What is the purpose of life? Why are we all here? Why are you here?
It is a fascinating exploration to view the world as it is, and then seek to discover some meaning. How did we end up in this place?
Maslowe placed self-actualisation at the top of his list of human needs. Perhaps that is true, a gentle force, quietly tugging us forward to something unique.
I am certain that we did not arrive here to simply exist, or to worship some deity. What a profound waste. I am not religious at all. Certainly, I was raised a catholic, and it did take some years of intensive work to unpick the binding knots of fear-based indoctrination that kept me hooked till I was 21.
If I had known the term “WTF” when I was five, I would have used it the day the nuns told us that God gave us free will. Then in the next sentence we were told of the things we must do and must not do if we wanted to avoid the wrath of God. WTF?
So, if self-actualization is the goal, it can only really occur if we are prepared to continually grow, learn, and evolve. I guess from here, evolving is the key.
Becoming an Adult
But alas, it is so easy to avoid all that. Why complicate things hey? Where’s my latte?
As we grow, we depend on the care and nurturing of our parents. We want to be safe from the world. It can be scary for a kid at times. But even at the age of 2, I watch my grandson on occasions, fighting for his independence.
As we grow, we explore and gain more independence. Aware parents will give us space for that. My Mum was a legend. She trusted me completely. Perhaps it was her remote cattle station upbringing. She gave me the space to develop my own common sense. I realised later that this allowed my curiosity to flourish and grow, something that has carried me through life.
When I entered the world of employment, I struggled operating in someone else’s structure. I could see and feel things that could be better and would experience a lot of push back, resistance, correction or even rejection. My childhood of wild bush adventures taught me to think on my feet and to follow my senses. But in those structures, it didn’t work that well. So, I decided at the age of 24 to make my own way in the world.
If you are self-employed, there is no fall back. I certainly made some dumb decisions and some gob smacking mistakes, but I am still here and happy. But man, have I created some good stuff.
This leads me to the topic I wish to explore. Self-determined lion heart, or sheep like conformist? Where do you stand. It is never too late to change.
Taking a Risk in Life and Backing Yourself
I get a sense that many people never escape the need to feel cared for. They like what mum gives too much, or perhaps mum didn’t give enough of it. When things get tough, they feel better being treated like an unfortunate victim, and find relief if they can lay blame somewhere. This doesn’t mean they are bad people. It just means they have not yet taken on the challenge of genuine personal responsibility.
Of course, if you want to live your life this way and be treated in such a way, to have your wins celebrated and your failures diminished, then you need plenty of others to think the same way. And right now, it seems this victim consciousness is rife across the world.
And it also seems that, if anyone raises the issue of personal responsibility to these people, it is motivated by an evil intention and should be silenced.
Where Does Politics Play its Part?
If we look at the world now, we see two predominant extremes of politics, generally referred to as the Left and the Right. I have voted for both over 45 years. My parents definitely leaned to the Right.
The philosophy of the left in Australia is based in collectivism. “We know what is best so we will decide, and you all do!” The Right’s is “Freedom of enterprise and freedom of personal choice”. The Left are commonly known as liberals and the Right as conservatives. What is odd here in Australia is that the Liberal Party is the main conservative party.
Labels wear out too, and they can be confusing.
The Left have always been the champion of the working class, professing to take care of the less fortunate, protecting workers from greedy employers, and working to bring some equality to the outcomes of society.
The right has traditionally been the base for the business builder, those who wish to create an enterprise that delivers goods or services to society. They often employ people to help them get their work done. Some grow and become quite big. Typically, while the original owner, the holder of the vision, remains in charge, the business will be driven by a desire to provide their valuable goods or services to the community we call a market.
In this setting, a whole raft of things can happen. Human beings are not perfect.
Sometimes, when people are given enough wealth or authority, they become powerful. They have an advantage over others. If they do not use that power with humility, compassion, and care, they can evolve into tyrants. It is a trap many fall into. We see it in politicians all the time. We see it in struggling artists who become rich and famous overnight. And we see it in workplaces when a worker is promoted to supervisor.
Then we see others who become self-absorbed and selfish. As humanity evolved through to the beginning of the 20th century, people had little choice but to care for each other. There was always a need to keep attention on survival issues and the welfare of those in closer proximity.
Such is no longer the case. In a wealthy society, just about everyone has a home and access to security, good food and inclusion with other humans. No longer having anything to demand our attention, we have been seduced by shiny things like social media, television, gambling, and petty dramas. We retract into our own bubble and look around for something that resembles mum’s cuddles. Wine often does the trick, as we begin singing to ourselves my most detested song, “What about me, it isn’t fair…”
An uninspired malaise sees many people collapse into victim consciousness. But they do not want anyone to know that so a quick and effective sidestep is to begin kicking up a shindy about the rights of other victims in society.
Instead of taking the brutal road through personal responsibility to self-determinism, a road that forges a robust moral code, it is easier for the self-absorbed to jump on a victim rescuing bandwagon and beseech their morality to the world.
And there is never a shortage of causes.
Victimhood and Righteousness
Often when these people find themselves accepted and acknowledged, their ego expands, and they begin to feel powerful. Soon, their passion for their new cause evolves into evangelism and activism, to the point where they can no longer hear an opposing view. They begin preaching and dominating, and begin attacking their perceived opponents with shaming, censuring, and cancelling.
