The Narcissists Have Taken Over
Finally, we have an all-encompassing, shrink-wrapped theory of Gladwellian cogency to account for everything malignant in our society, including the financial meltdown, Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop.com, Olivia Palermo's nasty attitude toward Whitney Port, the disaster wrought by Bernie Madoff, the unrepentance of aging philanderers, and Alex Rodriguez's photo spread in this month's Details (left). It's all because of narcissism!
As Slate's Emily Yoffe lays bare, our culture is being held hostage and our headlines dominated by people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, who "act as if they are special beings who are exceptionally intelligent, accomplished, beautiful, or sexy (or all of the above), to whom lesser people (pretty much everyone else) must bow."
Since drugs can't cure NPD even if narcissists asked to be treated—which they don't because, obviously, they love themselves—there may be no stopping the nightmare. Although, if everyone made a pact to put Twitter out of business, that would be a small step in the right direction!
