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I've heard a very similar saying about people in LA, as many people love to talk about how narcissistic the population is here. LA does not turn people into as

• clock_tower 10y ago
  That's what I've heard about LA as well -- especially with Hollywood being there. It isn't necessary to be a narcissist to want an acting career, but it "helps". Now that I think of it, LA and Hollywood might have the same problem as DC and politics. Our political class is a collection of horrible freaks and sad sacks for a reason: the only way to get power in this country is to want it so desperately that you'll spend your whole career trying to get it, even though you'll probably never get past the rank of junior senator or political aide. This is literally megalomania -- the level of power-hungriness normally associated with Lovecraftian cultists and evil wizards, and sometimes not even with them. Anyhow, I could see LA having the sort of problem with fame that DC has with power: the people who make it in Hollywood are a subset of the people who want so desperately to make it in Hollywood that they'll throw their lives away on a career track that gives them a small chance of getting a big break and a large chance of waiting tables. Desperate commitment and fear of failure can make a good person turn very bad -- despite my quoting that rather smug Anglo-Saxon saying previously.