Narcissism is a popular topic.

The reason for our interest is that it currently exists in every aspect of the human experience. For glaring examples, look no further than Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, choosing lower taxes over quality education, the chronic abuse of Mother Earth and the recent removal of tiny housing for the homeless in Los Angeles because people had to walk further to avoid them.

Narcissism begins at birth. Babies are narcissistic because they don’t know what other people exist for, beyond food providers and diaper changes. Children who are left to continue with this unlearned perception or are taught that someone else has more relevance than them, grow to view the world myopically rather than globally.

In a narcissistic home a child or parent’s wants, supersede the health and well-being of the family. The child or adult consumes most of the oxygen, leaving just enough for other members to survive.

A parasite making sure that the host is left breathing—to preserve their own existence.

Kids and parents become dictators, the King Joffrey of Game of Thrones. These people perceive that their lives are more significant than anyone else’s.

Children left to believe they are of sole importance, age into a certain sociopathic presidential candidate or someone promoted to CEO after using other people’s throats as a step stool.

A narcissistic parent is Annie Wilkes of Misery, hobbling a child so they’ll take responsibility for a chore list long after leaving home.

What both these mentoring systems have in common is that they instruct children to believe that one life is more important than another. It is the pervasive long-told lie that humans are living in a monarchy that requires the donation of one individual’s existence so that another may thrive.

Think of it as teaching children to value only one human, tossing the rest of our tribe into a volcano as a donation to the Gods.

This is emotional, psychological and cultural self-sabotage and it breeds a collective that devalues one person for another.

It is why adult children are culturally shamed into sacrificing themselves to care for aging parents and how paying for college requires amputating financial security.

Monarchical, narcissistic thinking enables 1% to gorge as 99% hungers, a homeless person to be considered a visual inconvenience and the abuse of fossil fuels to incinerate Mother Earth.

Parents are our baseline mentors.

They bring the best and worst of the human condition to the surface.

It is important that we culturally draw a line in the sand: no more narcissism. No more narcissistic parents, no more narcissistic children and no more shaming to fill governmental holes.

This planet, including all life that exists depends on our becoming less myopically indulgent and more globally conscious.

We are each equally important to the continued existence of the universal tribe.

Author: Deb Lecos 

Editor: Renée Picard

Image: Flickr/Matt Brown