The Dawning Of The Age Of The Super Ego

This is the dawning of the age...of the Super Ego. The celebrity culture, coupled with mass media, is helping to prepare us for this age. Now when I use this term 'Super Ego,' the spiritual semanticist will at once shutter. Ego is bad, you see. Now this guy's talkin about a SUPER ego! How terrible must that be! This guy's an ego maniac! I could also accurately use the terms archetypal or mythological, and this would be more soothing to the spiritual semanticist, but I feel this term Super Ego has something important to tell us.

For aeons we have strongly attached to our identity, our ego. Upon analysis, we find this ego we are so strongly attached to, to be quite bland and boring in most cases. The notions we create about ourselves tend to make us insignificant, bland, and typical. So this ego is not so much deserving of attachment. Now what do I mean when I say super ego? I basically mean an ego that is incredibly grandiose and wonderful. Imagine the most perfect identity one COULD have. Let your imagination run wild, and think of the most incredible thing you could possibly be. I mean the stuff of legend. Even God status. There are no limits whatsoever. This is the Super Ego. Super Ego implies no particulars. The super ego might manifest as being the life of every party who has a lot of sex. This is what likely comes to mind when you hear 'super ego,' but again, it implies no specifics. A spiritual renunciate who decides to go live in a monastary to pursue union with God is also a manifestation of the super ego. The super ego is simply an identity which stands out, which is unique and interesting.

The thing about the age of the super ego is that it is also, in a way, a device to dissolve the ego. Ego is rigid and fixed. One is not confined to one super ego. The super ego is so hysterical and ridiculous, and understand these terms in a non-negative way, that it seems almost unreal on its face. You get very into it, it is very immersive and satisfying, but it has a hint of un-reality. This un-reality is a contributor to the fact that in the age of super ego, identity is liquid, ever-shifting. The super ego is non-personal, so when I'm playing some role of the super ego, there are others who have, are, and will play it as well. Now when I interact with someone who is playing some super ego, they are just one manifestation of that super ego, which is a continuity. This means that if I then interact with someone else playing the same super ego, it is essentially a continuation of that interaction. In this age, ego is dissolved through mass manifestations of super ego. Boundaries between individuals don't exist, because we're all playing larger themes, and there is no difference between 'different people' playing the same role.

This has been a message from a philosopher who is laying the groundwork for a spiritual, philosophic, and cultural revolution that is soon to come, that will usher in a Golden Age of humanity beyond anything we have ever thought possible. Or at least that's the Super Ego I play.

So in other words, the super-ego you are referring to can be seen as the shedding of all abstract ideas of the self, and a definite concrete path that is chosen and followed?

This guy's an ego maniac!

reply to post by TheJourney


"The super-ego is the faculty that seeks to police what it deems unacceptable desires; it represents all moral restrictions and is the advocate of a striving towards perfection..."

www.cla.purdue.edu...

To me the super-ego is the ethical part of ourselves.

Originally posted by chadderson
So in other words, the super-ego you are referring to can be seen as the shedding of all abstract ideas of the self, and a definite concrete path that is chosen and followed?

Yea, that is somewhat it. As you say, the unconscious abstractions that normalize us would be removed, and we would pursue some definite thing in a completely un-divided and extreme way. Whatever the tendencies are, they are put in, and acted out in, the most exciting way possible. We become living archetypes, or mythological characters. As we are representatives of characters, the 'self' attachment is not so strong, and so it is easy to shift between characters at different times, depending on the situation or what we want.

reply to post by TheJourney


Everything you said was really just a bunch of nonsense. You used the word ego way too many times in one essay. The whole reason why you made this thread is because you have an ego.

The age of the super ego? You mean the age of humanity?

The celebrity culture, coupled with mass media, is helping to prepare us for this age

Mass media has been with us since the printing press was widely used. Celebrities are nothing new...they've been around before mass media.

Ego is bad, you see

Not really. If we didn't have an ego none of us would have any sort of self esteem. None of us would go to school or better ourselves. We'd have no confidence, we'd lay their like bumps on a log and wallow in our own drool.

Originally posted by RealSpoke

Ego is bad, you see

Not really. If we didn't have an ego none of us would have any sort of self esteem. None of us would go to school or better ourselves. We'd have no confidence, we'd lay their like bumps on a log and wallow in our own drool.

A good example would be that survey done between the 1950s or whenever it was and today. The question was, "Are you an important person"? It was something like 1 in 5 said yes, today its about 4 out of 5 say yes. Someone can look up the specifics if they want.

Could be good, could be bad, but it's interesting how it's changed each decade.

reply to post by Turq1


Everybody is an important person, nothing wrong with people noticing their brilliance.

You say superego, I say super independant and invidualistic.

You shouldn't have to depend on anyone else for happiness or love, it is within you, already.

Like The Bible says in Matthew, Kingdom of Heaven is within you, you dont have to cling to the sky or to another....

Good post, I can relate to your post as well.
I am exposed to the situation you call 'super-ego' and life has become much more peaceful, less stressful.
Also I find it good how the possibility to be who ever I want to be has opened, example:
I can walk through a crowd of people 'acting' to be the most love-giving person amongst them, noticed from every angle. And I can only stay as that 'person' as long as the people amongst accept my given 'shine' into their total experience.
if there were to be someone among there disliking my presence or feel stupid about this presence
I am, then I will take notice of it and must back off immediately or be humiliated by it.
Backing off includes changing my presence and going the opposite of what I just was - loving.
I then place my presence above yours and you will understand or see how shrunk you are.

Now when I have a conversation, be it anybody. I constantly move from one side to the other, depending on what is said, by either of us.


I am sorry for a possible bad context but I really felt like trying to share a piece as this is a wide part of my life experience. I am open for questions.

reply to post by arpgme


Everyone is brilliant? Not saying they are or aren't just wondering.

reply to post by TheJourney


I like this overview, and I think you're right. This is a moment of extreme archetypal expressions. I attribute this to the way that so many kids have grown up with the constant realization that there are many, many millions of people in direct competition with them for inimitable identity.

When I was a kid, it was obvious that there were billions of other people in the world, but it wasn't a constant barrage of millions who were just like us and looking right back at us from an LCD screen in the family room. Millions who were probably cooler and more special than we saw ourselves, and certainly more unique. Hell, the kids now days see these faces in video clips on YouTube with millions of hits of viral attention, and it forces a percentage of them to compete directly with these nameless threats to their own sense of self worth.

And yet, they don't have any context to put these nameless faces into - unlike how it was in the past, when the faces you confronted that were "more" that you belonged to TV or music stars, and you could get a sense of where you existed relative to them - and in that sense, where you fit in overall, since you knew that these people actually were special and not really direct competition with people who were like you. Now days, that filter is gone, and the whole world of (pick your age group) kids are on your version of a TV screen and "famous" in their own way as a result.

So, it's no surprise that younger folks are becoming less connected with their own reality, and "discovering" indications that they, too, are special. Hell, how many divine messengers do we get on this board each month? And the chances are pretty good that each of them are between 15 and 29 yrs old - and male. That's a demographic - not a movement.

I just wonder how this will affect the world when this entire swath of heroic archetypal characters gets into a position of being able to run things on a macro scale. The "boomers" effed everything up in exactly the manner that one would've expected them too (entitled little pricks that we are). This flood of legendary status seekers should be quite a thrill ride.