dawn of the internet, which had a major impact on the music industry and on society in general. For the listener it created another explosion of musical availability. No longer were people limited to listening to the bands that recording labels thought were good. Now, anyone, anywhere in the world could listen to any band in the world at any time. A universe of music lay at every fan's fingertips. And for aspiring musicians it threw the door wide open to their dreams of success, connecting them with their fan base directly and releasing them from the need to "sell out" or cater their music to trend of the moment. Now anyone could become popular, all that a musician had to do was put together a website, add some songs that people were interested in, advertise here and there, and overnight you could become a star. As a result the number of bands in the world expanded almost exponentially, and recording technology advanced to the point where individuals could produce their own music in their own homes. Bands as well as solo artists like yours truly could express their individuality more easily than ever before. Music, it seemed, was everywhere, and everyone wanted to be a part of it. On television, programs that featured aspiring musicians competing for major contracts grew massively popular and millions of people tried out in the hopes of achieving their dream of stardom. Of course, not everyone can be a star, first you need to have talent, but then a lot of people are good enough to sell CDs. More important is the second requirement for being a star: you need to have fans; and if everyone is trying to be a star the dwindling number of admiring fans end up spread pretty thin. The market has become oversaturated. With so many people up on stage clamoring for the spotlight there is no one left to be in the cheering crowd. So some of us have to set aside our dreams of stardom and be fans so that others can become idols, right?

Well, no. Today everyone can be a rock star, and you don't even need to be good at playing an instrument. The surprising popularity of video games where you can dance, play an instrument, or sing at a passable level and watch or listen to yourself performing as well as your idols enables all of us to live out our rock star dreams. What is more is that you don't even need to put in the long hard hours practicing your instrument, learning music theory, or paying your dues in any significant way in order to be good at the games. Everything has been simplified and anyone with a modest sense of rhythm can pick the games up quickly. And to complete the narcissistic nature of the games, they also supply an army of virtual fans to worship us when we succeed so we can all be idols. We can believe ourselves to be great, even when we are not. And so we have gone from music as a force for cultural cohesion, to music as an expression of individuality, to music as a tool for personal wish fulfillment. We've gone from conformity to individuality to narcissism.

This same progression has occurred in more areas than just music, though not necessarily over the same time frame, and the basic problem remains: if everyone is talking then who is listening? And if no one is listening, there's no point in talking. You're more likely to make an impact by barking at the moon. Take blogging for instance, which is even more accessible to the public than music since it takes no natural rhythm and very little talent of any kind to do. At first blogging was a novel new form of communication, but advancements on the internet has enabled millions to write blogs about whatever is on their minds, whether insightful or trivial, and many millions have done so, but how many people are out there reading all those blogs? Do we need so many? And books are another example. Publishing a book used to be a somewhat exceptional event and it was mostly done by professionals, but now it seems that every public figure is out there hawking a book and everyone else has either tried their hand at writing one or has a great book idea in mind that they want to write. It makes one wonder if there is anyone out there reading all of this material, or even if a person can read a mere fraction of the stuff that has peaked their interest. Is this another oversaturated market?

Furthermore, with such an abundance of blogs, books, and music available, the value of that material is reduced in many ways. One way is that, with so many choices, people tend not to choose the more contrary or challenging selections, and instead choose the things that they are more comfortable with. The world can now accommodate them rather than the other way around and as a result people ignore the things which could teach them valuable lessons and expand their horizons. Secondly, we don't tend regard something which is in abundant supply as being precious, something that we should treasure, embrace, and explore deeply. Instead everything becomes just another piece of content that we absorb only superficially, agreeing, disagreeing, or ignoring it before moving on to the next piece of content. In essence, more has become less.

But beyond blogging, books, and music there are so many areas where there are so many people doing and so few people appreciating that the model for winning praise and achieving fame appears to be unsustainable. In a society filled with narcissists our narcissistic needs go unfulfilled because there are too many narcissists out there competing for the attention of too few admirers. Our dreams are dying in droves, but we can't seem to let them go. So in response we do what narcissists always do: either fall into despair or turn up the pressure we put on ourselves to succeed.

