Pubdate: Thu, 16 Apr 2015
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Gordon Clark

SELF-ENTITLEMENT CARRIED TO DANGEROUS HIGHS

There is considerable evidence that narcissism is on the rise,
particularly among the young. Many studies show that greater numbers
of young people now score higher on standardized tests for narcissism
than older folks or young people a generation or two ago.

There are a variety of explanations offered up to explain the
phenomenon, but the growing consensus among psychologists is that the
rising levels of self-centredness, self-admiration and inflated
opinions of self-worth are linked to how individualistic Western
culture has become in recent decades.

If the baby boomers, now grandparents, were the "Me Generation,"
author Jean Twenge has dubbed younger members of Generation X and the
Millennials as "Generation Me" - folks who took the egotistical
character traits of the Me Generation as the starting blocks in a race
toward truly staggering levels of bloated self-importance.

Personally, I also blame the Internet and social media, which allows
everyone to be the divas of their own lives in ways never before
available to humans. While the rise of selfies and the over-sharing of
mundane details of our lives is probably pretty harmless, other online
behaviour related to narcissism is getting people hurt.

Take the online video that hit the news last week of Attish Kumar
Kalia, the young man apparently so puffed up with his own sense of
entitlement that he thought he had something to gain by the following:
a) refusing to follow the instructions of a Vancouver police sergeant
after being pulled over for suspected impaired driving, and; b)
posting a video online of his arrest on drug charges, presuming to
suggest that one officer had breached his "rights" by breaking, as a
result of his non-compliance, the window of his car while arresting
him.

Kalia, born in 1990, received sympathy from some like-minded people
who thought the officer was wrong to smash the window. Frankly, they
all need to give their heads a shake.

According to police, the vehicle displayed signs of driver impairment,
meaning he was a risk to others on the road, and there was a smell of
marijuana coming from the vehicle. As well, police have said that
Kalia was "known" to them, which could mean that the officers wanted
to be careful approaching his vehicle, especially on a dark, rainy
night. With drugs, there is always the possibility of guns and the No.
1 rule of being a police officer is returning home safely to your
loved ones at the end of your shift, not something most citizens would
deny them.

Kalia's narcissism and self-importance drips from his comments to
police in the video, where he refuses numerous lawful requests to open
his door and argues with officers on every point: "You can't
intimidate me ... I have not done anything wrong ... you do not smell
marijuana in my vehicle ... I do not give you consent."

After he's pulled from his car, he can be heard changing his tune,
telling the officers that he can possess marijuana because he's
"medically exempted ... you cannot do this!"

Later, Kalia admitted to the website Vancity Buzz that there was pot
in his car, but that he is "prescribed cannabis for medical purposes
and was licensed under the"marijuana medical-access regulations but
did not sign up because of the high cost of the legal pot. It seems
his story keeps changing. Turns out, police allegedly found a full
pound of pot in Kalia's vehicle. He's now before the courts facing a
charge of possession of a controlled substance, two counts of
possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of willfully
resisting or obstructing a peace officer.

Kalia is part of a new phenomenon of young people videotaping
themselves getting into confrontations with police and other officials
and then sharing the various reactions they provoke, usually in an
attempt to make the officers look bad. This can be enhanced by showing
only part of the exchange or editing videos in ways so that viewers
don't get the whole story. The Internet is full of videos of cyclists
doing this, in their case riding in ways that provoke drivers and then
smugly recording drivers who react badly.

LiveLeak has a new video up this week of several cyclists riding in
the middle lane on a freeway that ends with one cyclist barely
escaping death by partially going under the tires of a semi-trailer
while changing lanes without looking. These guys should trade in their
self-entitlement for better self-preservation.

Kalia called himself Bodhi Sattva in his video. "Bodhisattva" is a
Buddhist term for a regular person who lives his or her life in a way
"that moves in the direction of Buddha," according to the Buddhist
magazine, Tricycle. Pretty ironic. Kalia seems more about entitlement
than enlightenment.

Oh, and don't worry about his broken window. He no longer owns the
car. It was seized as a proceed of crime. People should, of course,
stand up for their rights, but that doesn't mean refusing to comply
with a cop. Take it up with them later. They have rights - and an
obligation to do their jobs - too.
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MAP posted-by: Matt