Narcissism is derived from Greek mythology. It is the story
of a hunter named Narcissus who had renowned beauty. He was lured to a river
where he saw his reflection in the water and fell in love with himself. He died
staring at himself while unable to have the object of his desire.

When some people think of narcissism, they immediately think
of a psychological disorder that needs to be diagnosed and medicated. While
there are others who believe a good

If a narcissistic leader is self-absorbed and believes he is
better than others, he could alienate many people. This behavior would
significantly reduce his effectiveness as a leader. On the other hand, if he
were leading a group or company of narcissist, his narcissistic attitude may go
unnoticed or it may be easier for the followers to digest his behavior. In
fact, a narcissist leading narcissists may encourage more narcissism. In that
case, the disparity between disorder and effective leader would disappear.
There would be no disorder. It would be normal, unless the leader became
exaggeratedly narcissistic. 

With a group of narcissist working together for a cause, you
would have to ask: which came first, the narcissistic leader or was he born
into a narcissistic culture?

In the case of Narcissus, he, of course, never saw himself
as narcissistic. He was only absorbed in himself. When that becomes the norm in
society, it happens only because others simultaneously feel the same way about
themselves. Otherwise, it would be shunned and the narcissist would die alone
as Narcissus did. For it to germinate in society, there has to be admirers of
narcissism, even if they are not vocal about it. Eventually society would
structure itself around the narcissist and promote narcissism.

Imagine a society that values people for looks, rather than
what they contribute to society’s advancement. Furthermore, imagine that
particular society saying they are better than other cultures, just because
they say so. Soon every child born into that society would be tainted by the
narcissistic reward system. However, no one would call it that. It would be a
societal norm. Those who chose not to celebrate external beauty would be pushed
aside as lacking confidence. Real confidence would be an exact correlate of
your external beauty. Therefore, it would be imperative to be as beautiful as
possible everyday.

Initially, to find a leader in that imaginary society would
be difficult. The leader would be expected to be slightly more narcissistic
than the followers. It would be one way to clearly display confidence. As each
leader empowered his people to be more narcissistic, the next leader would need
to be a touch more narcissistic than the last.

So where does it stop? Maybe it stops when the psychologists
says it’s a disorder. Except, the psychologist was also born into this
narcissistic society that seems to be getting out of control. As a result,
there may be no one who is objective enough to accurately diagnose the problem.
So where do you go?

There is talk that the Millennial generation may have the
answer. The theory is their level of narcissism is higher than their
predecessors. This quality is believed to be the formula for making them the
greatest leaders the US has seen. Perhaps it is the opposite. Perhaps they are
the ones who see how business can play a role in making society better for all.
Perhaps it is there hunger to be part of the process of learning, teaching and
innovating a new paradigm that will make narcissism obsolete. Perhaps they will
create the country that is a community that learns from itself instead of
staring into the mirror and feeding on itself. Perhaps it is their stand to
make something great happen that is being inappropriately diagnosed by
narcissists in power as narcissism. Perhaps it is their desire to cooperate,
collaborate and figure out how to effectively work together to make things
happen is what it will take to defuse the culture of narcissism. If you think
about it, the only reason current society would call the Millennials
narcissistic is because they refuse to follow status quo of more narcissism.

What do you think? I’m open to ideas. Or if you want to
write me about a specific topic, let me know.