The competition between self interested individuals is fierce, and true narcissists are quick to discard any rules, traditions, or standards of behavior to achieve their ends. Narcissists may care about others, but their own interests always come first. Take the pursuit of wealth, which has been transformed from a generally conformist protestant work ethic approach where one starts at the bottom and climbs their way to the top through hard work, teamwork, and self sacrifice, to a Machiavellian approach where any method, legitimate, legal but immoral, or flat out unconscionable, can be employed to rapidly build a fortune regardless of who ends up going bankrupt in the process. Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy influenced many Monetarist economists who came to power during the eighties and tore down the existing regulatory structure in much the same way that the counterculture movement tore down the conformist mainstream in the sixties and seventies. Their belief that "self interest rightly understood" would naturally lead people into optimal, robust, and long lasting economic relationships championed the desires of the individual and allowed people to believe that greed was a positive force in the world. But as we are currently discovering this belief was an illusion as it brought out not the best in people but the worst. Of course, for a time the ones who bent the rules of the game prospered and became filthy rich while those who held fast to their morals saw their market share dwindling, and this lasted long enough to chase many of the more honorable businessmen out of the markets. As a result we are left with a financial system run primarily by a den of thieves and overseen by regulators who are ideologically opposed to regulation. This is another serious failure of excessive individualism.

The emphasis on individual desires has spread far and wide and many who have attained great wealth or power have sought to live like rock stars, coveting the overindulgent lifestyles of the idols they admired as teenagers. In recent years we've seen many people in positions of power and responsibility, such as CEOs, politicians, religious leaders, and popular public figures, caught indulging themselves in all manner of immoral and illicit behaviors for which "normal" people should be ashamed, but like true narcissists most of them have fiercely defended themselves, blamed others for their failures, denied everything, or insisted that what they did wasn't wrong at all. Our role models appear to be anything but.

Of course, it's easy to look down upon extreme examples of narcissists, but how much different are we common people? Before we point our fingers at the wealthy and powerful we need to point them at ourselves as well. Note that narcissists are extremely resistant to self-analysis, except when it is in the form of exhibitionism, so opening ourselves up to criticism is a good way to slow down our descent into a self-destructive pathological state. So let's ask ourselves, are we so much different than those whom we mock and wag our fingers at? How many of us joined in the stampede to make a fortune in the markets, both during the dot com boom and the housing bubble? Were we not trying to live out our "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" dreams? Many of us dreamed of making a fortune by getting in on the ground floor of a spectacular IPO run-up, and millions of us bought extravagant houses, filling them with toys paid for with our equity gains, and thought that we could keep getting richer the more the bubble inflated. Were we not putting wish fulfillment ahead of our better judgment just like those who destroyed the financial system for their own enrichment? Let's set aside our rationalizations and be honest, how much of a factor did the idea of making a quick buck go into decisions about a secure and stable future? Do you see how the two ends are contradictory?

Also how many of us have sought to reap the benefits of the obliteration of traditional sexual norms? Are we not trying to live out our "James Bond" and "Marilyn Monroe" fantasies or at least trying to shore up our flagging self esteem by having sex with someone in order to validate an image of ourselves as being sexy, desirable, and virile? Our sexual behavior has gone far beyond simply satisfying our needs for sexual release and companionship. Today we seem to be acting more like drug addicts looking for a fix. Our media is saturated with sexual content and overindulgence seems to be everywhere and anywhere. College campuses have become highly sexualized places for youths to experiment, and often overindulge in sex, alcohol, drugs, and anything else that is considered taboo but which our rock star idols and other heroes make seem to be the best things that life has to offer. The internet…well, need I say more? And everywhere we see people engaged in one night stands, serial monogamy, adultery, pedophilia, bondage, bestiality, and perversions of every kind which are more available and less frowned upon now than ever. You can get just about anything you want if you look hard enough and you'll find many people who are into the same thing too. But the problem is not that we are having a lot of sex, the problem is that a lot of the sex that we are having is pathological, narcissistic behavior. All of our excesses have come at the expense of deep, meaningful and lasting relationships, and our sexual activity has become much more about the physical and much less about the emotional. We fuck each other more and respect each other less than we ever have as a people. And when our marriages and relationships break up how often do we seek revenge against our former partners or wallow in self-pity for months or years on end? Like narcissists we react to the blows to our self image by going to extremes, often using sex as a way to get back at our former lovers. And how many of us have justified our loose sexual behavior by saying that it liberates us, or that its something we want to do before we die, or get old and lose our looks? Sex is best when it is something intimate that is shared between two people, but we have turned it into little more than masturbation, using another human being as if they were a sex toy whose only purpose is to fulfill our own personal desires and dreams.

