The only destroyer in the world

More than three weeks have passed since the start of the war in Ukraine , and a truce is still not in sight. Reuters estimates that over 15,000 people have died and over three million have been displaced. And still there is no end in sight. Every day it becomes more and more clear that there is only one reason for war and one goal pursued by killing and destruction - the rule of selfishness.

A person is driven by a sense of uniqueness, a feeling that only he exists in the world. In World War II, the entire world experienced the devastating consequences of this perception.

Since then, people have become not less, but much more self-centered. In 2009, psychologists Jean M. Twenge and Keith Campbell rose to prominence with their insightful book The Narcissistic Epidemic. In it, they not only lament the "inexorable rise of narcissism in our culture" but also emphasize that "the rise of narcissism is accelerating."

The current conflict in Ukraine demonstrates that human selfishness has indeed reached a point where the horrors of World War II are no longer a deterrent. Once again, the ego will stop at nothing to gain power and control. The ego feels that all the people in the world should be under its own control and for its own personal benefit.

We cannot eradicate the ego - it is our nature. However, we don't need it. Instead, we need to redirect it to constructive purposes. Because we have a sense of uniqueness, we must make people feel unique for their contributions to society, not for their power and control over others.

Through public opinion, we can control the ego to act for the benefit of society, not against it. In this way, we will create communities where people feel brave, safe and loved precisely because they are investing their skills and efforts in the common good.

The senseless destruction we see today is a product of our nature. We could avoid this if we realized our nature and treated it properly. Because we don't take control of our ego, it controls us. There can be no compromise here: either we as a society manage the sense of uniqueness of each person and direct it towards constructive goals, or it, turning into narcissism, will lead us to the wrong place. If we choose to do nothing, the last thing will happen and we will destroy ourselves and the world we live in. It is certain.

“The eyes of the wise man are in his head,” wrote King Solomon (Eccl. 2:14); he sees the future. If people want to get smarter and wiser, they should work to build a good future for themselves and their children. Otherwise, they will destroy this future by their own actions.