The Scourge of Self Importance

Everyone loves firemen.

Saviours of felines, not to mention annual sweaty appearances in calendars brandishing large hoses. Such important people. But at what point does self-importance becomes arrogance? Are they as entwined as a hose around a fireman's body?

One of the greatest mysteries of the universe is why doctors' handwriting is illegible. Typically, an egyptologist is needed to decipher it. Or a pharmacist. Could self importance be a contributing factor? Perhaps he believes he is such an "important" person, others should be able to read his hieroglyphic scrawl. His time is so "important" that he can't afford to slow his writing to improve legibility. In fact he is so "important," people should move out of his way when met in a corridor because he is obviously enroute to an "important" job.

I'm sure most would deny this, only because they don't even realise it. It's subconscious, placed by society's expectations of a doctor's role and what level of importance that serves in the community. The doctor is far more important than the supermarket clerk, are far more selfless right?

Well, true selflessness is quite hard to find. Everyone has something to gain from what they do, we just wouldn't do it otherwise. Be it money, status, spirituality; we kid ourselves into believing we're "helping others" but really we're just pandering to our own sense of self importance.

Instead of acknowledging the selflessness of our actions, we misinterpret gratification as a reflection on ourselves which further feeds self importance and propogates arrogant behaviour.

To counter this, the human race combines our uniqueness with abundance to ensure our actions are replaceable. Put simply, we're not the only doing it. Life is full of variety, people share similar traits but their actions manifest in different ways. This should prevent people from becoming self important as they realise their "selfless" actions can be performed by someone else.

However this doesn't eventuate as fear causes people to be threatened by difference. The strong personality is threatened by the stronger one in a social group. Like a large dog intimidating its smaller peer, we are drawn towards the seemingly superior model. Fed by an upbringing of heirachy and status to partition life into easily digestable chunks, we attribute more importance to the perceived higher status. We fail to appreciate the homogenous yet distinct shades of grey that add diversity to life. There is room for more than one strong personality, we shouldn't allow fear to illluminate people as threats.

With seven billion people on Earth, each of us is really quite insignificant. Even if you wear high visibility clothing or a stethoscope draped across a white collared shirt. Modern society should be appreciated for its abundance and diversity. Placing objects in shelved compartments makes them easier to find but rummaging in a mixed box doesn't diminish their importance.