Admiration issues.

[Jaded Sage]

Socrates!

[Harbal]

Socrates!

Now all becomes clear.

[Jaded Sage]

Who could be better than Socrates?!

[Harbal]

Who could be better than Socrates?!

Better at what?

[Jaded Sage]

Right there. For anyone with eyes to see. Intellect is not everything. There is something crooked about you that intellect could not save.

[Walker]

People who want to be admired often try to ingratiate.

Who is the stronger and the more powerful: the admirer or the admiree ?

I get power over people who like to be admired and so can manipulate them if I want.

Well you know what they say ... Love knows no shame, so who can predict the implications of life lovers, seeing as how admiration is a relative of love, at least when you think about it and consider the meaning of the words.

[Walker]

What is Woody Allen´s score ? 3 ?

And some do admire his awkwardness because they can identify with him and because he has become rich nonwithstanding.

There is also some fake stuttering among certain Americans, they want to trigger the instinct of sympathy and caring, I suppose.
They want some strong and rich woman to press them to her bosom ...

True enough.

An affliction to be viewed with compassion, for sure.

For an example of going off script and attempting to say something worth hearing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyW9e5QdWxk

[vegetariantaxidermy]

I'm a fan of the saying that what others think of you is none of your business. A person who gets upset when they are not admired is a person who's going to spend a lot of time being upset.

Besides, we tend to be too caught up admiring our own brilliance to care much about what a bunch of 'tards think of us

That works in this end but not in the other, I think. If you do something that annoys people you bloody well want to know about it, so you can correct it, or continue to do the stuff and irritate people in a way you control yourselt. Don't you agree?

Once I would have said yes. All those decades worrying about the fact that I was pissing people off without knowing what I did. Day after day of concern over faux pas and faulty display behaviour. A couple of years ago something clicked inside of me. I think it was a combination of my elder sister and father dying in quick succession, subsequent retirement and soon afterwards a peak experience.

I became less interested in what others thought of me and found my prior efforts to impress others or gain their approval to be embarrassing. I increasingly disconnected from the world of social norms and rediscovered my youthful fascination with nature, space and existentialism.

Soon we'll all be in a box anyway, so people can think what they will for all it matters. If I approach my transactions in good faith then I am satisfied. Those who reject me for being myself will be better off without me in their lives, and me without them. That's a win/win so I don't need to change anything. That's the luxury of getting older. Given how our ageing bodies give us so much gyp, there has to be some benefits. One benefit is the relative freedom from the tyranny of public opinion.

A lovely post Greta. Caring too much about what others think, including those who don't matter a damn, is a crippling affliction. As with everything there has to be balance. Care too little and you are either an arrogant arsehole, a young baby, or someone with advanced dementia. Care too much and you become a neurotic basket case.

[Greta]

A lovely post Greta. Caring too much about what others think, including those who don't matter a damn, is a crippling affliction. As with everything there has to be balance. Care too little and you are either an arrogant arsehole, a young baby, or someone with advanced dementia. Care too much and you become a neurotic basket case.

Yes, I've usually tended towards the latter. Sorry to dudzek for straying from the topic somewhat, speaking more generally than just the heroic-man-needing-his-ego-stroked meme (or the beautiful woman, for that matter).

In the end we all struggle to some extent for authenticity in the face of a judgemental culture that tends to focus on image. Ride the wave and you have internal stresses caused by not being true to yourself. Strive to be authentic and you must deal with external pressures. Either way there's some pressure.

[duszek]

At the moment I find the costume of a snoozing crocodile a good one:

During a gathering like a discussion or a literary circle you sit quietly and because of your short-sightedness you cannot see the features of the people about 2 meters away from you.
So you kind of meditate and are present without stirring attention or provoking aggression.

You let ferrets perform while you just snooze peacefully. Sometimes you notice that some of the ferrets turn to look at you. Perhaps someone important gave you a glance and you did not see it. So you preserve a "cool" look by mistake.
You notice the body language and the atmosphere.

It occurs to you that some people might think that you are under drugs or seditives and this makes you smile. Your amused look intrigues the ferrets because they miss something that way.

You notice when a person changes the position of a big object in order to have you in full view.
Things like this.

Most things and often the best ones happen to happen in our imagination anyway.

[duszek]

People who need admiration are weak because dependent on other people giving it to them.

Are narcissistic people weak then ?

[Greta]

People who need admiration are weak because dependent on other people giving it to them.

Are narcissistic people weak then ?

Not necessarily. They might be strong in many ways, but their narcissism is a weakness that can potentially slow or stunt their personal growth.

[duszek]

Is it particularly difficult to admire a narcissistic person ?
I think it is.

He is a kind of sucker or a kind of vampire even and therefore repulsive.

We prefer to offer our admiration as an unexpected gift to those who don´t expect it and who are surprised by it.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

He is a kind of sucker or a kind of vampire even and therefore repulsive.

Very vivid and apt description. Love it. Narcissists are all but impossible to love but they don't care because they are in love with themselves anyway.

[duszek]

Do they have a big ego or a very small one ?