Main Character Syndrome

“Excuse me? Can’t you see I’m filming right now!?”

Write & Lift is an ethos of personal and spiritual development through conscious physical exertion and practice of the writing craft. Through this effort to strengthen our bodies and minds, we become anti-fragile and self-respecting sovereign individuals. Through this effort, we may stand against untruth and evil and create a new culture of vitality, strength, and virtue.

If this is your first time reading, subscribe here.

Main Character Syndrome

We’re living in an epoch of narcissism.

I’ve written quite extensively about the increase in “covert” narcissists; cry-bullies, perpetual victims, and those who fail to take any personal responsibility for the outcome of their own lives.

But I’ve yet to discuss, at any length, how our modern culture has incentivized the more obvious manifestation of self-worship; grandiose narcissism, or, as I like to call it, main character syndrome.

Because we’ve become consumed by “main characters”, many of us fail to recognize the line between grandiose self-absorption and confident charisma.

Those with MCS see themselves as the protagonist of their story. They go to great lengths to make themselves the center of attention at any given moment, and they do so without any impulse of self-reflection.

For reasons we can all intuit, MCS has exploded with the advent of social media. It’s a lot harder to suffer from this type of narcissistic delusion when your day-to-day life consists of work, eat, sleep, relaxation, and infrequent hobbies. This is why prior to the explosion of social media, the primary caricatures of MCS were most often represented as a handsome douchebag high-school quarterback or charismatic and powerful philandering business executive.

Today, everyone has a microphone. Everyone has the ability to “curate” their life in whatever way they choose. Without a proper moral grounding (humility, self-respect, a sense of honor and dignity, and friends and family willing to call you out) we become blind to our own bullshit, gravitating toward one of two forms of self-obsession.

Those who lack competence, confidence, beauty, or personal achievement naturally deviate towards covert narcissism because it gives them unearned status.

Those who are attractive, wealthy, confident, charismatic, or have status, can easily fall into the MCS trap.

Again, these outcomes are not a given. This is merely pattern recognition.

Without the practiced ability to self-reflect—or a circle of honest people who tell you what you need to hear—those with MCS syndrome become addicted to audience bias.

The most notable example of this is “Johnny Somali”, an aggravating “influencer” and content creator who invades the personal space of others by performing childish stunts for YouTube clout.

In Japan and South Korea (where there are strict social codes regarding public decorum), his antics have gotten him arrested and beat up.

This same dynamic can be seen in young celebrities. Actors, entertainers, and media personalities have always had a narcissistic bent, but social media has turned it up to eleven. They often mirror the mannerisms and dressed-down effect of a “wounded dove”. But they don’t want your sympathy, they want your allegiance. Remember when two dozen Hollywood A-listers sang Imagine by John Lennon over Zoom during COVID while you lost your businesses and personal freedom?

But MCS isn’t confined to YouTube pranksters and the cast of the Avengers, it has seeped into all aspects of our lives.

Whether we realize it or not, we’re coming face to face with grandiose narcissists every day when we open our phones. We’ve become used to seeing influencer moms dancing in their underwear while their kids watch in the background. We’ve become used to random 18-year-old boys built like a pre-pubescent cross-country runner promising a “shredded physique” in less than 3 months. It’s insane. And we don’t recognize the quicksand we’re being pulled into.

There is a massive chasm between grandiose delusion and authenticity.

Public ridicule is still the best disinfectant. But for those who have neither the wherewithal or interest in seeing the truth of their own spiritual condition, no amount of truth-telling will reveal it to them. You or I might cry “cope” to those with MCS defending their behavior, but for them, the words “cope” mean nothing because they have nothing to cope for.

Certain online niches incentivize MCS.

The number of Americans joining gyms is at a record high. That’s great! People should take their health seriously and get in shape. But in a culture that is lacking a moral or spiritual foundation (or even a shared sense of values) worshipping at the temple of the body becomes a cheap substitute.

I would be lying if I didn’t say I wanted an aesthetic physique. However, physical training, for me, has always been an opportunity to improve my capabilities as a man who is made in the image of my creator. Aesthetics is downstream from the spiritual mission of training. Many share this intention, but it’s equally as obvious that the gym has become a vehicle for attaining unearned status. You know exactly what I mean if you’ve seen any of Joey Swoll’s “callout” videos.

The most knowledgeable, healthy, experienced, and shredded personal trainers I know (and I know a LOT of them) all lead from a place of humility and a general willingness to help others.

Those with MCS who create content centered around their authority in a specific niche tend to embody the “Dunning-Kruger Effect”: a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities.

For every quiet multi-millionaire sharing honest and genuine information about his expertise, there are hundreds of 19-year-olds with rented Lamborghinis, Andrew Tate-style mannerisms, and an internet “hustler” personality that conveniently confuses revenue with net-profit.

For a young generation staring at a collection of defunct and destroyed institutions that promise little upward mobility, the pull to become “larger than life” is an impossible drug to ignore. And why should they?

Many in the Millennial and Gen Z generation, have been raised in a participation trophy culture. They’ve been told they’re perfect again and again. They’ve been told they can be anything they want. They’ve been told that their failures are due to another person or a larger system as a whole.

Every week I see ten-year-olds having full-blown tantrums in public while the parents watch or coddle them. I’ve met skinny 18-25-year-olds who have become convinced that they have the experience and authority to train an adult man for thousands of dollars. I’ve seen young women set up tripods in public spaces and get annoyed when someone walks in front of their TikTok dance. I had 20-year-old classmates in college who told me they were writing the “next great American novel” only to find out it was another love story about vampires and werewolves.

Sure, part of this is young naivety. But take some time to ask yourself this question: doesn’t it seem like there are more delusionally self-centered people today than a decade or two decades ago?

As always, thanks for reading

-Joe