5 ms·

I don’t care to find it but a journal entry from Art Garfunkel’s web site crossed my radar many years ago. I recall thinking “wow, this is some next-level narci

I don’t care to find it but a journal entry from Art Garfunkel’s web site crossed my radar many years ago. I recall thinking “wow, this is some next-level narcissism here.” This list (and the royal we!) produce a similar reaction.

eddieroger 4y ago
I don't doubt he is a narcissist, but I think it's much more likely that someone else is maintaining the site for him, and thus the royal "we," as opposed to him speaking in first person. If you go to the Contact page, it references his management agency - I would assume they maintain the site, and he just asked for his library to be posted. Still narcissism, just maybe slightly less.
javajosh 4y ago
Too often "narcissism" is used to describe a quality of someone we don't like or admire who seems to like and admire themselves. Skimming this library, Garfunkel is certainly not lacking in intellectual confidence! It implies to me that he wants to understand the world, from many angles at a deep level, and yeah to do that you need confidence that might create unpleasant feelings in an observer. The discomfort is caused by envy, also regret and loss, because we all start out with boundless confidence, and only lose it over time, mainly to avoid being called out by our cool friends who discovered the social value of giving up on hard problems and difficult achievements.
- mistermann 4y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality This could be one of the many variables that holds humanity at an artificially low local maxima.
- subpixel 4y ago
  I don't often see the term narcissism misapplied that way. Regardless in this case I admire Art Garfunkel, the singer. But he clearly has delusions of grandeur. Not my opinion alone, to wit this Washington Post review of one of his memoirs: "The subtitle of Art Garfunkel's new memoir, " Notes From an Underground Man," echoes Dostoyevsky's "Notes From Underground" and Richard Wright's story "The Man Who Lived Underground" — both serious works of literature. Garfunkel’s book, however, is a splattering of 30-plus years of handwritten thoughts, lists, travel notes, bad poetry, confessions, snarky digs, platitudes and prayers gussied up for publication in different fonts and sizes. Reading it is like rummaging through a huge junk drawer of the mind."
  - javajosh 4y ago
    >I don't often see the term narcissism misapplied that way. We must not use the same internet. >Not my opinion alone As an aside, at what point does "agreeing with someone else's opinion" become a "dog pile"? It's a curious thing, how disgust gets far more firm and powerful with social proof. Before that it's "just your opinion", and we seem to hold such opinions more weakly. But when others hold it too? Well, that opinion just advanced 80% of the way to being a part of your identity.

eddieroger 4y ago

I don't doubt he is a narcissist, but I think it's much more likely that someone else is maintaining the site for him, and thus the royal "we," as opposed to him speaking in first person. If you go to the Contact page, it references his management agency - I would assume they maintain the site, and he just asked for his library to be posted. Still narcissism, just maybe slightly less.

javajosh 4y ago

Too often "narcissism" is used to describe a quality of someone we don't like or admire who seems to like and admire themselves. Skimming this library, Garfunkel is certainly not lacking in intellectual confidence! It implies to me that he wants to understand the world, from many angles at a deep level, and yeah to do that you need confidence that might create unpleasant feelings in an observer. The discomfort is caused by envy, also regret and loss, because we all start out with boundless confidence, and only lose it over time, mainly to avoid being called out by our cool friends who discovered the social value of giving up on hard problems and difficult achievements.

mistermann 4y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality This could be one of the many variables that holds humanity at an artificially low local maxima.
subpixel 4y ago
I don't often see the term narcissism misapplied that way. Regardless in this case I admire Art Garfunkel, the singer. But he clearly has delusions of grandeur. Not my opinion alone, to wit this Washington Post review of one of his memoirs: "The subtitle of Art Garfunkel's new memoir, " Notes From an Underground Man," echoes Dostoyevsky's "Notes From Underground" and Richard Wright's story "The Man Who Lived Underground" — both serious works of literature. Garfunkel’s book, however, is a splattering of 30-plus years of handwritten thoughts, lists, travel notes, bad poetry, confessions, snarky digs, platitudes and prayers gussied up for publication in different fonts and sizes. Reading it is like rummaging through a huge junk drawer of the mind."
- javajosh 4y ago
  >I don't often see the term narcissism misapplied that way. We must not use the same internet. >Not my opinion alone As an aside, at what point does "agreeing with someone else's opinion" become a "dog pile"? It's a curious thing, how disgust gets far more firm and powerful with social proof. Before that it's "just your opinion", and we seem to hold such opinions more weakly. But when others hold it too? Well, that opinion just advanced 80% of the way to being a part of your identity.