Have you ever wondered what keeps our egocentricity under control? History is full of examples of what can happen if we leave our egocentricity unchecked and live like we are the only people of any consequence. The human mind is an extraordinary development filled with enormous potential and capability. Through the process of civilisation we have tried to reign in our egocentricity or self-centredness. However, this is really only a veneer attempting to hide what is under the surface, inside of us all. The examples throughout history of people who have lived out their egocentricity to the limits show us what that dark side of human nature is capable of. Aldof Hilter was responsible for the extermination of over 5 million Jewish people and the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot imposed living conditions on the people of Cambodia that resulted in the death of over 20% of the country's population! Is our ego, if left to its own devises, capable of such evil atrocities?
The egocentricity displayed by some humans seems unfathomable. Many historians have studied these lives in an attempt to unravel and understand what circumstances led these people to embrace the unthinkable behaviour. In order to really get to the bottom of these extraordinary events in human history, we need to understand human nature. Since everything humans do is about protecting our ego, these unfathomable situations can arise from small egocentric events that can in turn lead to greater more significant and eventually highly destructive events. These examples are those of tyrannical leaders, but the egocentricity of many every day people can be just as great, it is just the scale of the devastation that differs. Narcissistic personality disorder is the term that describes an individual that is excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige or vanity, i.e. egocentricity unchecked. The fact that this is now a recognised 'disorder' indicates the prevalence of the individuals exhibiting such behaviour. The fact that this type of behaviour is becoming more common in populations all around the world is a terrifying when you realise that this can only lead to more and more dysfunctional home and work environments which as a consequence will pollute future the generation.
If we thought long and hard about what our ego is capable of, we would probably surprise and shock ourselves. The egocentricity we all possess has been developed through two million years of evolution since humans became fully conscious. The events that have led to the development of our egocentric state, combined with how long we have been living with this way of viewing the world, are responsible for the strength with which humans back their egocentric behaviour. It really is a dire situation for the world to be in where ever spiralling levels of egocentricity may soon be uncontrollable by the limits the civilised world has previously been able to impose.
Egocentricity is something which we have to manage every day, from others and in our own behaviour. Whilst I obviously have my own views, I was struck by the article Our Ego and Egocentric Lives. I'm not sure how much of it I agree with but it's entertaining reading, to say the least! What resonates is that it's an issue that we have to address sooner than later.
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