Our childhood has a large effect on our lives, meaning that the way we are brought up and the environment we are brought up in, influence who we become. Like it or not, we are forever tethered to the past, whether we use it as a model of how to be, or as a model of how not to be. Our childhood anchors us, and the rest of our lives becomes a response to those experiences. Even when we become adults and have new experiences, random experiences that aren't connected directly to our childhood, our understanding and response to the event will still be coloured by our past.
It is inescapable.
So what happens when are raised in a culture of corruption and tyranny? What happens when our parents were also raised in the same system of corruption and tyranny? This would mean that we are influenced by our environment, and even if our parents want the best for us, their approach is also influenced by the environment in which they were raised and live today. And unfortunately, the response to corruption and tyranny isn't usually to become the opposite, it is to move toward the mean, the average.
A position of corruption and tyranny that becomes justified because that is the system, that is the way that is known, that is the way others have got ahead, that is the easiest way. The position might not be as extreme as those at the top, but it is there still, where individuals will perform low-grade corruption and tyranny, by following in the footsteps of those above, those who have led the way.
Leaders should be unimpeachable.
Unimpeachable
/ˌʌnɪmˈpiːtʃəbl/
adjective
not able to be doubted, questioned, or criticized; entirely trustworthy.
But that is not who we have chosen throughout history. We do not choose good people, we choose people who we think can get us what we want. So is it any wonder that those in power are corrupt and tyrannical? Is it any wonder that the politicians, business leaders and celebrities we have supported end up on a paedo island? We support ruthlessness and violence, we support egomaniacs and psychopaths, we support those who have the things we want.
We pretend that we want peace, equality and improvement, but that is not the way we behave. We pretend that we want to be surrounded by kind, thoughtful, conscientious people, but that is not who we are attracted to. We pretend that we care about others, the environment, and betterment, but we keep choosing to consume contrarily. We keep empowering the people we say we don't want, to create a society that we say we don't want, and support a culture we say we don't want.
We have the tyranny, because we support the tyrants.
We are even breeding tyrants in our own home now, as we have a culture of individual maximisation, and childhood coddling. Generations of increasingly spoiled children who grow to make the decisions to support those who they think will get them what they want, even if it means destroying the fabric of what holds us together as a species. We are at an all time high of individualism, but there will be higher highs to come, as wealth and opportunity, health and mental wellness gaps keep growing. The 99% will keep degrading faster than the 1%.
The gap used to be about positive growth, but now it has perhaps shifted into a state of who can decline the least. Improvement is no longer the aim, it is just about surviving by outlasting the rest. At least, this is the case for the many, as just like the tyrants above, we try to play their game to improvement, but there is only room for a few to succeed along that path. Yet, we keep using those who have led us down this path of degradation as role models of how we should act. Do what they do, and get what they have. But it doesn't scale like that and instead, just keeps enriching them, keeps that gap building, and the reduction in wellbeing and opportunity declining.
Instead of looking for role models to follow, we should be being the type of person that could be a role model. We shouldn't aspire to be like others, but act to be inspiring. And it doesn't take being a business leader or politician, a sports star or celebrity to be someone inspiring. All it takes, is action.
It doesn't mean anyone else is inspired.
But does that matter? Is impressing others the only reason we exist? Is that our driving force? Or should our driving force be an internal expression, externalised? Like the thoughts of an artist put onto a canvas for the whole world to see - even if they choose not to look.
Attention seeking is the desire of the tyrant. The tyrants want eyes on them, resources spent on them, admiration provided to them. They demand to be bowed down to, no matter if it is out of love, or fear. The only thing that matters is having their personal desires satisfied, no matter the process or cost. They are motivated by their belief that they as an individual are more important than all other individuals.
And we create them.
It is our behaviour that allows for an individual to get what they want, to become a tyrant and a dictator. It is our culture and society that condition them, enable them, and support them to grow from infant to adult, believing that they can do anything, that they are self-made, that the most important thing is to satisfy themselves.
And we mimic them.
We build ourselves from their image. They become our role model for how to behave and we set out on our own journey of individualised tyranny, demanding what we want, when we want it, no matter what impact it has on those around us. Mini-tyrants, in a world of mini-tyrants, all jostling for attention and fulfilment of what we desire, on a journey of always wanting more, and doing less for it. Maximising our gains, whilst minimising what we are giving back.
Like any corporation or government does.
And we will use any means necessary, align with any other force, if we believe it can further our cause. With our cause being, satisfying ourselves. What I believe in. What I find important. What I want. Communities are no longer built to succeed as a group, they are transactional arrangements for individuals to influence and corrupt toward their own purpose. Very few are able to do it at scale, but all do it.
Eight billion tyrants.
And that is the world we have created thus far, and the one we have been conditioned to develop. A world where we are destroying ourselves as a species and as individuals, under the belief that what each of us desires, is more important than what we collectively need.
That is the house we have built, and the bed within we lay upon.
Taraz
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