Marriage, however, is not a sure remedy for narcissism, given that the cure and the remedy for narcissism is actually an exhaustive education process which leads to an attachment to a love-object. There are plenty of individuals who are married but have yet to overcome their narcissistic state. And as mentioned before, narcissism is largely a withdrawal from the external world and a turn towards egotism and the self. And perhaps much of the pervasive narcissism we see in this day and age has to do with the rapid and significant changes and evolutions in the world as a result of a digital and information age. The pervasive narcissism is perhaps both a response and a reaction as well as a closing off of sorts to the changes and evolutions that have taken place in the world in recent years as a result of our digital and information age.
But the proper response and reaction to changes and evolutions in the world as a result of a digital and information age cannot be to close oneself off and isolate oneself from these changes and evolutions. The only proper response and reaction to such changes and evolutions has to be an absorption of these changes and evolutions through an education process and in turn adjust to these changes and evolutions in an open-minded manner. In a way, we have to be open to influences of varying sorts instead of vehemently opposed to influences of varying sorts. Arguably, the last time during the course of modern history when countries and states decided to close themselves off to a major epochal shift and to major changes and evolutions which occurred on a global scale and scope, approximately 60 million people killed each other worldwide, and in turn, Western historians decided to dub this collective madness and massacre as “World War II.”
Zbigniew Brzezinski summed up and characterized these ongoing changes, evolutions, and transformations when he wrote the following: “The transformation that is now taking place, especially in America, is already creating a society increasingly unlike its industrial predecessor. The post-industrial society is becoming a ‘technetronic’ society: a society that is shaped culturally, psychologically, socially, and economically by the impact of technology and electronics – particularly in the area of computers and communications. The industrial process is no longer the principal determinant of social change, altering the mores, the social structure, and the values of society.”
The process of social change which has emerged in a digital and information age and the knowledge, information, and influences which are produced from this process “quickly spills over to affect almost all aspects of life directly.” Brzezinski also noted that while values and value systems still remain relevant amidst this novel process of social change, it is “the growing capacity for the instant calculation of the most complex interactions and the increasing availability of biochemical means of human control” which in turn “augment the potential scope of consciously chosen direction, and thereby also the pressures to direct, to choose, and to change.” In short, there is something more intelligent and scientific than culture and traditional value systems which is now driving both collective and individual choice, change, and direction.
Also, the confluence of the complexity and dynamics of the process of social change which is taking place today along with the increased intelligence and learning which goes into such a process calls for an understanding of the patterns which underlie this process of change so that this process of social change can be peacefully and properly integrated into social organization on both domestic and international levels. Another challenge to social organization in this day and age is that “plutocratic pre-eminence is challenged by the political leadership, which is itself increasingly permeated by individuals possessing special skills and intellectual talents.” In turn: “Knowledge becomes a tool of power and the effective mobilization of talent an important way to acquire power.” It is this novel global reality with all its complexity and its various dynamics and patterns which has absorbed virtually everyone into a global community or a “global village” that has formed out of a process of social change which in turn has emerged out of broader changes, evolutions, and forces outside of anyone’s control.
Adam A. Azim 