Hallucinations and the June Bug of Mass Hysteria

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Due to a confluence of media, computational intelligence, and political actors, we may be living through a mass hysteria event regarding narcissism.

This isn’t typical Diversity Saturday material, but tolerance is central to its understanding.

Narcissism inverts love’s true meaning. It turns outward generosity into self-serving delusion, a stronghold of fear disguised as importance.

What happens when our culture rewards this inversion? When platforms profit from engagement, and when self-aggrandizement becomes the currency of attention?

Tolerance, by contrast, is bravery. It asks us to admit we do not know. It gives grace for failure. It lets go of fear. Without tolerance, diversity cannot thrive.

The problem with narcissism as a label is that it collapses in on itself. Anyone can use it; anyone accused may accuse in turn. To name another as narcissist is to enter a hall of mirrors. And the longer we linger there, the less clearly we see.

As with any expertise, the more you recognize the traits of narcissism in others, the more you should worry about your own reflection. Expertise born of behavior makes you a de facto expert. Those most eager to label others often fear their own transparency.

This is why fear finding a home in you should be alarming. Tolerance is love except when fear is its focus, then it becomes a hallucination. Yet to be devoid of fear is also perilous, for fear alerts us to real dangers. The task is not to banish fear, but to hold it without letting it govern to let tolerance breathe in its shadow without becoming its prisoner.

Aaron Baker

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness