“Porqueyolovalguismo”: The Philosophy Of The Narcissist Applied To Daily Life
We have talked on several occasions about narcissism. This way of being close to the pathological refers to those people whose admiration for themselves is exaggerated
Of course, this way of thinking also crystallizes into actions and attitudes that are palpable on a daily basis. Just as the classic slogan of the shampoo brand said The realare individuals who move through life flaunting the maxim “because I’m worth it.” From there the concept of “becauseyolovalguism” was born, which I will stop to explain in today’s article
Let’s contextualize. Both in Spain and in most Latin American nations, we have suffered serious economic crises that have plunged us into a cultural situation where a job is almost a blessing. With an unemployment rate of over 25% and almost 50% among young people in southern Europe, it is not surprising that their mentality regarding work has changed.
In the previous context, of relative abundance of job opportunities, workers had the possibility of rejecting certain offers that did not meet certain requirements (salary, hours, remoteness)… Workers could not accept certain jobs that did not provide them with a stimulus. ; In the end, in a matter of a short time they could find something more in line with their preferences and demands. After the ravages of the crisis, the situation is no longer like that.
Unfortunately, and until there is a Universal Basic Income that guarantees the material subsistence of citizens, we have to continue working “whatever it takes” to be able to support ourselves. In a scenario of total scarcity of job opportunities, this mentality has almost completely disappeared: We are totally forced to accept any job proposal even if the remuneration or other characteristics of the offer are to our displeasure.
The “becauseyolovalguismo” in the culture of no-effort
Of course, the fact that there is an urgent need to accept any job offer is very bad news for our society. It is a clear symptom that a country does not have sufficient development of the productive fabric to provide a variety of proposals and projects (work and life) to its citizens.
How do we react to this situation? Most people try to adapt to this new reality and, resigned, assume that there is no choice but to move forward and accept “whatever there is.” It is a mentality that runs the risk of falling into what psychologist Bertrand Regader describes as ‘satisfied slave syndrome’, that is, a neuroticism adapted to a directly unacceptable situation.
At the other extreme we find “becauseyolovalguismo”. Individuals who, basically, believe that they deserve all the best and who are not willing to accept that their employer does not pay them what they believe they deserve. They are individuals who have a very high concept of themselves, to the point of showing aggressive tendencies towards those who do not recognize and praise their supposed ‘qualities’; people who believe that this planet has been made available to them for their complete enjoyment, so that they can extract from it the greatest possible benefits and, if possible, at a cost of personal effort equivalent to zero.
We are talking about a symptom not only present in the workplace, but generalized to practically all aspects of life in which the “becauseyolovalguista” individual can show off their very peculiar way of being.
The attitudes of the “becauseyolovalgo” individual
We are not going to start looking for culprits or causes, because we do not consider that to be the function of this writing. However, it would not be unreasonable to point out that, in the globalized world where we live (in which concepts such as “privacy” or “intimacy” have been relegated to oblivion), Social networks have influenced the behavior of many people who already had a tendency to have an elevated ego
The possibility of publishing our experiences on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter has caused a change in the needs of these people who are eager for the approval of others: the search for “likes” or positive comments from friends on social networks in photos, comments or Personal opinions contribute to enhancing the ego and self-esteem of those who receive it, which reinforces the possibility of repeating the action in the future, always with the mentality of achieving as much impact as possible.
The more attention they receive, the more reason these people will have to assume that they should tell more about themselves and show as many ‘relevant’ aspects of their daily lives as they can, in an assumed fantasy that their “followers” are eager to know what new there is in the life of the “becauseyolovalgo”.
Protagonists of their own lives… and those of others
In their mentality, in which they are the absolute protagonists and everything revolves around them, the “becauseyolovalgo” They legitimize their arrogance based on a false belief (but very real for them) that they must be thanked for having existed and for giving others a gift with their mere presence, as a new form of vassalage in the 21st century, in which We are expected to bow and kiss the ground they walk on and applaud all their behavior no matter how reprehensible.
As we say in Spain, these people are “delighted to meet each other”, which is the expression par excellence that catalogs and defines the attitude towards life of those who consider that their way of thinking, criteria, competence or talent is better than those of the rest..
By way of conclusion: rejecting moral superiority
Of course, this text is not intended to put the spotlight on those people who love themselves or consider that they can contribute to the society in which they integrate. We must distinguish between healthy self-esteem and inflated and exaggerated self-esteem
What is reprehensible about “becauseyolovalgo” individuals is their tendency to exhibit their moral superiority over other people. Free will cannot be blindly justified in a context of coexistence and sharing of common spaces and resources. As we said at the beginning of this writing, although many consider that they can enjoy the greatest number of benefits at will without making any contribution to it (we do not know if due to lack of sensitivity, maturity, empathy or pure and simple unconsciousness), the rest of us are not obliged nor should we allow there to be subjects who trample on our rights or try to justify their privileges based on their arrogance.
