Self Importance...
It starts with self importance, narcissism and ends with megalomania...the natural trajectory of a self gone wild...knowing no boundaries and no limits.
I want to write about the starting point - self importance.
Every single person is important by virtue of them being created by the Great Intelligence and Power - which I choose to call Allah.
But for me there is a difference between; the importance conferred by the act and status of being a creation of Allah i.e "human" and that of self importance.
Self importance is really quite ugly - it wears many masks. From outright self centeredness, to pedantic "intellectual" airs, masquerading as "intellectual sophistication" - hot balloons of nothing, to believing that one is the pivotal source of everything and everyone, to airs of superiority and snobbery, to self involvement to the point of being unable to be present to the Other or others, to total self absorption to the point of melancholia, to excessive focus on self to the detriment of surroundings --nature and society -- ie. to what is, to believing that one is totally extra special - terribly unique and above it all...so on and so forth...all ultimately leading to a malignant form of individualism in which, unfortunately, many stay very stuck; degenerating into a permanent pathological state.
In fact -- when I come to think of it, the line is very thin between living with one self and getting to know it and remaining stuck there for ever...