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Global Advances's avatar

A few thoughts.

Being susceptible to Power and influence from others is a thing that we all must grow out of. It starts naturally with parents and teachers. No big deal, but hopefully we don't thrash around too much about it. The networked society grows, but is that really OUR society. When studying ancient communities, Robin Dunbar came up with 150, about the maximum number of people you could have a relationship with. After that, you can't hold it all together. Well, in animal groupings too, depending on their brain size. Sure, nowadays you may have more than 150 "subscribers", but how deep can those relationships be?

Selected by Ambition

There's a way how to select who is allowed to manage; (then you list a few by force), but still, some people have the urge to rise to leadership and some don't. To find a way to be "selected", credentials are how they find their way in. This includes our professed modern ideals; we're not even sure, just trying on the different costumes. Or our mentors and role models might point us in one direction. One’s ancestry and origins are turned into credentials in the "old world". With the novo-rich, money is enough.

We all curate our life story, and especially to ourselves. Ambition is good, but not if it is ambition through any means, by climbing over others.

You mention the "gatekeepers", that is a wonderment?

The victim mentality and self-flagellating you see in public speech can be a disguise. Or it gets votes from other victims. But more dangerously, we may believe our own words if we say them often enough, and then we denigrate ourselves for real. In our own mind we become disempowered.

The last part: what is security for the future? Even the Jet-Set goes bankrupt. The more you have, the more you consume, or place your bets, and speculate. Speculation means ride on the back of the trends. Is there really the impartial force of the "market", and neutral investor confidence? Or is it just the manipulation of the hedge funds. Can the trends move sharply?

If you have developed a broad outlook and built up your own agency, you'll probably be ready for anything. Well, that's the goal. If your bank goes under and locks its doors, what will you do? I don't say plan for that, but work with personal empowerment, and build confidence with a chain of successes. Small or large, doesn't matter.

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Dan...'s avatar

Denying what is is the best (self-)manipulation tool. Once you believe in what you deny, the way back is almost like impossible. To make sure that the return is guaranteed impossible, one has to deny what is real, ever-present and part of the natural being.

Like the body. Denying the body is easiest because it is visible all the time, everybody has it, and everybody’s body is exactly the same as one’s own. Once this denial - in stark opposition to the perceived objective reality - succeeds, the soul is trapped.

Or the mind. Denying the mind is easiest because it is invisible and actually does not exist. And everybody’s mind is different. Objectifying it and developing complex theories about it - despite its non-existence - is a great way to trap the soul in a different way.

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