Meism

The other day, I mistakenly thought I had come up with a wholly novel quasi-religious term and it's "Meism". You have probably encountered members of this cult in your own life. Meists are people who only want to talk about themselves - their families, their achievements, their adventures, their homes, their ailments. They are not much interested in other people's lives. It's all, "Me, me, me, me"...endlessly.

To some extent, we are probably all a bit meist and cynics might argue that blogging is all about self-interest and trumpeting your thoughts and experiences to others who spend time here in Blogworld. Perhaps it's all just a question of degree.

So many times in my life, I have found myself listening to meists as they drone on about themselves and their lives. I am a very good listener and I believe that other  people sense that. I react to what is being said and pose follow up questions but so often I reach a point in my head where I say to myself, "They have not asked me anything" or "They know nothing about me" or "Am I really so uninteresting, so unworthy that they just do not want to know?"

I could have titled this blogpost "Empathy" because I suppose that a lack of it is the foundation on which Meism is built. If you possess empathy you are aware of who you are communicating with. It's another human being whose view of the world may be delightfully different from your own. They are worthy of attention no matter what their station is in life. They could teach you something or give you food for thought.

If you manage to hinder the meist flow and intervene with a point, a memory or an idea of your own, the meist will look slightly irritated as if to say, "Let us get back to the main subject". And the main subject is a combination of what I have done, where I have been, what I  have spent money on, my family, what I have watched on television, my budgerigar, my car - on and on and on. Me-me-me-me.

I am not saying that meists are all bad. Maybe they just cannot help themselves. Perhaps their meism is connected with internal self-doubts - something like that. Maybe they became meists in meist family homes.

Being a meist is rather different from egomania but it's certainly edging in that extreme direction. This is how the dictionary defines egomania:-

...a psychological term for an obsessive, irrational, and excessive preoccupation with one’s own ego, self-importance, or needs. It is characterised by delusions of grandeur, extreme selfishness, and a lack of empathy, often manifesting as an intense, frantic desire for admiration and power. 

Yes, meists are generally not that far gone but I can think of a current world leader who possesses all of those traits aplenty. Know who I mean?