History and Narcissism
After the conflict at Actium, and when it became essential to peace, that all power should be centered in one man, these great intellects passed away. Then too the truthfulness of history was impaired in many ways; at first, through men’s ignorance of public affairs, which were now wholly strange to them, then, through their passion for flattery, or, on the other hand, their hatred of their masters. (Tacitus, Histories, Chapter I)
Human history is difficult. As most people realize, there are various perspectives and opinions regarding what has exactly happened in the past. Who do you believe? How do we know that the historian is biased? The same problem faces us up close in regards to the daily news. There is already a strong awareness that the news of today is written without reference to the truth, but only in reference to the particular viewpoint of the writer and/or the company/government who employs that writer. Facts are left out. Other facts are exaggerated. Stories are created and skewed in order to further the newsmaker’s agenda, whether that agenda may be to sell magazines or papers, or whether the agenda is to get a certain candidate elected to office. As a result, we have lost a sense of trust, trust in our nations, trust in each other. At bottom, we believe that most writers write for the sake of their identity. In other words, we have bought into the culture of narcissism.
None of this is new however.
The quote at the beginning of this post from the great Roman historian, Tacitus, is meant to illustrate the challenges facing any historian or student of history - much of what is left in writing is a lie or exaggeration and some of it is a misunderstanding due to ignorance. After that quote Tacitus goes on to say that he is only able to write freely because he lives under the approval and support of the “magnanimous” Emperor Vespasian. But history shows that Vespasian did everything but value human freedom of expression, and instead would put to death anyone who would challenge his “divine aura”. So in typical Tacitean wit and wisdom, the Roman historian is simply telling the reader that he too cannot quite say things as directly as he would like. As such, Tacitus employs what Leo Strauss termed “esoteric writing”. This type of writing is the only way a writer can say what he believes to be true in a society that does not value truth, without appearing to say exactly that. Tacitus was an historian who had a passion for truth-telling, but he was inhibited by the government. Instead of caving into to the repression and fear of death, he employed other means of disseminating information. Sarcasm was one of his means. And he got away with it because Vespasian’s narcissism was so great, he could not possibly see the true motives of a flatterer.
Tacitus knew and we all know that freedom is the only way an honest pursuit of history (and the news) becomes possible. A government that tries to control freedom of expression in any way shape or form is trying to “reinvent” history by hiding the truth. As such, this government behaves like the old Pharaohs who would transform their nation’s constitution and history by wiping away all remnants of the previous Pharaoh. The so-called “Fairness Doctrine” or what is known as localism is something that we are going to face during the Obama administration. In such a state, the definition of what it means to be an American will be determined based on the ideology of this administration, and not on the basis of principles of freedom. In other words, when censorship does occur, it will suffocate all expression to such an extent that the very foundation of American identity, as conceived by the Founding Fathers will be burned with the rest of the history books.
Unfortunately today, all news organizations, with the exception of independent bloggers, are owned and operated, by what termed as the government-media complex. That is to say that nothing has changed since the days of Rome, when Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, employed writers (poets) in order to provide the propaganda necessary to cement Rome’s legacy and power beyond even his lifetime. This does not mean that every employee in every news organization has sat down with the government in order to discuss how they will brainwash an entire generation. Doesn’t quite work that way. The marketing of ideas is a slow process that in America’s case could probably be traced back to the days during the Hoover presidency, when a few progressively minded intellectuals (later known as FDR’s “brain trust”) in the media and government decided to take a trip to see the evil tyrant Stalin, and spent the rest of their political lifetimes advocating the Soviet public policies as instituted in Stalin’s Five Year Plan. FDR is the man who finally let them free to try out their “experiments” in what was known as the “New Deal” and his agility with propaganda made it all possible. Lies take a long time to become the “New Truth”. (Hopefully, many people interested in discovering the truth around FDR and the nature of the New Dealers, will pick up Amity Schlaes’ remarkable history about the Depression and the New Deal wittily entitled The Forgotten Man.)
Now the liberal response to this kind of transformation of history is to take the French revolutionary approach. Voltaire said that “History consists of a series of accumulated imaginative inventions.”. Those who think this way simply point out that history is impossible because it’s truth is impossible. To them, history is a simply an artful expression of some historian who has no real authority on the subject: he makes up his “history”. This is how they support their anti-American positions: the history of America is a lie. This is how they support their anti-religious positions: God is a lie. The only truth, the only god, to them, is themselves and their freedom. Narcissism, in every form, is the essence of tyranny and it is also the essence of the extreme progressive liberal of today. To them, history is a tool of the ego, not a pursuit of truth and truth-telling. This is because the liberal cannot see beyond the base human instincts that plague his own rattled mind. Narcissism in fact is the source for the deconstruction of history. It is the source of the deconstruction of everything, simply because it brings everything down to the lowest common denominator. The faith in mankind’s higher spirit is replaced with a faith in his sexual and predatory instincts. Belief in God is replaced with a worship of youth and the plastic surgeon. Knowledge of history is replaced with FaceBook. The mind is thought to be the stomach, and intellectual choice is confused with emotional will. To the liberal, we are no better than the animal. This is what we have come to. The liberal animal, the narcissistic beast is what voted for the narcissistic president-elect Obama, for narcissism only votes for its own reflection in the mirror, a reflection that is very much the child of whimsy and fabrication.
As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves…America has been a land of dreams. A land where the aspirations of people from countries cluttered with rich, cumbersome, aristocratic, ideological pasts can reach for what once seemed unattainable. Here they have tried to make dreams come true. Yet now… we are threatened by a new and p
articularly American menace. It is not the menace of class war, of ideology, of poverty, of disease, of illiteracy, or demagoguery, or of tyranny, though these now plague most of the world. It is the menace of unreality.” - Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, professor, attorney, and writer.
Link to this page
@Stacyha Another Great Post on http://www.GrizzlyGroundswell.com Stacy, I just want you to know how great it is to have you here, getting Grizzly!