QUESTION:

Is ego a dirty word?

I grew up with this 'local band'. I met a couple of them through friends in the industry. This song was my favourite- I guess, again, the 70's being the most 'formative' years for me. When I first too, seriously contemplated such things as the above.

Ego in Greek is simply "I". Me. "Ego am going to get some bread." "Ego don't want to eat that." There is NO distinction in Greek between self and 'ego'. Where English has stuffed up- it has given the word 'ego' the meaning of the subsequent Greek word for a condition arising from the first word: "Egoismos" or egoism. So ego, therefore = egoism, translated into English. So I (individual I) am therefore - when literally translated - an egoist.

There's no word in Greek for "egotist" either. Egoism "is preoccupation with oneself, but not necessarily feeling superior to others." That's how the Greeks think of it: "He's an egoist, he only thinks of himself."

Egotism on the other hand- is an "outward-directed inflated sense of one's importance." I have no idea where that word came from. (It's all Greek to me?) But that translates to: "He is an egotist. He thinks he's superior to everyone else."

Egoism/egotism may perhaps be dirty words- that's for minds greater than mine to contemplate. Ego, however, is not. Ego is simple. It is you, any moment of any time you are breathing. Without ego, yes, there'd be no you- because it bloody IS you!

You are ego. I am ego. We are all just a bunch of egos. (Note how derogatory this sounds? What images it conjures? A bunch of egoists, right?)

Yet, they say too, "You need a healthy dose of ego." So some ego is good. It's healthy. But not too much.

You see the problem? Substitute the word for its given equivalent: egotism. You therefore apparently need a healthy dose of egotism in English. It's good for you.

But if translated by a Greek or as a Greek without the substitution? "You need a healthy dose of you."

"Whaaaaaaat?"

Your thoughts on ego?