The same can be said of gambling, computer gaming, or any other addiction that is so widespread in our culture today. The common theme in all of these things is that the self comes first and other people come second, or third, or maybe not at all. Do we ever wonder where the money really comes from when we try to get rich? Do we even care if we are involved in the exploitation of others for personal gain? Did we ever stop to think that maybe the stock market or the housing market was a bubble and that we were contributing to something that was going to destroy ourselves and others down the road? Do we care how our partner will feel after we discard him or her after we have gotten what we need out of our relationship? More and more the answer to those questions is becoming "no". But it's not just that we don't care, or at least we don't care as much as we used to decades ago, it's that we shouldn't care. We shouldn't care because our ideologies are telling us that it is wrong to care. The individualistic character of our ideologies tells us that we should take care of ourselves and to be responsible for our actions as opposed to becoming dependent on others and counting on them to look out for our better interests. This idealism forces us to be strong and independent and not be a burden on other people, but it also allows us to justify a lack of concern for others and persuades us not to bother helping them when they need it. After all, if we help people out when they are in trouble it will just make them dependent on us, and then they will never learn to take care of themselves. So instead we help them out by letting them work out their problems on their own and praising them when they find a solution. This makes them stronger and more capable, and this is the way that individualism, and narcissism as well, spreads throughout our society.

Many people are under the impression that narcissism is all about self love, thinking that a narcissist is someone who might spend hours staring into the mirror and admiring how beautiful they are. But narcissism is characterized more by a person's love towards an imagined version of their self along with hatred directed towards their real self or at least the way they see themselves when they are critical of themselves or depressed. Narcissists are very insecure people who require frequent positive reinforcement to feel good about themselves. This kind of pathology can arise if a person is made to feel inadequate or unloved most of the time, either through ridicule, neglect, or constant criticism, but is made to feel wonderful on those rare occasions when they accomplish something exceptional. The person will internalize the criticism, feeling as though they are worthless people who no one will ever love unless they achieve something great or are at least working towards greatness. This persistent state of feeling inadequate which can only be alleviated when one does something that supports their ideology is one of the key facets of the Fireaxe theory: that ideological indoctrination serves to psychologically enslave its members to serve the ideology. In the case of narcissism, a person is enslaved to the individualist ideal that self improvement and personal achievement are the measure of a person's worth.

Individualism causes us to focus on ourselves and less about others, encouraging us to pursue grandiose dreams of personal success and fulfillment. How such dreams got into our minds is no accident and is the result of ideological indoctrination. How often were we told that we could become anything we wanted if we just put our minds to it? How often did stories of individuals who fought against incredible odds, succeeded, and were lavishly rewarded get fed into our minds? How often did we hear that we too could become rich, or famous, or powerful, or exceptional, just like our heroes? Hearing such stories over and over again altered our perception of the world into one where individuals, not groups or organizations, are the ones who changed history and made all the differences. While this is true in some cases, in others it is certainly not, and our culture, and even our history books, often downplay or disregard the role of things outside the narrative of the individual being the primary agent of change. It all sinks in, making us believe that the independent self, striving towards personal glory and fulfillment, is the model that we should emulate rather than setting aside our egos and working with others to build something that all can appreciate and benefit from. Over and over we hear about freedom and individuality as being the forces that make our culture strong with anything else being dubbed as conformist and socialist. And as we come to think that way, the things we do and say reflect and promote the individualist ideology and help it to spread to others.

