WordPress Daily Prompt  —  Narcissism

There are some of us who avoid the news, and some who, for many reasons, have restricted access to news.  I live in a country where the news is very parochial and sometimes it seems that we are caught up in a kind of collective narcissism.   

Let’s spare a thought today, and every day, for those people who are hidden from our view.  For example, have you heard that ebola has broken out again in the Congo?

Let’s urge our countries’ leaders to act urgently to help stem the potential epidemic – not because it may spread to our countries and affect ‘us’, but because these people’s lives matter.

Let’s lend our voices to a call for vaccines to be provided urgently to those people in need.

I am quite aware that it costs me nothing to write this, except for the fact that people may not enjoy my blog because I’m far too serious.  All I am asking is that we put our parochialism aside to think beyond our own borders, and of course, help if we can.

21 thoughts on “Collective Narcissism”

  2. I think you’re right about many people being inward-looking, Tracy. I’m sure there are many reasons for people being like that: some people have a hard time just getting through the day, for instance. But many are parochial, and selfish, as you say. I feel angry when there is an outpouring of grief for those killed in massacres in the West and yet suicide bombings are happening so frequently in the Middle East and they often barely make the news. Where are ‘Je suis Palestine’ or Je suis Syria’?

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  3. The world’s a smaller place than it once was. Ignore what’s going on elsewhere at your peril. Ebola is a terrifying disease… It seemed like it had gone away but it hasn’t.

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  4. Oddly, it doesn’t matter if people enjoy your blog if you have something to say that they need to hear. Your voice is added to the collective choir and may be heard by the person who needs to hear it.

    Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
    Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
    Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
    Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
    Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
    Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
    The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

    Answer.
    That you are here—that life exists and identity,
    That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. Walt Whitman

    The only blogs I run away from are those which rant and complain constantly over manufactured problems or that portray their writer as a victim of life. At this point in my life, I can’t handle that — at other times, I can.

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  6. Another thought provoking post. Thank you! Sometimes I wonder if we suffer from information fatigue. As one of your contributors rightly states, “the world is a smaller place”. Nothing is too far away any more.

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  7. No, I didn´t know ebola has broken out again and it makes me angry that I haven´t. Germany´s supposed to have good news network, quite informative and covering lots of countries and not as biased as say the American news networks might be. But if I want to know really more about what is going on in the world, I have to go to the BBC homepage for example.
    And your blog is great by the way!! I really enjoy reading it 🙂 ❤

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      1. You’re welcome and I mean it! 😄
        There’s often more news coverage about what a certain stupid president with bad hair has said again than anything else. 😦

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