Boomer Narcissism

Don't you just hate that image on the right.. it just shouts to me.. not that I am giving up my Facebook account. Reminds me of a conversation I had last week about our culture and Baby Boomers. I began reflecting on how different my generation seemed to that of my parents.. Boomers just seem so much more narcissistic.. in case you are wondering what the term means here is a definition:

"narcissism: an inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity."

When I think about the differences with my parents generation I think of the word sacrifice - it seems that living through the depression created an environment where sacrifice and care for others was a bit more prevalent. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor men of all ages sacrificed their lives and safety to defend our nation. One the flip-side most Boomers had to be drafted into military service during the Vietnam War.. not that I am making a direct correlation between those two wars.. just seemed to be a different prevailing attitude.

Even faith and church life seems to be different for Boomers and their parents. In the 70s the message seemed to be all about "my" "personal" relationship to God.. even today their seems to be somewhat of an unhealthy narcissistic focus on church and religious community.. most of the donations seem to fund buildings and salaries with very little going to real charitable stuff.. but maybe that is the way that it has always been?

I am not sure why but I think that maybe even the type of government we have is a reflection of this narcissistic bent.. it seems that, for some anyway, we are all about keeping what we have and making sure the government doesn't spend too much money on welfare programs. It reminds me of something I heard once about the three ideological C's:

• Communism: What's yours is mine.
• Capitalism: What's mine is mine.
• Christianity: What's mine is yours.

While some believe that our government is trending to that first communistic "C" I think that most Christian Boomers embrace that second capitalistic "C" rather than the Christian "C". And yes, I agree that the church could better care for poor than the government.. if the church was not a part of this boomer narcissism.. but it is a part of it and therefore building and salaries still seem to trump caring for the poor.

Not sure what I really wanted to say here.. feel I have rambled a bit.. guess I just wanted to reflect a bit and process this stuff. I think that narcissism is an unhealthy issue that our culture is dealing with but I do not have any answers.. seems that it is so widespread.. and I have no clue about where it will take us or how much more narcissistic the next generations will become.. hopefully future generations will buck the narcissism trend.

What do you think? Do you think narcissism is a problem? Any solutions?