Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Delusions

With an addiction to trashy tv comes a curiosity about the skyscraper levels of confidence on display. Perhaps I'm a bit more jaded, beaten down by life, but I honestly do not understand from what depths these egos are unearthed. Especially when it's not readily apparent what they have to be cocky about.

In an article about the Weiner scandal, Jennifer Senior quotes from The Heidi Chronicles:
[Heidi]'s being hectored and lectured (if also aggressively charmed) by the man who will one day be her boyfriend, Scoop Rosenbaum. After several minutes of listening to him bluster and name-drop and hold forth on subjects he doesn’t necessarily know a thing about, her facial expression visibly changes:Scoop: You’re thinking something.Heidi: Actually, I was wondering what mothers teach their sons that they never bother to tell their daughters.Scoop: What do you mean?Heidi: I mean, why the fuck are you so confident?
Which makes me think 1. I need to read this and 2. Which of us is normal - Heidi/me or Scoop/Deludedly confident people. (And 3. What jr high did these people go to? Mine was a bit more self-esteem crippling, I guess.)

As a corollary, I'm fascinated by people who feel their parents' money is somehow a positive reflection on themselves. First of all, it's not your money (yet), so it has nothing to do with you. And secondly, because your parents choose to spend money conspicuously on certain things does not make you as rich as you think. Once you move out of your little town, you learn that there is always someone richer (and smarter and prettier and younger), so this is not really what you should choose as a defining characteristic for yourself. I want to say, don't sell yourself short, but in many cases, this is all these people have. Like the pretty girl who never cultivated a personality or sense of humor, there is a certain type of "rich" person that never developed perspective or empathy or life skills. These people suck, but I do like to watch them, like a nature show on some pathetic sort of insect.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very good questions. some people do just seem to have insane self-confidence with no actual basis in reality. Was it their parents? Do they have some gene mutation the rest of us don't have? Does being confident actually get them what they want?
--tc