According to a recent Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey, 93% of Americans view themselves in a positive light. Concurrently, only 1% of Americans view themselves negatively.[1]
Dean Debnam, the president of PPP, had this to say: “Americans have a very high opinion of themselves. You can either argue that we’re a psychologically healthy nation … or you can argue that we’re an arrogant one. Either interpretation fits the numbers.”
Incidentally, 91% of Americans have a positive view of Abraham Lincoln while only 90% have a favorable view of Jesus. This of course leads to the conclusion:
[1] http://www.christianpost.com/news/jesus-second-most-popular-person-in-america-poll-finds-63140/
It’s funny, because it’s the complete opposite of what it should be…
While I often love “gallows humor,” some things are just too dark for even me. And this is one of those things. I see no humor here, just a sick, obsession with our own “awesomeness!”
If 93% of Americans held themselves in a negative light, it would say just as much of our own narcissism. The question surveyed, seems to me, to be setting up for a particular answer: that is, that we are self-centered. Maybe if the question were “Do you consider yourself greater than Jesus?”, the results would be less disturbing.
I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one, Zac. Narcissism, by definition, is an over-inflated sense of self-love or self-admiration to the detriment of one’s ability to realistically engage in society. While I would agree that it might be equally disturbing to hear that 93% of Americans held a negative view of themselves, that is an entirely different problem with an entirely different set of contributing factors.
Consider, too, this self-evaluation in light of how people tend to view others. Everyone seems to think that they are great while the world around them is full of reckless, self-indulgent, immoral idiots. This tells us that there is a gap between how we perceive ourselves and how others perceive us.