"They knew from my psychological evaluation that I had a problem with authority. I don’t bow down to anyone. I’m a natural leader, and I don’t defer to anyone else’s leadership."

Bullshit. She is not a "natural leader" - she's a natural "I want to be in charge to feed my ego" dictator.

Philo

That's a great read.

Philo,

Unfortunately most people can't tell the difference.

Heh, you have sort of missed the point of the article. None of those people was in touch with reality, before or after.

They were susceptible to and vibed on the efforts and views of others. If you do that, who YOU are is of course, distorted and manipulated easily.

The fact that they all had to become famous to find out how utterly awful, self-centered and money-oriented people really are tells me none of them have actually lived a real life.

Didn't most of you figure that stuff out in your late teens early twenties?

I remember the first time I got into cocaine. It was a brief addiction, but it lead me to purchase a lot and live a life on the edge for awhile. It turned out that I had a really good hook-up, so I suddenly had lots of cool friends.

When I let that hookup go and stop doing coke (damn idiot I was at 19-20)--my so-called "friends" disappeared. They hung out with me because I drove a really nice car, had all the material things people wanted (really nice pad, fur coat blah blah).

When the high runs dry you are left with introspection, anger, and abandonment.

It didn't have to be coke. It could have been anything, such as a brief stint on a reality show that could have had the same effect. Thing is, it happened to me at a very young age. How is it that these people never ran into this effect until their mid-20's early 30's?

How depressing is it that this next generation is so stupid?

So what do you suggest sharkfish? All teenageers should be to sent to a Malignant Narcissism Camp - with activities like Arts and Cokes and Manipulating 101 - as a sort of vaccination against an unfettered ego?

"How depressing is it that this next generation is so stupid?"

Kids these days! Why can't they be like we were? Perfect in every way?

Okay, what I should have said was "how depressing it is that a certain subset of the generation behind me was so sheltered that they grew up much later than normal."

It could also be argued that a society that values money and material goods so much is doomed to have depressed 30-somethings running around all angsty and mad at the world.

People in general aren't necessarily awful, self-centered and money oriented. However most cokeheads and reality show contestants are.

duh, congrats on missing the point entirely.

I wouldn't mind being spanked by Omarosa.

"It could also be argued that a society that values money and material goods so much is doomed to have depressed 30-somethings running around all angsty and mad at the world."

I like that. I often think that people were happier when life was simpler because they weren't in a rat race. I do know that some of our happiest times as a family were doing simple things like tubing down a river, canoing, or going for a bike ride.

Philo

Seriously though, when were people not in a rat race?

We tend to look at the past through rose tinted lenses, especially if it's not "our" past. All throughout history people have been in a rat race, and in fact things have gotten moderately better.

According to this semi-fluff piece, http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123606 , we have more free time now than we did in the 60's. I think the difference is in how we choose to spend our free time. We have more distraction, and choose to spend less time in contemplative activities.