The Economics of control…
We are an ever swelling population about 8 billion as of today and we have only limited resources to serve us all. Needless to mention the greed accompanying us, it is but obvious that the inhabitants of this planet will continue to remain in a state of strife.
We see countries being colonized and resources being extracted out of them in the most despicable way ever. The countries so mentioned are kept in a deliberate state of turmoil to pretty much serve the same agenda. Allowing them prosperity would translate into lesser control for the ones involved in the steal.
Initially it was black gold(read :oil) that was in demand for which governments were fell and wars were waged. The cover story as most of us know today was always democracy or terrorism. I know terrorism is unacceptable but so is flattening entire populations to make yourself richer. Today it is Uranium and all the major powers have their claws sharpened when it comes to harnessing this millennial gold.
As for the smaller nations who are bystanders to the great powers fighting for supremacy, I would like to quote an anecdote from the works of Kahlil Gibran; War and small nations,
Once, high upon a pasture, where a sheep and lamb were grazing, an eagle was circling and gazing hungrily down upon the lamb. And as he was about to descend and seize his prey, another eagle appeared and hovered above the sheep and her young with the same hungry intent. Then the two rivals began to fight filling the sky with their fierce cries.
The sheep looked up and was much astonished. She turned to the lamb and said, “How strange my child that these two noble birds should attack one another. Is the vast sky not large enough for both of them? Pray, my little one, pray in your heart that God may make peace between your winged brothers.” And the lamb prayed in his heart.
If we refocus on the smaller players that is individual countries, there too you will find a stark difference in wealth distribution and power dynamics. It is only the 1% at the top of the food chain that dominate the rest of the population. Have you ever wondered as to why it so difficult to reach the pinnacle of either wealth or power or both?
It is not always about the scarcity of resources. Ever imagined how the society would look like if everybody had equal wealth and equal power? There is no way to control a population that is self sufficient. There is no way to control an equal. Our egos would put us at loggerheads with each other. Take the great powers for example. None of them exactly have friendly ties with one other. When people strip you off your wealth, it is not just because of the money involved, but is a means to exercise control and to make you do indirectly what they want out of you.
It is a need to keep a portion of the population dependent and reverent in order to maintain the hierarchy or to state it bluntly, to maintain dominance. Like Ayn Rand philosophizes, “There is no way to control a free man.” An other force of dominance is obviously the government and the military more so in some countries than others. However in capitalist economies, most often than not, the government too is controlled by the ones pumping in the moolah.
If you think the communist economies would be doing any better with regards to power dynamics and wealth distribution, you couldn’t be more mistaken. Here there is no subtle behind the scenes control and the show of fairness and plebiscite. The hegemony with regards to both power and money is a blatant on the face display.
Why do you suppose the free thinkers and the relatively ethical ones find it so damn difficult to maintain their stand, all the time fighting against the status quo and pushing against the ones unlike them who are motivated to sabotage their efforts? Musk, I believe is a smart man. He realizes that our Earth will soon run out of both resources and sanity.
The world is less about doing the right thing and more about conformism and fitting in so as not to disturb a corrupt ecosystem. Even the do gooders will face backlash since the narratives too are created by the ones in power enough to distort the public psyche. Most of the general public aren’t thinkers, they are sheep in a herd mutely obeying the likes of the sheep herder wielding that staff.
There is no way to reason with the ones who are indoctrinated to the contrary. They will have to grow to see reason by themselves. At times they are just ignorant and at other times, they are just a part of the collective disintegration.
Hence it is important that only the ones with a very strong sense of morality and collective goodness climb to the top of the ladder. It is inevitable that the hierarchy will remain whether we like it or not. Maybe it is the only way to maintain some sense of civil discipline or turn into a communist regime with excessive government and military control. However, if we do not have compassionate people up there and a little more equality, freedom and justice, not just on paper but in practice, what we will have is a putrid society and an ailing population.
I would like to quote Kahlil Gibran again here; From ‘The Plutocrat’.
In my wanderings, I once saw upon an island a man headed iron hoofed monster who ate of the Earth and drank of the Sea incessantly. And for a long time I watched him and said, “Have you never enough, is your hunger never satisfied and your thirst never quenched?
And he answered saying, “Yes, I am satisfied, nay, I am weary of eating and drinking, but I am afraid that tomorrow there will be no more Earth to eat and no more Sea to drink.”
