Endless Self-Promotion and the Tyranny of Opinion

In a world in which everyone competes for attention, the person with all the power, is the one who gives attention -- for that is what everyone is competing for.  However, if one is merely one of the many competing for attention, they are already lost -- and have no idea what they are doing -- because they are just doing what everybody else is doing, and running with the crowd.

Their explanation for their behavior, is that is what everybody else is doing -- so why shouldn't they?  And each pushes the boundaries, until they all begin to fall off the cliff -- and there is no turning back.  Each thinks to outdo the other -- thinking there is no end.  That is most obvious in conspicuous consumption but also true in most aspects of behaviors and activities -- that the frenzy goes on forever, and there is no turning point and return to balance -- until it happens.

Thus the wise, have always advised moderation in all things, never knowing for certain, when the pendulum will swing -- in its own mysterious timing.  That's never stopped anyone from trying to be ahead of the curve -- while countless others will be in denial, all the while it is happening.  So one can never be too certain of what they think is happening, and which way the wind is blowing -- because it may have changed, during the time one was making plans for eternity.

For a few, those are visions of enshrining themselves at the top of their favorite charity and cause --themselves.  They will stop at nothing that stands in their way of self-aggrandizement.  Neither shame nor embarrassment will deter nor discourage them.  They are tone-deaf; they don't want to hear anything other than what they want to believe. They will go to their grave with those convictions -- because they feel life is not worth living any other way -- and are willing to take as many as they can down with them in that final blaze of glory.

It should not be so.  Nobody should be so deluded, desperate and starved for attention and validation from the opinion of others -- they think have no other reason for being but to sustain them in that way.  Invariably, it is just a figment of their imagination.  Nobody cares -- as well they shouldn't.  They should be too busy caring for themselves.  That is the key to personal responsibility and accountability.  That is the first and last line of defense.  Lacking that, ruthlessness thrives -- as everyone tries to see what they can get away with.

So it is thought that only opinions (polls) matter -- and what one can do to manipulate them -- even if one has to do it themselves.  Many lives are now dedicated to those ends.  That's no longer the exclusive province of "Madison Avenue," and the mainstream media to tell everyone what to think -- because  they themselves, are scrambling for their own lives.  So how to know what to believe?  One can no longer believe -- but has to find out, for themselves, as best one can -- and go with it as far as it will take them.  But they have to question all their premises and assumptions -- and take nothing for granted.  Otherwise, they are lost. -- and have no idea what they are talking about.

That is the new world of uncertainty -- in which one is only as good as one can find out, and have to do it for themselves.  But everyone has the tools -- if they want to avail themselves of them.  That's become the inequality in the world -- the great differentiator:  Those who really want to find out the truth of any matter, and those who would prefer others do all their thinking for them.  The former is to live an authentic life -- while the other couldn't tell the difference if their lives depended on it.

Different Manifestations of the Same Problem (Cause)

Occasionally we are overwhelmed by seemingly many problems -- when often, it is just one, with many different faces (manifestations) -- so if we get to the root of the problem, the many seemingly different problems, go away, without addressing each specific issue, as a problem all its own.  Of course that is not the most lucrative way to think of these problems -- for a person selling "solutions."  

They would prefer to have as many different problems -- as well as their respective cures (solutions) as possible -- to maximize sales, and following that logic, prefer solutions that create even more problems.  And that, often, is the conundrum of offering real solutions -- rather than simply multiplying the economic opportunities and activities.  It virtually eliminates the steady stream of income from repeat customers, who've come to believe that these chronic, lingering problems -- must be lifelong and inescapable, rather than the thought that life could be very different -- once they've gotten to the root of their problems.

The most common of course, is the belief that their lives would be better, if they only had more money -- when a review of lottery winners and others receiving windfalls, merely speeds their self-destruction -- because they now have more money to lose, and they never bothered to learn to manage whatever resources they have, as wisely as possible.  And that more than how much anyone has, is what distinguishes the rich from the poor.  

The poor think they simply have more money to waste -- to spend frivolously and thoughtlessly, on every sort of entertainment and dissipation -- because that is what they think rich people do.  Among such people, such self-destructive activities is their objective -- until it is no longer possible -- because they have spent all their money, or their health gives out first.  Some even pride themselves on the cars they have wrecked -- driving fast and "under the influence" -- of the alcohol and drugs they have gleefully consumed -- even posting it daily on their social media pages for all to witness.

