THE EGO OF THE POWERS THAT BE
The Truth About Power, Wealth, and the People Who Make It Possible
An Awareness Perspective | Inkfluence of Art
There are those in our society who have developed an ego around their monetized societal positions, believing that because they have gained more money, affluence, authority, or influence than others, they have somehow become superior to the rest of us.
But perhaps they need to be reminded of how they got there in the first place.
The only reason many of these people are where they are today is because other people elected them, hired them, promoted them, supported them, or gave them their money, time, labour, and trust.
Others became successful because they were better at obtaining money, information, opportunities, or resources from other people.
Yet somewhere along the way, some began to believe that their success made them more important than the very people who made that success possible.
In fact, they should recognize the truth of a monetized society and be a little more humble and grateful for the success they have achieved through the contributions and sacrifices of others.
The Manipulation of Success
In order to become truly wealthy within this system, particularly as a rich industrialist or someone in a position of leadership, one must often be exceptionally good at influencing people.
Whether that means persuading people to like them more than others, convincing people to elect them, encouraging people to invest in them, or persuading people to give them more than they give someone else, success is frequently built upon the ability to influence the decisions of others.
And when influence becomes manipulation, we need to question the morality of that success.
For a product or service to become part of a great economy, it must first be needed or wanted by the general population.
The hardworking people.
The people who sacrifice portions of their earned incomes to purchase the products and services that make industrialists wealthy.
Without those people, where would the wealth come from?
The success of the wealthy is not simply a reflection of their own abilities. It is also a reflection of how many other people have decided that what they offer is worth sacrificing some of their own earnings to obtain.
The rich do not become rich without the participation of others.
And while there is nothing inherently wrong with financial success, there is something deeply concerning about those who develop such an inflated ego around their wealth and authority that they begin to believe they are superior to the people supporting them.
When wealth and power become a person's entire identity, and they lose the ability to remain humble, grateful, and empathetic, that ego can develop into an unhealthy obsession with status, control, and superiority.
Perhaps this is where the real illness of a monetized society begins: not in having wealth, but in believing wealth makes one human being worth more than another.
The People Are the Economy
Consider this.
If the general public did not continually spend their hard-earned money on the products and services of wealthy industrialists, those industrialists would not continue accumulating the same levels of wealth.
And the people themselves would retain more of their earnings.
Perhaps they would not all become rich, but they would have more of their own money, more choices, and greater independence over how their labour benefits their lives.
We have created an economy in which the majority work to earn money, only to return much of that money to the industries that have already accumulated the greatest wealth.
And then we are expected to admire those who have accumulated it.
We call them successful.
We call them powerful.
We call them leaders.
But how often do we stop to recognize the people whose purchases, labour, sacrifices, and needs made that success possible?
Without the people, there is no great economy. Without their participation, there is no great industrial wealth.
The people are not beneath the economy.
The people ARE the economy.
Governments: Elected to Serve, Not Rule
Now let us consider government.
Governments are elected by the people.
It takes a great deal of money, persuasion, campaigning, and public support to become the one chosen out of many.
And although this may appear to give an elected official great power, the truth is that the only reason they have that position and receive a paycheque is because the hardworking general population has agreed to fund a system of public governance.
Through taxation, people contribute portions of their earned incomes to establish and maintain the positions, services, and institutions necessary to operate our cities, communities, provinces, and countries.
Why?
Because people have collectively decided that it is more practical to elect representatives and employ public servants than to have every individual independently manage all the responsibilities necessary to maintain a functioning society.
We created these positions for a purpose.
They were elected to serve and protect the interests of the people, not to develop an ego of superiority over them.
Government is not a personal achievement that grants ownership over the population.
It is a public responsibility.
A position entrusted to an individual by other people who expect their needs, rights, resources, and communities to be respected.
And when that responsibility is forgotten, when elected officials begin to see themselves as rulers rather than representatives, the people have every reason to question whether the system is still serving its intended purpose.
When the Greed of Power Outgrows the Needs of the People
Should there come a day when the people recognize that the greed of power, industry, and governance has grown greater than the needs of the population, they may begin to question the entire arrangement.
They may decide that continually sacrificing their incomes to support increasingly wealthy industries and powerful institutions is no longer in their best interests.
And perhaps they will begin to pull back.
Not necessarily from society, but from their dependence on the monetized systems that have come to dominate it.
What if people began to recognize the value of their own abilities?
What if they began to build, grow, repair, produce, and provide for themselves and one another?
What if they decided that instead of continually working to earn money to purchase everything they need, they could exchange their own skills, resources, and labour with others?
A carpenter could build.
A farmer could grow.
An artist could create.
A mechanic could repair.
A teacher could educate.
A caregiver could provide care.
Each person contributing something of value, not because a wealthy industrialist determined its monetary worth, but because another human being recognized its usefulness.
Instead of building an economy around the endless accumulation of money, communities could begin building reserves of supplies, materials, food, tools, and practical resources.
Things they could use, share, exchange, and barter for the other things people need.
An economy of human abilities rather than one dominated by monetary influence.
A society in which people recognize that their skills, knowledge, and labour already have value, even before someone else attaches a price tag to them.
This would not eliminate every need for organized governance, industry, or trade. But it could change the balance of dependence and remind those in positions of power that the people have abilities and choices of their own.
The Patriarchal Industrial Solution
For generations, industrial leadership has been built around the expansion of production, profit, monetary influence, and economic control.
What I refer to here as the industrial Patriarchal solution is a system of leadership that places industrial development and financial success at the centre of societal progress.
But what happens when that progress no longer serves the people it was supposed to benefit?
What happens when the cost of living continues to consume the incomes of hardworking people, while the wealth and influence of those at the top continue to grow?
What happens when the people who produce, purchase, maintain, and support the economy can no longer afford to participate in it?
At what point does industrial success become a failure of human responsibility?
There must be a balance between the development of industry and the protection of human needs.
Industry should serve humanity, not demand that humanity exist only to serve industry.
And leadership should recognize that the people are not simply consumers, taxpayers, employees, or voters.
They are human beings whose lives, labour, intelligence, creativity, and abilities make society possible.
The Ego of the Powers That Be
Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding among those who have accumulated enormous wealth and power is the belief that they have accomplished it all on their own.
They have forgotten the voters.
The workers.
The customers.
The taxpayers.
The families.
The communities.
And all the people who sacrificed something of their own to make that success possible.
Success should bring gratitude, not superiority.
Leadership should bring responsibility, not entitlement.
Wealth should bring humility, not the belief that money makes one human being more valuable than another.
Because the people who helped create those positions of wealth and authority also have the ability to reconsider how much of their lives, labour, and resources they are willing to contribute to maintaining them.
And should the day come when the greed of the rich has outgrown the needs of the people, and the people are done being servants to wealthy industrial powers and the Patriarchal solutions that dominate their lives, they may begin to recognize something extraordinary.
They were never without value.
They were never without abilities.
They were never without power.
They simply became dependent upon a system that convinced them their own value had to be measured in money.
And when they begin to reclaim their abilities, build their own resources, exchange their own skills, and recognize the value of one another, they may no longer need to depend so heavily upon the wealth and authority of others.
They will be self-made.
And perhaps then, the Powers That Be will finally recognize who gave them their power in the first place.
The People.
Inkfluence of Art | Awareness Through Independent Thought
#INK — No One Left Behind