The American Dream.
That concept that any man or woman has the ability to rise above their means and become billionaires (albeit the overwhelming literal evidence and history that shows this wealth comes from family and those before them helping them get there).
I recently had a debate that to be a billionaire one must step on and abuse employees in order to get there. I disagreed and now I see just how naive I was.
The thing we must realize is that business is sociopathic in its very nature. It does not feel. It works only for a means to an end and that end is a production of wealth usually for only select few if not one individual at its highest peak of the pyramid.
Therefore there is a historical damnation of the working class being exploited by this sociopathic nature and individuals.
It is difficult for non-sociopaths to truly grasp sociopathic behavior.
Sociopaths or sociopathic nature does not or rarely ever will have feelings. Unless behavior comes from trauma or learned behavior later in life but many are born without and in the case of work and/or Capitalism, it’s very nature is WITHOUT feelings.
They do not feel.
It is very hard concept to grasp if you have feelings as I suspect most in this sub do. It isn’t something you can just turn off or fully grasp because your very existence is built on emotions and feelings. The words we use are loaded with it. As I will argue with the word “care” later on.
Whereas you or me may make decisions on being happy, finding peace, or any other emotional feeling state or word, they live by stimulus.
Stimulus alone.
Cold, factual. Stimulus.
Is it stimulating or not?
That is why there has always been a disconnect with “finding happiness in work” or “money bringing happiness.”
Many look for feelings associated with this concept and with capitalism but it’s very foundation is to produce wealth not feelings.
Yes, That wealth can provide stimulus and often many associate (I would argue wrongly) that that stimulus is a feeling or emotion. But this is wrong. That stimulus CAN create an emotion but they are separate entities individually.
This is why stonewalling is the only effective measure against sociopathic behavior.
Yet, time and time again, majority of those who protest do so with an emotion as their weapon in hopes this will change the system but it will not.
Take for instance Trump.
Whether you like it or not, whether you have feelings associated to him or not, the fact is he has gained a wealth (even though technically monetary debt) and power above the majority.
He has shown sociopathic behaviors many times over. Hate and joy are nothing to him (or the sociopath) because they literally mean nothing to him.
They stimulate the same.
In fact, more hate “feeds” a sociopath just as much as joy does. They would rather “feed” off MORE hate than LITTLE joy because the stimulus reward is more with hate than with joy.
Feelings and emotions mean nothing.
This is why we witnessed Trump throw his largest fight to date when Twitter stonewalled him.
It was more important to him to have an Avenue which offered him more stimulus (both with hate and admiration as both as the same to him, they mean nothing) than to be stonewalled (shut down) and have no stimulus. Twitter being taken away was like a block in the way of getting that reward of stimulus.
Business is similar.
Protests of emotion do little to nothing but stonewalling such as walk outs and stopping the means of production are examples of the few elements and actions in history that created change.
The point is we spend majority of our energy and time trying to reform or change a system using emotion and feeling (just look at the majority of how we debate these things online) which is useless against a system that doesn’t even have emotion or feeling.
And the worst part is they (the proverbial business and those at the top) know this and use our emotion and feelings as a way to distract and play us.
We get caught up in the emotion and believe fairy tales like A Christmas Carol that those in charge at the very top and business itself and Capitalism has a heart. And if only we could show them the error of their ways, they would see it as we do and change. But they literally do not have a heart. There is nothing for them to change. It either is or it is not.
There is no appealing to their “better” natures.
It is a trap and it’s built that way to keep dare I say, the sheep from realizing that they are not wolves.
Or maybe a better example would be a computer. A computer has not feelings towards you. It is technically sociopathic in its nature as of now. It has more or less stimulus, more or less interaction in one way or another. It’s function determined by what stimulus it wants the most in what direction.
In Capitalism, that is wealth for the individual. In work that is production for the function it serves.
You are just a means to that function.
Nothing more.
You.
Mean.
Nothing.
To the system.
That needs to sink in.
You may mean something to your family, fellow employees, hell even your boss but the function of what you do in this system means you are nothing other than a cog in the wheel to continue it forward.
The amount of employees I see here and on LinkedIn who believe work cares about them is heart breaking to me because I know they have a heart or I assume so based on their language of feelings and emotion and do not realize to work, Capitalism and to those at the top they do not care nor understand.
Because caring is an emotional feeling.
Business, work and people like Bezos do not care.
They do in the best interests of themselves on a level that exists without feeling.
Going to space is a stimulus to Bezos. Not a joy. It’s a different experience with a high stimulus reward.
We, those who have a heart, feelings, emotions think that Bezos has joy because we would but again, we must separate emotions from stimulus. Like a computer, more data in one direction.
Elon Musk doesnt get joy or a feeling from building a useless tunnel. He gets rewarded with a stimulus to see what he can do (and I'd argue get away with).
We only perpetuate our own slavery by believing in a system and people that work like we do.
But they do not.
And most likely never will.
You want change?
Understand and practice stonewalling in its wide and creatively diverse capacities.
(And it isn't to say the top people are all sociopathic. I of course am guessing based on observation but the bed bath and beyond CEO who just killed himself was most likely not sociopathic. Because killing oneself often is at some form even if genetic from birth, a defection of overwhelming emotion and feeling. Sociopaths tend to try to take advantage of whatever system they are in rather than exiting that system as again, emotion plays no part in their lives. But I would argue the very top, the billionaires must be sociopathic as the game is made for sociopaths to win this so called dream.
Understand that the game is rigged in this favor by the very fact it is without emotion or care and then you will be able to see the inner workings and affect change.