No, this ain't another story about Love's labor lost. This ain't any story about love either. That way, you can accuse me of spoiling a good title of a reasonably good movie. You might come up to me and say, I was expecting something different from you, and you brought up this crap. What's the point that you're trying to prove? And I say, trust me, that's the point. It's all about me, myself. You were never in the picture. No body else was, ever. It's a small world. Consisting of me. Only me. And probably alter egos. But still me.
Call me a narcissist, if you will. A coxcomb. And I don't care. Not because the tarot card I read today told me that He who falls in love with himself shall have no rivals, but because I know that each one of us is a narcissist, deep within.
Big statement. You are mad, you'll say. Prove what you said just now, before I make it a point to beat you up! I say, Wait a moment. Why are you so heated up now? And you say, Guess what, you're going to make one sweeping comment after another, and I'm supposed to stay calm? I ask, Well, tell me, what's it that made you so mad? You retort, It's your comment that everyone is a narcissist. Look at me. I'm not one. And I say, That's what I was trying to say. You became mad only because it's something about you. You wouldn't have cared if it had nothing to do with you.
You've definitely gone bonkers, you say. Do you mean that all we do or say, all through our life, is just for ourselves? Nothing else? You are crazy man. And I say, That's right. Everything that I do is for myself. Everything that you do is for yourself. There is nothing, nobody else in the equation.
I eat for myself. I sleep for myself. I create, recreate, and procreate for myself. Rational behavior. Shouldn't delve into all that lest some philosopher comes and bites me! But come to think about it, where do you find yourself in this? No one else, but only me. Even if I tell you, well, this is just for you that I am doing this, don't believe me. Because, on the surface it's a selfless thing, but deep inside I do it only because I feel good. In the end, I don't give a damn if I am not involved. I laugh for myself, I cry for myself. I can do anything to make you laugh if it makes me laugh. But I can do anything to make you cry if it makes me laugh. And if laughing is all that I want. If I need to cry, I'll probably make you smile and see myself cry.
I can give up everything to see you happy. Because then I feel that I have everything. You think it's you that I care about. I know it's me. I can give up happiness and decide to live in pain. Because the pain is what gives me happiness. I can sacrifice everything because of an ideology. But then, that's my ideology. Something that I believe in.
Philosophers tell me, You have to give up that sense of Me, Myself. And then you'll have complete satisfaction. Attain self-realization. And all that stuff, you know, that makes Mahatmas different from ordinary people. I ask, satisfaction for whom? Realization about whose self? And they say, Well, it's for you. And I ask, If I don't have a sense of Me, Myself, what the hell am I going to do with all that realization and satisfaction?
I haven't been answered yet.
Call me a narcissist, if you will. A coxcomb. And I don't care. Not because the tarot card I read today told me that He who falls in love with himself shall have no rivals, but because I know that each one of us is a narcissist, deep within.
Big statement. You are mad, you'll say. Prove what you said just now, before I make it a point to beat you up! I say, Wait a moment. Why are you so heated up now? And you say, Guess what, you're going to make one sweeping comment after another, and I'm supposed to stay calm? I ask, Well, tell me, what's it that made you so mad? You retort, It's your comment that everyone is a narcissist. Look at me. I'm not one. And I say, That's what I was trying to say. You became mad only because it's something about you. You wouldn't have cared if it had nothing to do with you.
You've definitely gone bonkers, you say. Do you mean that all we do or say, all through our life, is just for ourselves? Nothing else? You are crazy man. And I say, That's right. Everything that I do is for myself. Everything that you do is for yourself. There is nothing, nobody else in the equation.
I eat for myself. I sleep for myself. I create, recreate, and procreate for myself. Rational behavior. Shouldn't delve into all that lest some philosopher comes and bites me! But come to think about it, where do you find yourself in this? No one else, but only me. Even if I tell you, well, this is just for you that I am doing this, don't believe me. Because, on the surface it's a selfless thing, but deep inside I do it only because I feel good. In the end, I don't give a damn if I am not involved. I laugh for myself, I cry for myself. I can do anything to make you laugh if it makes me laugh. But I can do anything to make you cry if it makes me laugh. And if laughing is all that I want. If I need to cry, I'll probably make you smile and see myself cry.
I can give up everything to see you happy. Because then I feel that I have everything. You think it's you that I care about. I know it's me. I can give up happiness and decide to live in pain. Because the pain is what gives me happiness. I can sacrifice everything because of an ideology. But then, that's my ideology. Something that I believe in.
Philosophers tell me, You have to give up that sense of Me, Myself. And then you'll have complete satisfaction. Attain self-realization. And all that stuff, you know, that makes Mahatmas different from ordinary people. I ask, satisfaction for whom? Realization about whose self? And they say, Well, it's for you. And I ask, If I don't have a sense of Me, Myself, what the hell am I going to do with all that realization and satisfaction?
I haven't been answered yet.
3 comments:
I don't think I would agree with you completely on this. The point that you mentioned in the last para-to do away with the words like Me, Myself-,that is practically impossible. We always think about ourselves first. And that's the blatant truth. On this I agree with you. But I don't quite agree with you on the fact that even when we try to reach out to others in their distress, we do that primarily for ourselves. So that we feel happy or satisfied by doing it. In such cases I feel the satisfaction or happiness is a 'result' of seeing those people get some relief. Rather than being the 'motive' behind such deeds. I should say here that this is my personal opinion and that I have full respect for what you have said. In any case, Narcissism is a very strong word to use. It's about being in complete, absolute love with one's own self. And it's not that we do each and everything because we love ourselves. I'm not the one who would take the fact that there is complete absence of fellow-feeling or camaraderie or such emotions. Yes, we are selfish by nature-definitely. But not Narcissists. Narcissism comes with a superiority complex along with it. And it's certainly not true that all of us suffer from such a complex.
And as regards the words of the philosophers...well that is or was their job to speak of all idealistic good things. They did their work. Let's do ours. I hope I made myself clear about where I differ and where I agree with you.
Cheers! Keep writing fella!
I don't say that there is absence of feelings like camaraderie or such stuff. But they necessarily are there because it leads to a feel-good factor for myself. This feel-good is not some arbitrary fall-off of what you do. I do things because consciously or subconsciously there's something I get out of it. This 'something' may be quantifiable, or it may not be. And apparently some things look like it's not for me, but if we think it through, it's all for me.
Let me put it this way. The only thing we can understand is what we feel. That's because the senses that we have are internal to ourselves. That's why, even if someone else feels happy or sad, the only way we can gauge that is when it reflects on our senses. And depending on whether we are happy or hurt, we choose our course of action. It seems very physical, but that's how the system works.
I guess, to not accept this might be like avoiding the driving factor which motivates us to do things. Think again.
i'd say u DO have a sense of "you,yourself.." or u wudnt be calling urself narcissistic!(u dont,explictly that is..but its evident that the idea is definitely not something u're opposed to..so there!)
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