By Dr Catherine Darnell, Research Fellow
Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, University of Birmingham
The antidote for egotism may therefore be a humble one; rather than deny our limitations, take ownership of them, seek ways to improve them, listen to different points of view, acknowledge alternative conclusions and be ready to repeat this all again.
Friday 11 May marks the first World Ego Awareness Day. Founded by the World Ego Awareness Movement in 2018, this newly established effort hopes to raise awareness of the ego; warning egotism has become the unacknowledged norm of society.
The philosophers Robert C Wood and W. Jay Wood define egotism as a ‘disposition to exaggerate the importance of, and focus attention on, oneself and one’s own interests, to the neglect of others and their interests’. More generally speaking an egotist is that friend, colleague, family member or possibly even ourselves who often appear superior, arrogant, selfish or boastful and who would happily spend a conversation talking about his or her own accomplishments without a thought to ask “and how are you?”
If we take a quick scroll through our social media feeds it is easy to understand why egotism may be considered more prevalent. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all encourage a ‘look at me!’ mindset, and provide a platform to specifically showcase your life, your interests and your beliefs. If you gain more likes, shares or retweets than your fellow users, it’s hard not to feel a sense of validation that what you have to say is more important than others or to feel a sense of superiority when our accounts increase in followers.
To lay the blame solely at the social media door would clearly be over simplistic. As Will Storr, suggests in his new book ‘Selfie’, this age of self-obsession is a complex beast with multiple contributing factors, from the influence of the ‘neoliberal self’ and the unrealistic expectations of what it means to be ‘successful’, to the over-emphasis placed on the benefits of high self-esteem in the 1980’s and 1990’s. While egotists may seem over confident, Storr points out that such confidence likely masks a “noisy denial of their own weaknesses or incompetence”.
When put in these terms, it seems that what our self-obsessed society is missing is a little bit of humility. In the Jubilee Centre’s Framework for Character Education humility is seen as a moral virtue and is defined as a “complete lack of concern for self-importance”. A humble person, knows their strengths and weaknesses, is not afraid to acknowledge their mistakes and appreciates the knowledge and contribution of others. They seek success not for admiration but for the good of the outcome, they are open-minded and are not driven by the need to be ‘right’. Put simply, humility is the antithesis of egotism.
Unfortunately, humility is often misunderstood as being meek, unambitious or lacking confidence in our own knowledge and beliefs. Yet, as so eloquently described by C.S.Lewis:
“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less”
The antidote for egotism may therefore be a humble one; rather than deny our limitations, take ownership of them, seek ways to improve them, listen to different points of view, acknowledge alternative conclusions and be ready to repeat this all again.
On this first World Ego Awareness Day, let’s not inadvertently fall into the egotist trap and ensure we focus on the ‘we’ and not the ‘I’, on humility and not the ego.