Fuelling The ‘Cult Of Me’

The Paradox of Our Narcissistic Society

Photo by Obie Fernandez on Unsplash

A lot of people are feeling betrayed by their government right now.

They feel used.

Manipulated.

Lied to.

In large part, these feelings are entirely justifiable. I think many of us resonate with these feelings that politicians aren’t doing nearly enough to fulfil their responsibilities in many areas of the world stage. After all, governments are supposedly elected in order to ‘sort things out’ and to ensure everything runs smoothly for the benefit of all.

That’s the idea, anyway.

And so, when we are faced with massive national or global crises, such as climate, health or economic catastrophes, people naturally look to their governments to resolve the problems.

And governments should be doing more to mitigate the terrible damage done to this magnificent planet and all her beautiful inhabitants of all species by human greed.

Governments should be a reliable source of life-saving information based on sound scientific data we can all trust and rely on, rather than basing their policies on influence and pressure from multinational pharmaceutical, or agro-industrial, corporations.

But it is also vital to remember that governments are made up of politicians — and politicians, like all of us, are human. They have human desires and human fears. They have the capacity to do great things, but also to give in to the less noble side of their human nature — the greed, the temptation, the self-serving power struggles.

It’s seductively simple to point a finger of accusation at politicians and corporations and to blame them for all the imminent or ongoing disasters we face as a global community.

We condemn their actions, while at the same time condemning them for inaction, but the stark truth is that it’s just as much ordinary people like you and me who are responsible for the state of the world in which we live.

We accuse politicians of burying their heads in the sand and attempting to carry on with ‘business as usual’, yet isn’t that what most of us are doing on a daily basis in our own lives?