More than ever we are seeing the rise of factions and entities that thrive off of the collective ignorance of the good nature of well meaning humans. It may be for monetary gain, for social recognition, or both, however it is important to recognize and realize that these are perhaps some of the greatest threats that permeate the comforts that we attempt to enjoy on a regular basis. When in the business of befriending someone in hopes that positive and forward thinking will emerge in greater concentration, it is of the utmost importance to only engage with people who establish trust with you without question from the beginning. How might we go about vetting these people in a world where selfish interests take front seat and where the genuinely good and kind are often lost in the shuffle? Through perseverance and relentless movement. It take a very long time to find genuine honest, almost an entire lifetime in some cases. But the reward and payoff cannot be stated enough. Surrounding yourself with a team that motivates you to better yourself is key as you will never want to be the person slacking behind. Even if you only have a close crew of 2 or 3 people, you can still have just as much satisfaction as a celebrity that is constantly surrounded by admiration from millions of people. The illusion that has been cast is that honesty and integrity are unobtainable and absent in those that surround us, but looking without pessimism and cynicism is key. Look at it like a necessary path to your inevitable destiny and always leave your door open for the good people to walk in.
To what ends do people go to in trying to find people they can exploit for selfish gains? The answer is that the reward for the selfish person is akin to a high potency drug. It creates an illusion so real that the person seeks it out as if a drug user who has been neglected his daily dose for a week. The selfish person will seek to find any source of vulnerability within the the good nature of an open individual. This is why it is paramount to be a person who is both open, yet fortified. Using sensationalism to overload the senses of a person who is looking at something in a pure nature is a prime example of a way that an innocent one could be compromised, whether it be in the form of imagery, sound or both. Who is it that decides when to surrender power? It certainly isn't the person who demands it, for the contents of a strangers mind are forever locked in a monadic paradise free from intruders of their consciousness. But it is the conscious person themselves that must surrender to the knocking ones at their doors in order for them to gain entrance, and here is a secret. If you create a world in which another will want to enter, you create a paradise that entices another's residency. There is no need to respect the boundaries that exist between the two, and rightfully so. Instead, through the surrender of critical faculties and in the pursuit of finding pleasure to satiate ones deepest desires (often temporary), the selfish one places a worm on a hook to appeal only long enough to capture the prey as it knows the prey has no thought for the morrow, only satisfying itself for a few moments of bliss. Here is the need for logic and reason in the current age, because temporary appeal is the worm, and shortening the attention span is the method of attack. Viewing things from a distance, being the quieter one, and being the one willing to risk the death of one's ego are the surefire methods that make men and women truly great and eternal while the hypergiant stars burn their fuel first and fade into the abyss of eternity that is the age of the universe itself.