Inward Entropy: My Life Is Boring And I'm Going to Tell You About It

A long time ago during the Roman Empire there was an astrologist named Ptolemy. Ptolemy developed a theory that became known as the Ptolemaic System, which held that the earth was the center of the universe, and the sun and all the planets orbited around our own green planet. And although today we know that this theory had absolutely no bearing on reality, at the time it was the only accepted astronomical theory of our universe throughout much of the world. Let’s fast-forward to today. A new study from the University of San Diego has discovered a disturbing trend: when surveying 20,000 college students, researchers found that rates of narcissism and evidence of narcissistic traits have risen sharply over the last few years. According to researchers, the rates of narcissism have reached epidemic proportions— on top of that, young people today suffer from narcissism at a rate that is three times higher than their elders. One of the study’s logical conclusions is that today’s young people have reached an age of entitlement, one that has become known as “Generation Me.” Clearly, believing ourselves to be the center of the universe is no new conception – egotism has distorted our objectivity since long before Ptolemy—but, in light of this self-inclination, it is incumbent upon us to discover what has inspired our generation to take self-love further than ever before.

To most of us these self-inclinations are nothing new. These studies only prove a point that most of us came to terms with long ago and have since integrated as a guilt-free modus operandi. With the advent of social networking technologies like Facebook and Myspace, it is expected that we audaciously burden anyone who will listen (or read) with the petty details of our lives. The presumptive nature of this activity has long since been forgotten, as we assume that our friends ought to care about what we did that day, how we felt, or what we went shopping for. Then, just as we were beginning to acclimate ourselves to mindlessly checking up on friends through Facebook’s anonymous medium, Twitter came along and completely destroyed any semblance of normality we still possessed regarding the boundaries of friendly communication. Suddenly it doesn’t seem strange that I receive alerts about a friend of mine encountering traffic on his way to the gym, or another friend ordering food that, “totally tastes gross, OMG!” Let’s face it--Twitter may be the apex of narcissism. If insecurity and self-infatuation had a love child, it would be Twitter. Unless we are talking about an uprising in Iran, I don’t want to hear about it.

As we strut down this path, so confidently labeled as “progressive,” it is easy to miss the fact that what would have been unthinkable and vain to previous generations is now common and expected in ours. Nevertheless, our current vice did not develop unabated. Careful examination reveals that this inward evolution is a natural outworking of our country’s worship of individualism. The centripetal force we have created around ourselves has begun a new era of egotism that our society endorses as individualistic virtue. It is a rapidly developing entropy and we are all succumbing.

Already we can see the product of this negative momentum. It has created a cacophony of ego-driven opinions and decisions that serve only to remove us from the values and morality of bygone days. It has shaped today’s politically polarized landscape while reinforcing party politics and dislike, even hatred, for those with differing opinions. Instead of engaging those we disagree with in conversation, our opinions lead us toward unilateral stonewalling, further entrenching us in ideological camps while perpetuating ignorance. John Dunne once alleged that no man is an island, but that is precisely what we are turning ourselves into.

Historically speaking, we have always been a nation of individualists, but we have not always been careful with how we exercise that gift, as is evidenced by America’s subjective and often fickle historical morality. From founding our nation on stolen land to economic troubles wrought from greed of the affluent, America’s heart for individualism has always been intertwined with her often unscrupulous sensibility. While we may not be guilty ourselves of any of these atrocities, the same selfish spirit that prompted those events still exists today. The truth is our vices have evolved, and now exist in much subtler vacancies of the human heart.

True, there is a place for individualism. Our nation was founded on individualists, men and women who refused to bow to any authority but their own at the risk of their own necks; but that heroic audacity was reinforced and guided by the tenets of democracy and freedom, things that necessitated community and solidarity. That form of individualism, driven and reinforced by a higher belief in an overarching virtue – in our founder’s case, freedom – is the kind of autonomy that we desperately need today. It produces the kind of harmony that cannot be achieved by pursuing individualism for individualism’s sake, but rather by using the tenets of that virtue as a vehicle to achieving something greater. Evolving outward and using our individuality for less selfish ends is the antithesis of the convoluted egotism so synonymous with today’s public. Empires rise and fall, movements shape and change, zealots engage and inspire, each of these inspired by an outward focused individuality; the only kind that produces collective benefit.

We must not be an end in ourselves; we should not live narcissistic lives designed to display our successes while omitting our all-too-human faults, even if that is what everyone else does. There is nothing inherently wrong with social networking, with Facebook or Myspace or Twitter, but the fact is that our obsession with these tools is symptomatic of an inner dissatisfaction. They reveal our own insecurities and feed our self-obsession while promoting an individualism that is, for the most part, very different from that of our ancestors. Our individuality is a gift, one that inspires liberal application but that must be responsibly regulated. Inward entropy is an end in itself, but evolving outward brings with it innumerable possibilities.