Sunday, March 29, 2020

COVID19, the emergency where narcissists are being revealed

We stand together as peoples of all the nations of the world, knowing that we’re in unprecedented days. Meeting together to ‘do church’ with two very special friends via video call, we all pondered what these days meant, how we’re called to respond, and how we’re managing personally.  It was a time of raw sharing, as we read from God’s Word.
I know there are conspiracy theories and many times they’re easy to subscribe to, and I don’t besmirch the concept of their being a human conspiracy behind COVID19, but I’m much more of the view that the world is being shaken for a reason.
I will not go further than that for risk of speaking part-truths or non-truth.
But one thing that is apparent to me is what crisis draws out of each of us, and particularly out of those who carry the mantle of leadership.
One of the true blessings of this modern hyper-connected world is the speed and veracity of which news fills our minds.  Many people will say, “Fake news!” and we definitely need to read and watch and listen with discernment.  We must.  We must read everything with a healthy sense of suspicion as to the motives of those who are transmitting their information.
One thing I’m seeing a lot of is accounts of immoral leadership practice.  This is saddest when it’s the church.  Of course, churches at present are facing the most unanticipated and scariest prospect.  While the capital “C” church will survive — and almost certainly will probably actually thrive — this unmitigated disaster is definitely an unmitigated disaster for many churches, but it can also herald a massive opportunity.
Can you imagine the temptation that leaders of churches are faced with to ditch the integrity they owe God for some other course of action?  Here is one story.  Concealment, dishonesty, misuse of power, the insistence to press on regardless, and myriad form of spiritual abuse because they may have a certain hold over their parishioners.
Not all churches, not even most churches, but some churches.
It’s a bit like the hoards still venturing out in numbers together, be it to the beaches, on bicycle and motorcycle rides, or in celebrations — flouting social distancing protocols.  How dare people go ahead in their own selfishness.  Nobody truly devoted to God would do such things.
What do we make of a person or group or organisation that cares not a flip about the state of the present situation, and shows that by their stubborn resistance to abide by what’s required?
This brings me to narcissists.  I’ve long thought of making simple the complexity of the characteristics of narcissists in this way: narcissists are innately entitled, they feel they have the right to exploit people and situations any way they wish, and therefore, both of these together reveal an abject lack of empathy.
Narcissists feel absolutely entitled to exploit people and situations because they have no empathy.
Empathy commands that we put humanity’s future, and certainly the future of our elderly and most vulnerable, first, before ourselves.  Empathy is behind the biblical command to “love one another” (John 13:34-35) and to “treat others as you would have them treat you” (Matthew 7:12).
Without a sufficient critical mass (over 70 or 80 percent of society) of empathetic diligence, we will not flatten the curve.
Those who refuse to comply are the narcissists, revealed.  Those who are in leadership positions who are reluctant, and worse, recalcitrant, are leading their charges into a pit of despair.  Worse altogether are leaders who appear to comply but secretly work against the common good.
Narcissism is the real enemy here, because the great opportunity of this age is that whole societies would pull together and, over the course of several months to a year, ‘get this done’.
So COVID19, I believe, is being used to reveal the reprehensible by their behaviours.  It won’t be hard to see those who are leading selflessly — those who genuinely worship God by trust — those making tough decisions promptly and courageously — as opposed to those who are only thinking of themselves, and who are setting us on a course of ruin.
Anyone who refuses to comply with what we all need everyone to do — and worse, en masse — is displaying narcissism, and yes, narcissism is worst when it runs in packs and entire systems.
We will know narcissists by their stubbornly defiant responses to this global emergency.


Photo by Logan Weaver on Unsplash

No comments: