The Importance of Current Events is Amplified by our Egos

1. Current Events and the Ego
2. Cataclysm and Chaos is Always on the Horizon
3. Changes Are Amplified By Our Egos
4. The Demise of the European Union

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1. Current Events and the Ego

People use drama to report events of their own times, always making it appear more important than past events of similar or greater importance. The first century Jewish historian Josephus bemoaned this aspect of Human nature two thousand years ago₁ and our egos show no sign of letting us be more objective. I believe it is the common ego of the normal person that makes current events in the world around us seem more significant and cataclysmic than times gone before.

Those who lived through the industrial revolution reported that Humanity was going through its most significant and disastrous change. Those who now live through the technological, internet-based revolution think the same: Now is a time of wonderful change! But I think all times are times of change, and that our changes are akin to the changes of history, and also dwarfed by the changes of the future.

“Downmarket media publications reflect - and exaggerate - many of the fears of society itself. People want their lives to be part of historical drama. The millennium bug, worldwide pandemics, moral panics and fear that society is going wrong all betray humankind's neophobic reactions to progress and change. Newspaper editors pick on this fear and concoct alarmist stories from everyday events and statistics. Many editors and media owners have explained the usefulness of fear-mongering and sensationalism - it certainly sells more copy than balanced news. Fears become amplified and made more real by their appearance in headlines, creating a hysteria about a topic whereas in reality things are much better. Always remember that after thousands of hyped-up press warnings, on midnight of the 31st of December 1999, nothing happened.”

"The Commercialist Mass Media: The Bane of Human Cultural Evolution" by Vexen Crabtree (2009)

2. Cataclysm and Chaos is Always on the Horizon

Just as common as the ego-driven feeling that now, around us, are important changes, is the feeling that brooding, significant upset awaits on the horizon. It seems to be a universal, negative human apprehension that we think that historically-important catastrophe is threatening us.

“[The] media emphasizes the negative and pessimistic side of events and therefore creates perceptual crises of faith where no real crises exists”

"Global Trends 2005" by Michael Mazarr₂

These feelings of the importance and foreboding of present events are shared by professional sociologists and analysts, who in addition to the typical Human desire to be at the centre of events, also have professional interest in highlighting the perils of the present time, and hence the relevance of their own skills, warnings and teachings.

“The influential political and cultural theorist Alvin Toffler saw the 1980s and 1990s as a period of immense and cataclysmic change”

"Literature, Politics and Intellectual Crises in Britain Today" by Clive Bloom (2001)₃

3. Changes Are Amplified By Our Egos

Four sociologists from the Open University staff describe the "contemporary UK" as "a society which appears to almost everyone who lives in it to be in the throws of change"₄. Changes which are affecting us in our living lives seem much more important to us than the changes of the past. The Industrial Revolution is now 'history', it is no longer an urgent issue. Once change has passed we no longer experience its importance. It becomes abstract. Changes that affect our own lives are made by our hungry egos into things that must be important for everyone. Every generation feels under seige from the throws of change.

The popular press is the worst; an intentional sensationalisation of all news only reinforces people's confused opinions about the present era. Fans of prophecy always look to the present to find signs that their religion is witness to, or about to witness, events of significance to the religion that prove its own truth.

No-one likes to feel unimportant, therefore everyone imagines the present changes that they perceive in society to be more important than the changes affecting other people. The importance of events is eroded by physical distance or the distance of time. If we worry about the future we worry because of the meaning it has for us now (what should we be doing?), and if we worry about the past it only pales in comparison to the worries we have about our own age. Our egos rule our perceptions of change.

4. The Demise of the European Union

An example of the distorting effect of the ego affecting even the most high calibre professionals comes from the doom-laden prophesies of EU politicians. The following is taken from "The European Union: Democratic Values, The Euro, Crises and Migration" by Vexen Crabtree (2007); the original contains fuller references:

“Every decade has seen prominent politicians pronounce the EU is now facing "it's most serious crises yet". [...]

“By 1980 some academics warned about the possible disintegration of the EEC and even leading members of EC institutions openly spoke of the dismal state that Europe was in. At the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Rome Treaty, in 1982, the president of the European Parliament compared the Community to a 'feeble cardiac patient whose condition is so poor that he cannot even be disturbed by a birthday party' (Lagerfeld 1990).”

"Origins and Evolution of the European Union" by Desmond Dinan (2006)

After that dismal diatribe, the pronouncements continued throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. "Jacques Delors, who was president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1994, says that the present "crises" is the worst in the project's history". And again in 2005 Jeane-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, which then held the EU presidency, said "the EU is not in crises: it is in deep crisis". The EU is always in crises, just like crime is always getting worse, immigrants more dastardly, the weather deteriorating and employment evaporating.”

"The European Union: Democratic Values, The Euro, Crises and Migration" by Vexen Crabtree (2007)

In reality the psycological effects of the ego, placing oneself at the centre of a cataclysm where the (perceived) most important events are occurring, is the cause of the EU crises.