Not just a proxy for the temporary winner in the jostle for dominance over attention, the ego is also the inheritor of disidentification, it is an attitude of rueful detachment towards itself and its works. It is a dirty job, being spokesperson for so many contradictory agendas, yay-saying, nay-saying and general disdain, but someone has to do it and that faceless one is made for the task. If you want to argue with it it has you before you've got under way, there's no getting around it on its turf. What is interest is the how of it, what makes the role possible. It is profligate with self-awareness, but does it really need it to carry on the way it does, and does awareness really need it? Surely it's tired of so much shaping?