Authoritarian Personalities

Much has changed since many still living entered their “senior” adulthood; some have adapted and even embraced the changes, while unfortunately many others, still demand with outrage and anger growing each day, that the world must return to the days of their own glory, when they were sitting on top of the world -- bossing around everybody else.

Nowhere is that more true than in the world of media celebrity -- in which one becomes a ”superstar” for no other reason than that one is seen and heard daily -- while it remains a vast mystery to most why that is. In all likelihood, they just have an insatiable lust and need to be in the public eye and are willing to do anything required to keep themselves there.

A favorite tactic is the most outrageous and insulting slur of better known and legitimately distinguished people -- and of course the runaway winners at this, are those who demand daily that the president, governor, pope and lesser entities should consult their advice before making their latest decision, because they have the power to turn everybody against them otherwise. These people are of course deluded and enraptured by their own immense self-importance -- thinking it is etched forever in granite or gold somewhere, rather than just today’s newspapers that will be tomorrow’s landfill.

Even the most worthy find it difficult to maintain their imagery in the popular consciousness without constant attention to it, while there are countless many others who have dedicated their lives to that one objective -- of maximum exposure, so that they have no time to do anything truly worthwhile and useful to society to merit such attention. They are merely famous for being famous. This is called self-aggrandizing activity -- which is simply and exclusively, making one seem more important than they really are, and so are immensely flattered, when they are recognized out in public -- but most don’t go out in public anymore because they know they couldn’t live up to their image, and wish to preserve that image at any cost -- including their actual lives.

Everyone is unfortunately familiar with such people, beginning with their earliest childhood experiences of being reminded “Who is the Mommy?!” Kindergarten isn’t much different, but at least then, one can go home after another long, brutal day -- “at the office.” Eventually one graduates from these perpetual and captive harassments into the real world of “professionals” vying to be the Big Boss. For most, that is mainly in their dreams, or in the opinion pages that allow character assassinations and personal attacks as “the news.”

Fortunately these days, it is not the only sources of information -- which is the distinguishing aspect of modern culture. People no longer are dependent on single, exslusive sources of information, attitudes, perceptions and values -- which is very distressing to those brought up in that world of unquestioned and unchallenged authority.

They cannot understand why everybody else would choose to do their own thinking -- when they remain willing, able and ready to do everybody else’s thinking for them -- and tell them what to do.