I wouldn't argue ego, individualism, narcissism are anything new, so much as they are one pole of a spectrum, where individuals, as well as groups, get wrapped up in a particular mind set. We are nodes in a network. Each of us is also the center of our view of the entire universe. With enough geometry, we could create a self centric model of reality, like epicycles were a geocentric model of the cosmos, because it's the reality we live.

It's more a matter that if you are able to actually look outside your particular bubble, that you start to sense and understand all the connections and feedback going on.

The problem with making it all about the self, is it creates a feedback loop, where we do spiral into our own particular rabbit hole.

Then when we have an entire society where everyone is all about the preening, because that's what it looks like from outside the bubble, it really is a social necrosis. No larger social body, just a bunch of parasites crawling around and grabbing what they want.

We function as multi celled bodies, just as a society is a multicellular entity.

Don''t you ever get the sense that in your mind, it really isn't just the one surface voice? That there is a whole collection of opinions and voices, if we just sit back, but when it centralizes, they all work in harmony.

The gut and the head, for instance.

Though if the crowd/herd is doing something totally idiotic, being a lone voice has its benefits, even if only to one's self. Aka, maintaining one's sanity.