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The capitalist cult of narcissism

By Roar Bjonnes
Despite former U.S. President George Bush’s insistence that he was working toward a “kinder and gentler” world, many do not remember him as amiable leader. During the 1992 global environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, for example, representatives from several Third World countries asked him to consider reducing the consumption habits of the United States. They maintained that a major cause of the current ecological crisis was the huge demand for consumer goods emanating from the United States and other industrialized nations.

Furthermore, it seemed unfair to them that they should be asked to manage their rainforests and other natural resources in a more sustainable manner while relatively minor concessions were being asked for of the richer industrialized nations. However, Bush was in a pompous and vain mood. His reply was caustic and terse: “The American way of life is not up for negotiation.” 

At first, this remark was disappointing and discouraging to the many Third World countries present. But soon a stronger reaction sent shock waves through the conference and around much of the world. People were outraged at the cold-hearted arrogance behind Bush’s statement. What was so sacred about the American way of life, anyway?

In the United States, however, only a few muffled protests were heard. By and large the media and the people were quiet. The point was that Bush had spoken their language. Americans do feel they have a God-given right to consume, whether it is cheap food produced by poor peasants in Latin America or the latest technological gadgets that their superior science has produced. So prevalent is the need to consume, that psychologist Paul Watchel in his book The Poverty of Affluence writes that, “The idea of more, of ever-increasing wealth, has become the center of our identity and our security, and we are caught by it as the addict by his drugs.”

More. If there is a single word that captures the American capitalist imagination, that’s it. More money. More success. More of everything. Like the drug addict, Americans live to acquire the next fix of that euphoria substance – MORE! We want a better house, car, job and so on, because the thing we already have are lack-lustre compared with the things we might still procure.

The addiction to unbridled consumerism only promises to get worse as capitalism insists on finding new ways to exploit people and environment in an increasingly sophisticated manner. The so-called information superhighway, for example, has given us around-the-clock interactive shopping. The ubiquitous is right in our living room. Your television set is already an electronic mail catalogue. We can buy whatever unnecessary junk we want, whenever we want. As they say in America, “What a great deal!”

But is it really? Why is the image of an electronic shopping mall so attractive? Why is it that when environmental activists or spiritually motivated people speak of the need to reduce consumption they arouse such similar psychological sentiments as an addict in withdrawal: intense anxiety, depression, rage and panic? Why, Mr. President, is a future filled with millions of dark-eyed consumer addicts shopping round-the-clock in cyberspace non-negotiable?

Psychologist Philip Churchman believes today’s consumers are narcissistic. Recent developments such as extreme economic centralization, urbanization, industrialization and secularization has created and isolated the individualistic American self, he claims. This false self bears the dual trademarks of narcissism: an inflated, grandiose self-image that masks a deep-rooted sense of worthlessness and emptiness.

Narcissistic individuals constantly strive to meet the unrealistically high standards of their false self, while at the same time avoiding to recognize how empty they truly feel.

The capitalist economy and the narcissistic self are tailor-made each other. The more narcissistic the attempts to compensate for the feeling of emptiness by acquiring more and more unnecessary consumer goods, the more the capitalist economy grows, and the more profit is accumulated in the hands of business owners and stockholders.

However, today’s over-accumulation of unnecessary consumer goods does not appear to be a natural human trait. According to Christopher Lasch, author of The Culture of Narcissism, American industrial leaders at the beginning of the 20th century realized that the desire to consume was so weak that it needed to be “forcibly brought to their attention through the mass media.” Creating such false needs was not so easy, however. Therefore, capitalists had to rely on the hard work of investor, marketing experts, advertisers and psychologists to do what World Watch researcher Alan Turning calls to “hitch their wares to the infinite yearning of the human soul.” 

But what is actually being sold by today’s flood of commercialism? First of all, to sell consumerism itself as a culture by ceaselessly reiterating that within each new product lies the potential to solve each of life’s many problems – indeed that existence would not be complete unless we acquire the right material things. Secondly, to create a false image of the ideal consumer – a sexy, famous, successful and glamorous person – which we need to emulate. In other words, if you use this product, you will become as sexy and successful as them. And thirdly, to create a false consumer self that accepts the lies of advertisements as truthful information.

Capitalism is inherently a self-centered philosophy. It promotes growth through accumulation of personal wealth and to maintain its momentum, it will do so with whatever means necessary. P.R. Sarkar terms this narcissistic or egotistical tendency to over-accumulate as imperialism. He expands imperialism’s more common definition of one country dominating another to include the entire psychology of domination. This idea is also central to the emerging field of eco-psychology. Eco-psychologists, such as Theodeore Roszak and James Hillman, maintain that the self is interwoven with the world of other people, trees, animals, stars and galaxies, and that it is our lack of spiritual oneness with this “other world” which causes exploitation of nature and over-accumulation of material things.

By cultivating the subtle sentiments of spiritual centeredness, we may gradually rise beyond the grasp of the self-centered philosophy of capitalism. In the words of economist E.F. Schumacher: “The cultivation and expansion of needs is the antithesis of wisdom … Only by a reduction of needs can one promote a genuine reduction in those tensions which are the ultimate causes of strife and war.”

The yogic principle of aparigraha – not to allow greed to dominate our thoughts and actions – can serve as a standard in overcoming the tendency to over-accumulate. This means, according to Sarkar, not to indulge in comforts and amenities that superfluous to the maintenance of a reasonable standard of life. It is a principle in which ecology and psychology can merge; to live a simple and sacred life so that other life forms may simply live.

Despite many influential political and economic leaders’ insistence on a geo-centric worldview, it is becoming an unmistakable realization for many that the ultimate owner of all physical things is not any group or individual but the Supreme Consciousness, or God. Hence, all human beings and not just Americans or Europeans are solely the caretakers of this fragile planet. Our future philosophy, therefore, must be guided by stewardship, not ownership. And to manifest our new vision we must untangle the inhuman and exploitative bondages of both capitalism and narcissism.

Copyright The author 1999