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Superiority Complex - The Atlantic

theatlantic.com · 1,830 words · saved by 1 readers

We have democratized elitism in this country. Now everybody can be a snob

"Know thyself," the Greek sage advised. But of course this is nonsense. Truly happy people live by the maxim "Overrate thyself." They are raised by loving parents who slather them with praise. They stride through life with a confidence built on an amazing overestimation of their own abilities. And they settle into an old age made comfortable by the warm glow of self-satisfaction. Each of these people is a god of self-esteem, dwelling on a private Olympus. Imagine two of these gods meeting at a nursery-school parents' social. She is an anthropologist at a community college and chairs the local

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