Selflessly Egocentric
Thursday, August 19th, 2010Being purely selfless is impossible. A couple of infamous people who advertised themselves as selfless lived in Waco Texas (David Koresh) and Jones Town (Jim Jones) and were responsible for many deaths. I have a general distrust of self advertised ’selfless’ people because I think that they have a healthy ego below that altruistic veneer.
On the other hand, being egocentric is misunderstood and has a bad reputation. Egocentric means that your ego is your center and is centered, which usually means that you are a balanced and healthy human being.
Some artists use themselves as the starting point in their work to understand the world around them. They believe that this inside-outside process is the most efficient way of questioning and potentially understanding. The self is naturally a product of that given world and by dissecting it that given world will also be under the knife by default.
Who knows yourself better then you so why not use that as the starting point for your inquiries; philosophical, artistic, and otherwise. By truly knowing yourself you might begin to trully understand this amazing world that gave birth to you.
Some artists that quickly come to mind that were termed egocentric, narcissistic, and self indulgent are:
