Vanity and the Psychopath - a brief note on the tying together the concepts of vanity, the ego, Narcissus, role play and the social aberration of the psychopath after an inspiring watch of \\\"The Devil\\\'s advocate\\\".

In this film the main character, Kevin (Keanu Reeves) is a defense attorney who relentlessly adheres to the strategy of winning. As his defense cases progress he does not shy away from stepping over ethical roadblocks that are thrown on his way. Losing is not an option to Kevin, under any circumstances. The underlying motive seems to be that his ego will not allow loss (of face) or defeat (of any kind). In general, to a lot of people, the ego seems to be reluctant to allow you to forgive yourself in the case you are responsible for loss or failure. When it comes to personal suffering it\\\'s always easier to blame others rather than taking a close look at yourself first. And yet the ability to forgive oneself is crucial to functioning as a real or authentic human being because if you cannot forgive yourself you will not be able to forgive others and, as such, this is the basis for the development of spite and bitterness towards the fellow human being. 

To me, the obsession of winning appears to be a creative recipe for the psychopath: someone who has no qualms about, or conscience problems over, hurting other people (or worse) as long as getting higher up the food chain or pecking order is the perceived desired goal. Kevin is a person who worships an image (courtesy of his ego) he himself adopted rather than seeking to nurture and developing the pure authentic self, who has unique individualistic aspirations. He is consumed by clinging on to this image of unconditional winning cost what it may. It is like the story of Narcissus who was so mesmerized by and hopelessly in love with his own mirror image and his warped mind drove him to kill himself upon discovery the image was illusory. It was his own Ego that deluded and deceived him to the point of fatality. In similar vein, as portrayed by the movie, narcissism would cause Kevin\\\'s demise, if he indeed were to choose to take on the image of a ruthless wanna-be winner.

Consequently, the movie struck me as an alarming wake-up call to humanity. The message being: We stand to become psychopathic monsters in our obsessive reverence of images of vanity. In other words, by being both prevalent and detrimental, it is vanity that is killing and tormenting humanity.  

\\\"Vanity is definitely my favourite sin\\\", admits the Devil (Al Pacino) in the closing scene of the Devil\\\'s Advocate, after he successfully placed a new strangle-hold on Kevin who just previously backed away from a possible psychopathic future upon taking on the role of a relentless and unscrupulous attorney. The wry and sad message to humanity seemingly being that vanity and happiness are but mutually exclusive concepts.

Is it a coincidence that the most wealthy and the most powerful people around are also likely to be the most vain and biggest snobs around? Even these people are caught into the type of spiritually immature, myopic and psychopathic role play that unfortunately seems to be the default way of being to a lot of people throughout all strata of society. Being an authentic human being, who truly lives a live of truth and as such is untroubled by an artificial and possible psychopathic role play, must be quite a rare phenomenon in this perverted and corrupted world we live in.

It is as if those who accumulated the most wealth and power are being tormented by the heavy burden of maintaining the inflated protective Ego that comes with it. The more you have the more you have to exert yourself trying to hold on to it. Fear of losing kicks in not seldom to the point of paranoia. Fear also easily leads to (\\\"defensive\\\") aggression and disproportionate fear (paranoia) may trigger adoption of irresponsible and ethically challenging protective measures, especially if the paranoiac is also a wealthy megalomaniac. As such, the paranoiac and the psychopath may not be too far apart on the behavioristic spectrum. It seems that poor people aren\\\'t the only kind of people who suffer after all. Perhaps this forms a basis of envy in which the rich and powerful seek to persecute and crush those who are satisfied with less and live a life of simplicity. 

I wonder what the causative factor would be for the trait of psychopathy to emerge and even flourish if it ultimately is so detrimental to the habitat. Maybe the answer can be found in the type of world we live in, because in a world where the winner takes all and the losers are but weepers it is the very design of society which should be held at least in part accountable for churning out psychopaths on a regular and perennial basis. It is the type of dog-eat-dog system, making one feel less worthy if you are not either already at the top or working zealously towards it, which provides the psychopath both with ample breeding ground and rationale for existing.
   
My thanks goes out to Alan Watt (http://cuttingthroughthematrix.com ) and Michael Tsarion (http://www.michaeltsarion.com ) for the inspiration.

ephilution (conspiracycentral.info)

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