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Our narcissistic selves

By James Cumes - posted Wednesday, 13 September 2006


The believer seeks to destroy the unbeliever. The jihad is one of the instruments of destruction.

The faithful may be Christian, Muslim or Jew. The jihad may be by crusaders for some real or fancied cause or for the “liberation” of some real or fanciful “holy land”.

So perhaps we should ask not what creeds we Australians hold in common but how far we have managed to distance ourselves from or efficiently manage all creeds, except one that alone will deliver us from self-destruction and possible extinction of the species.

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That creed is that we should join with others to frame a common narcissistic image of a human being and that we should transfer our narcissistic self to no other institution than one that embraces us all.

“Civilisations die from suicide, not by murder,” Toynbee reminded us. So the narcissistic imperative common to us all must be reined in so that the demons of narcissistic transference and institutional narcissism do not lead, through intensification of hatreds and conflict, to the destruction of humanity itself; but rather to an enlightened immortality in which we can all share.

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About the Author

James Cumes is a former Australian ambassador and author of America's Suicidal Statecraft: The Self-Destruction of a Superpower (2006).

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