It never occurs to them, that it gives a negative impression of who they are -- and think is so important in life.  And then in reviewing all their posts, one realizes their entire lives is nothing but this celebration of the trivial and self-destructive, and everybody else should hop aboard this bandwagon of headlong self-destruction.  Such ends are always predictable -- and usually tragic, but it's not like there were no warning signs and red flags flying furiously -- with no desire to alter their course.

Invariably, these people also desire to become rich and famous -- while never sustaining an interest in improving their skill at anything that would merit renown.  They think that the spotlight merely must shine on them, and then it will reveal the talents and abilities, they've never thought to develop -- and if they did, becoming rich and famous would be left to those who think erroneously to get anywhere by placing the cart before the horse -- as they think that nothing is related to anything else, and there is no cause and effect, but everyone without exception, lives in a world of random outcomes -- and that good and bad, just happens, no matter what one does.

That is still a worldview -- largely promoted by those to whom the objective of economic activities, is to find the greater fool they can exploit -- as the supreme achievement of every existence, and that there is nothing beyond.  Such thought processes are especially prevalent among the criminal and forlorn -- swinging wildly from fits of mania to depression -- while never thinking that control, is what they must master -- as the meaning and purpose of their own lives.

Yet well-intentioned and well-meaning people, will encourage and enable such self-destructive behaviors in others -- as what gives them meaning in their own lives, in the solace that there are others more lost than they are, and even dependent on their approbation.  That's how the world, quickly spirals out of control -- as all its energies and resources, are diverted to enabling all the problems of the world, and never its solutions.

They're even self-designated as the defenders of the status quo -- by which they place themselves at the top of the social hierarchy, while the rest of life passes them by -- grateful there is something to occupy them to keep out of the way.  That is -- until they become too numerous to ignore, and it is time to repurpose such lives or they become too great a drag on societies -- to merely undo all those activities that are undermining human civilization and progress.

Otherwise, the problem of the homeless and hopeless, eventually overwhelm communities -- because they lack the basic skills to live their lives better -- which should be the objective of primary education, even more than academic proficiencies that merely differentiates and eliminates the less able from the most.  Because that is what it comes down to as the great challenge of these times -- how each manages their daily lives, and not that we all have to be Einsteins.  Those people just naturally distinguish themselves -- because they can't be anything else but who they are.  That's why there are these stunning child prodigies -- who are just gifted from birth, and not the result of years of training and practice.

We don't need to identify those people.  We need to identify the basic skills in life that give everybody an equal chance at success -- in managing their own lives, and taking care of themselves -- so that society doesn't have to divert increasing resources, to take care of them.  That's not an efficient way of providing for most -- that a few, and eventually most, have to take care of a few -- who are hellbent on their own destruction, for lack of a better thing to do -- because they never receive those basics.  Then once each is capable of providing for themselves in that essential way -- they can pursue their own unique talents and abilities, and not that we need more funding and caregivers -- for taking care of an increasing population of people incapable of doing so for themselves.

The presumption is that most will make those choices intelligently -- when they don't know how, and never saw it done by those around them -- growing up.  They were confused by the meaninglessness of all the activities with seemingly no good purpose -- even promoted by well-intentioned and well-meaning people who had no idea of what they were doing except to pass on their own training (understanding) -- without thinking, does it make sense?  That never enters their mind -- that is simply the tradition they were taught, and continue, and the busier they are at doing so, the less thought they give it -- even if it is not working!

It may never occur to them that it could have a greater meaning and purpose -- than simply to do what they have to do earn a paycheck, and rise higher to earn a bigger paycheck.  Or buy a bigger house -- whether they actually require one or not.  And so the first thing most do on receiving a raise, is to go out and buy a new car -- for lack of anything better to do with the money, or, that is what everybody else is doing.

Only a rare few think to defer their spending and accumulate wealth -- for a really compelling reason -- rather than blow it as soon as they get it, in the many thoughtless ways now possible -- and then return to await for "more."  Of course people operating in this manner will never have enough -- but that is not the root of their problem.  They were taught that one could always get more -- and not that one becomes rich by making the best of whatever they have -- the multiplier effect.  It is not merely enough to think that "one gets what they pay for" -- but that the difference can be substantial -- for the same money.  The challenge is to obtain maximum value -- while also providing maximum value so that one can continue to trade on those terms.

That is quite different from just trying to get over the other so that the other will have nothing to do with them henceforth, and burns all the bridges as one goes through life -- thinking that is the wisdom of the world -- that only they are privy to, as self-appointed guardians of the collective intelligence.  That is the root of most human ills.