But the major problem is that our individualist ideologies are doomed and this fact is becoming more obvious every day. Since we are focusing more on ourselves and less on others there are fewer trappings of success to go around, making us feel more inadequate and either motivating us to try even harder to achieve our goals or causing us to lapse into depression and self-loathing. In either case our focus on ourselves grows stronger as does our devotion to our individualist ideologies. We do not see that individualism is failing us, we only see that we, as individuals, are failing ourselves, and thus we are trapped in a spiral of failure and further commitment to a failed ideology. As this situation progresses our scarcely fulfilled needs forces us to abandon standards of respectful behavior and we embrace any rationale which lets us behave in ways necessary to achieve our ends. In the process we end up manipulating and hurting others, who learn that trusting others is a mistake and start relying more on themselves. This is another way that individualism spreads, when we are lied to, used, and betrayed, we pull away from others and focus on our own needs in order to protect ourselves. As narcissism proliferates we have no choice but to focus inwards and cut off our ties to the world, which deprives others of our contributions to their well being. Once it gets moving, the process grows and grows. The more that we focus on ourselves, and strive to become an idealized version of ourselves, the less able we are to form lasting and meaningful relationships. And the less that we get back from our relationships, the more that we compensate for the loss by striving towards personal fulfillment instead. Our relationships become selfish and the expectations we place on our partners become impossible to meet. Social cohesion relies on people having a common vision, trusting each other, and setting aside their personal goals in favor of the interests of the group. When we refuse to compromise our personal needs and desires it ends up sabotaging our relationships, but we need the appreciation of others to feel good about ourselves and so we are constantly seeking out new relationships to replace our failed ones. The result is constant social turmoil and a persistent lack of trust in each other, making the forming of new relationships more and more difficult.

One depressingly common "solution" to this dilemma is to lie in order to get what we need from others. Narcissists will often put up false fronts and pretend to be what they are not in order to win the trust of others and gain their admiration, support, and sympathy. In a culture full of other narcissists the trick is to stroke the egos of those who you wish to exploit. In essence you simply tell them what they want to hear. By giving them the recognition and admiration that they crave and reinforcing their desired self image they will be open to doing what you want and may even become dependent on you for more of the same. This strategy can be found everywhere. From the "player" who tells a woman that she is beautiful, special, and fills him with passion whenever he sees her, to the pundit who tells his viewers that the rival political party is full of corrupt liars and that their party should be calling the shots, to the religion that tells its worshippers that they are better than everyone else and that they have immortal souls which will rejoice forever in heaven, those who want something from us know how to stroke our narcissistic desires. Some of us use this strategy knowingly but others honestly believe their own lies because those lies build up their own self image as well. When two people do this same trick to each other, their relationship is more one of codependency rather than cohesion, and it is generally emotionally charged, volatile, and short lived. The narcissist's ego needs constant feeding, and often requires larger and larger sacrifices in order to satisfy it. Enough never seems to be enough. Whether it be riches, power, popularity, or some other desire, those who become rich or powerful or popular can never seem to be rich or powerful or popular enough to satisfy them. And as they bleed the world of the things that they need to make them feel good, others become even more deprived, exacerbating a problem which only grows worse. Our narcissistic individualist ideologies are sowing the seeds of their own destruction but all we seem able to do is more of the same things which led us to this point.

This, incidentally, is one of the themes in "Eternal Devotion to the Dark Goddess" as well as other Fireaxe works. In "Eternal", the protagonist begins with modest goals and dreams and a naïve, traditional view of work and love. The less idealistic world takes advantage of him, forcing him to abandon his beliefs in order to get what he needs and he becomes a cruel and heartless narcissist, willing to do anything to be successful, and later doing anything to have his revenge against those who wronged him. It's meant to be dark and the protagonist is intended to make us uncomfortable, mostly because we see parts of ourselves in him and fear that we are a little too much like him than we would like to believe. What we only fantasize about, he does for real, and when we recoil from his actions are we not recoiling from something that is inside of us all?

Okay, so individuality has its problems, but is the conformism that we abandoned in the past any better? Unfortunately it is not since conformism can make people feel inadequate by excluding them from the group and rewarding them only when they exhibit the proper and accepted behaviors. And being forced by social norms to stay in a loveless relationship is just as unfulfilling as drifting from one superficial relationship to another. The answer is not that we were happy once and that all we need to do to be happy again is go back to that time and become conformists again. The simple fact is that all ideologies benefit by making their followers feel inadequate unless they are serving the ideology, they just do so in different ways, and as much as we may think that our dedication to freedom and individualism makes us free from ideological influence, we are very much mistaken. Make no doubt about it, we are Food for the Gods and we pray at the church of the Ego, the Trendy, and the Almighty Dollar.

