Posted by Christ_empowered on September 29, 2011, at 13:32:36
In reply to Re: Another bullying suicide and taunts after death? » hyperfocus, posted by sigismund on September 29, 2011, at 5:23:50
A couple years ago, I was burned out at 20-22 and living in a college town with my best friend. Rumors of all sorts got spread--that I was a pill head, that I had AIDS, that I was a narcissist. The pill head thing and the narcissism came from someone (or a couple people) at a private detox facility/mental hospital I'd been sent to. The AIDS rumor...I have no idea where that came from. Maybe that was the explanation for why I looked like crap?
Anyway, people were vicious. People at work would talk about me and say "he's only got a few years left." People at local bars, including an ex-psychiatrist of mine, would make fun of me.
Then I got better. During my crack up in another town, I started to look better--young again. A lot of my hair grew back. When I came back home after the crack up, the cruelty continued. Now the rumors were that I was a narcissist who'd had extensive plastic surgery. These weren't High School kids; it was college student and grad students and doctors and young-ish faculty at the local college who were doing this. I remember one time, while I was still burned out, a college student walked by me and said "if I were him, I'd kill myself."
I don't know. I've read that my generation, and the generation below me, is more narcissistic than previous generations, at least in the US. We tend to be more confident, more sociable, more ruthless, and less empathetic. We love facebook and pop culture and being "cool," but our vocabulary is shrinking and academic performance is hitting the skids.
I think the mixture of vapid+self-absorbed+group think+normal human cruelty, left unchecked by family, religion, or other social institutions=out-of-control group-level ruthlessness, the war of all against all, especially those who are different.
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:998204
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20110910/msgs/998248.html