Getting Over Myself: The Spectre of Perpetual Narcissism

2500 blogs report people trying to get over themselves. There are 21 people on blogs who claim that they have indeed accomplished the task of getting over themselves.

Now, let's think about this. Can someone who has actually gotten over themselves blog about it? There seems to be a little hypocrisy here. I mean, if you have gotten over yourself, why post it for the entire world to see? If you need to let the world know you have gotten over yourself, then you have haven't really gotten over yourself.

Furthermore, who is going to read a blog post with the title, "How I got over myself?" The kind of people who need that kind of information are the most unlikely to read it.

I think people have been reading Flashbang. In fact, I think they are reading Flashbang wishing they had written it.

Can people really get over themselves? Is there any there there? Isn't getting over yourself a process or a discipline? Isn't it laced inside of every single decision you make?

Is there any evidence that anyone has ever gotten over himself? Let's factor out Jesus and look for an example. Peter couldn't get over his racism. Paul couldn't get over his pride. Do you think "the adulterous woman" got over her issues?

I think of someone like Ghandi as someone who has approached getting over himself. And still, he labored and struggled with himself.

It's gratuitous to mention that I have not gotten over myself. I don't know myself well enough to get over myself. And if I did have such a great sense of self-awareness, I doubt I'd have the power to accomplish self-transcendance. And all that is messed up anyway. Viktor Frankl would say that the road to self-awareness passes through self-transcendance. The amount of humility required to self-transcend is enormous.

And let's round this post out with humility. Do you know it when you see it? Do you know where it comes from or how to produce it? Please, don't try to answer these questions - you'll be exposed. Do you know how to seek it?

Humility is the key to pursue the discipline of getting over yourself. Trying to get over yourself is like trying to get happy. The pursuit of happiness only chases happiness away and trying to get over yourself only causes one to focus on himself. Humility spooks the spectre of perpetual narcissism into remission.