Andrew

“...however much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing, as it were, behind your back".”
― George Orwell, Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays

“The self-consciousness that mocks all attempts at spontaneous
action or enjoyment derives in the last analysis from the waning
belief in the reality of the external world, which has lost its immediacy
in a society pervaded by "symbolically mediated information."
The more man objectifies himself in his work, the more
reality takes on the appearance of illusion. As the workings of the
modern economy and the modern social order become increasingly
inaccessible to everyday intelligence, art and philosophy
abdicate the task of explaining them to the allegedly objective sciences of society, which themselves have retreated from the effort
to master reality into the classification of trivia. Reality thus
presents itself, to laymen and "scientists" alike, as an impenetrable
network of social relations-as "role playing," the "presentation
of self in everyday life." To the performing self, the only
reality is the identity he can construct out of materials furnished
by advertising and mass culture, themes of popular film and
fiction, and fragments torn from a vast range of cultural traditions,
all of them equally contemporaneous to the contemporary
mind.* In order to polish and perfect the part he has devised for
himself, the new Narcissus gazes at his own reflection, not so
much in admiration as in unremitting search of flaws, signs of
fatigue, decay. Life becomes a work of art, while "the first art
work in an artist," in Norman Mailer's pronouncement, "is the
shaping of his own personality.”
― Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations

“In a society that dreads old age and death, aging holds a special terror for those who fear dependence and whose' self-esteem requires the admiration usually reserved for youth, beauty, celebrity, or charm. The usual defenses against the ravages of age—identification with ethical or artistic values beyond one's immediate interests, intellectual curiosity, the consoling emotional warmth derived from happy relationships in the past—can do nothing for the narcissist. Unable to derive whatever com-fort comes from identification with historical continuity, he finds it impossible, on the contrary, "to accept the fact that a younger generation now possesses many of the previously cherished gratifications of beauty, wealth, power and, particularly, creativity. To be able to enjoy life in a process involving a growing identification with other people's happiness and achievements is tragically beyond the capacity of narcissistic personalities.”
― Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations

“Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It