Thinking you are special allows people to get to thinking that they are at least like domesticated animals like pets:

 Then if you can see yourself as like a pet or something then people can be religious (or have religions enslave them in one way or another).

However, all this is really tricky in reality simply because though religions keep us from killing those within our own religion they also cause us to kill people in different religions than our own.

So, the "Thinking you are Special" is a two edged sword in many ways.

As an adult it's more useful to me personally to view all trees and animals and the earth itself as one with me where I'm not separate from the Earth in any way or separate from the heavens in any way.

And sometimes thinking you are special can only kill other people that you deem less special than you.

Our government is presently functioning a lot like that where anyone not exactly like them will die quickly or soon from various different things.