Is ego a problem?

We ordinarily think of our ego, our egotistical selves, as being some kind of character defect.  So we pretend to apologize for it, and sometimes we try to hide it.  But what if there's a completely different way of looking at ego that helps to explain why people behave the way they do?  What if you could step back and see everything that's happening in this election season as the behavior of some global "Thing" that we're all swimming in?  So you have ego... don't take it so personally!