Yea though we may visit churches where the words of Jesus are preached, we do not obey him. Instead we indulge our narcissistic sides in a Christian way by wearing crosses and "WWJD" bracelets, putting fish symbols on our cars, proclaiming our devotion to our savior in public so that we may be seen by others, and feeling oh so holy when we do good deeds. Never mind what it says in the bible, we'll just build up an image of ourselves as Christians and that will get our names written into the book of life. And if we don't get our personal wants fulfilled from time to time then that counts as sacrifice, right? What I see are so many Christians paying their biggest tributes to the church of the Ego where it isn't Jesus on the cross, but an image of themselves suffering their way into heaven.

The rest of us express our narcissism in other ways. We buy fancy cars to impress others, live in expensive homes that we show off to our neighbors, give extravagant gifts to show just how much we care about people, show off how clever or funny or talented we are when we talk or write or add stuff to our web pages, and do any of a multitude of things to impress others and win friends. Our egos demand it all and we strive to deliver what our lord and master requires.

The Trendy is our second deity, it being the result of our reluctance to form deep and meaningful relationships with anyone or anything. We interact with the world on a superficial basis, judging things only by what they can do for us rather than any deeper qualities, and thus what attracts our attention tends not to do so for very long. We move from one thing to the next, sucking the life out of what interests us until it no longer gives us pleasure. We don't have a culture, we just have trends that erupt out of nowhere, burn hot for a while, and then disappear without a trace, and we are desperately searching for the next Trendy thing to make us satisfied, at least for a little while.

And our trinity isn't complete without the Almighty Dollar. It is a symbol of the materialism of our age, the holy power that can transform our lives from the drudgery of the present into a glorious future filled with everything that our hearts desire. But the dollar is more than an object used to purchase one's dreams, it is the life blood of capitalism, pumping through the heart of our economic system and blessing everyone it touches with precious opportunity. The dollar binds us together in a way that our social and personal relationships no longer can. When you walk into a store you don't need to impress the store owner, or have a good reputation in the community, or be in any way attractive or desirable, for if you put your Almighty Dollars on the counter then you will get what you want, no questions asked. The relationships that bind us together today are our economic relationships with one another far more than anything else. A smile and a hearty handshake are often non- transferable, but wherever you go everyone will accept a dollar. The more money you have the more freedom you have and the more that people will seek to do things for you in the hopes that they can get their share. And it doesn't matter how those dollars ended up in your hands or what you had to do to get them. The dollars are just paper, unstained by the sins of the giver and the taker, and once they change hands they are as clean as the day they were printed. Our lives are governed by our economic relationships: how much you are to be paid for something, how much you owe to someone else, the contracts between people, industries, and countries which guarantee the flow of money for goods and services; and all are dependent on the implicit trust that a dollar is a dollar and will always be worth roughly the same value as what the holder did to earn it. It makes one wonder what would become of the world, and all of those billions of economic relationships, if somehow the Almighty Dollar were to fall from grace as it appears poised to do. If the dollar were to become defiled could we still afford the demands of our egos? If our security depended on our reputation and things of lasting value would we spend time chasing after the next superficial trend? If we watched our narcissistic dreams go up in flames before us would we set aside our precious individualism and pull together as a team to make things work again?

Well, I am well aware of the things that narcissists do when their beliefs are under attack, and acting sanely isn't one of them. I expect to see a sheer horror show of all the worst that humanity has to offer in the coming years, but as usual, I really want to be wrong about that.

And as for me, well I have so many narcissistic traits that I qualify as one of the people I've pointed my finger at in this essay. I've tried hard to fight against it, more so in recent years. I've tried to stay modest, to let go of a lot of my dreams and my expectations, and to treat others with respect and give them their due, but in today's world it can be like swimming upstream. The world doesn't give back very much and I find myself having to pull inward more often that I would like. But I want to hold on to those old fashioned ideals because I feel that individualism will fall out of favor soon and we will move in a new and different direction. Until then I will continue to resist conforming to non-conformist ideals and I urge you all to do the same.