They become lost in a fog of righteousness and vitriol. They lose all connection to compassion, empathy and gratitude whilst shouting to the world about how compassionate they are.
And all of it makes them feel safe. Being on the side of righteousness is a little like when they hid behind mum’s skirt, safe from the bogey men, when they were a kid.
Meanwhile, the business builders are up at five, getting their exercise done and setting about contributing to the world.
Before you start believing I am beating up the left, which I admit that in a way I am, there are many conservative types who are guilty of evil. Greed and profiteering are not uncommon. Many get too power hungry and seek out the unearned wealth. And in doing so, they hurt others.
Over the past ten years, the Left have become more like a religion. They have their mantras about LBGTQ rights, black lives matter and the environment. They are vacuuming up the victims like a street sweeper, arming themselves with ammunition to attack the free thinkers and the conscientious. Many of them truly believe in these causes.
I don’t! I am not “anti” any of them. I just live by a simpler code. Everyone is a human being. And I hope each human being finds their path and eventually discovers who they really are. I do not wish to treat anyone like a victim. I want to know how I can help them shift out of victimhood and get back on their path to self-realization.
Between 1982 and 1992, I was national coach of the Australian Disabled Weightlifting Team. One of my lifters was world class and finished up winning multiple world titles and Olympic Gold Medals. In the early days, he used to like me to produce an audio cassette for him with inspiring songs and with me speaking encouraging words to him. He has been treated like a victim his entire life.
In 1984 he was traveling to Europe for the European titles. He asked me to make him a tape. I told him I would but decided not to. As the date got close, he kept asking me and I kept making excuses. On the day he left, I said I would post it to him because I hadn’t had time to do it yet. At this point, he had never won a major title. I was 24 and making this all up as I went along, but I was following a feeling.
The day of the competition he called me and was full of anxiety. The tape had not arrived, and he didn’t know what to do. So now, we had the chance for a real conversation about him taking control of himself and the situation. I felt him shift. He won, and just missed setting a new world record. He never looked back from there.
When you walk into the room, I am not interested in your race, gender, religion, sexual preference or the EPL team you follow. What I am interested in is who you are and what you wish to contribute. That is the exciting stuff.
Right now, in this world, we have powerful groups of victim activists fighting to beat everyone else into submission. I wonder what happens after that. When you crush people into conformity, creativity dies, and humanity will surely begin to erode.
This victim cult that the left has become is using everything they can to suppress alternative views. They tell the world to trust the experts and to not contest the science.
Trusting the experts is not a function of science or democracy. It is a function of religion. It is always crucial that people question science and authority. When they refuse to do so, they are either locked into a cult mindset or bound to the fear mongering of tyranny and have accepted a totalitarian power structure. And, when they seek to stop others from questioning, they become part of the tyranny.
Modern Corporations
It is imperative that we maintain a posture of skepticism. But we must also ensure we do not fall into the dark tunnel of cynicism.
Many on the Left, with a tendency toward Marxism, believe that capitalism is the root of all evils. I disagree. Greed operating in a capitalist system has been destructive, but not capitalism itself.
There is however an amusing irony. There are many on the left who depend on the share market for the growth of their wealth. And of course, the share market is the pointy end of capitalism.
I am not sure what to do about the huge companies of the world. I referred earlier to the state of a company remaining strong when the original founder and visionary remains the owner. I have also seen company cultures destroyed when the business was floated on the stock exchange and the owners became faceless and profit driven.
In these times, when companies are owned by faceless investors, leaders are not able to be bold and creative. Their first duty is compliance, serving shareholders wishes above everything else. This is a step away from true capitalism where the priority is always the customer.
These businesses no longer thrive on the deep love of a challenge to grow and become better. They are driven by a fear of failure. Executives earn huge salaries they seek to protect. Right through the business, so many employees earn handsome salaries that they grow to depend on due to a consumer lifestyle. Many go to work with a fear of losing their job and the pay packet, playing safe all the while, watching their own back.
This is a long way from a courageous and collaborative effort where everyone is thrilled by the challenge, diligently watching each other’s back.
These huge corporations are continually at risk of being manipulated by powerful shareholder groups. For example, a huge investor, like a massive international equity fund, might see a path to huge profits. In one country, it will stir up environmental debate and force businesses to invest in renewable energy. This creates massive capital works that can draw upon government infrastructure spending. In another country, the same people will push the governments to build coal fired power stations because the energy demand is too great for renewables. The coal companies in the first country now become exporters instead of selling domestically. Business is growing everywhere.
You see, if the first country stayed with coal, there would be very little infrastructure spending and few opportunities to drive big profits. Big equity funds like Black Rock, Vanguard and State Street own up to 25% of America’s Fortune 500 Companies. This means they have enough board presence to drive these decisions, all under a cloud of environmentalism and ESG. The manipulation is profound.
Again, some will look at this as the evils of capitalism. I disagree. It is the evil that comes from greed and way too much power. Jordan Peterson used the phrase “Gigantism” to describe these companies.
ESG is their power tool. It is the jackhammer they use to break up the ground under the feet of the decision makers, leaving them in fear of being shamed and cancelled for not being ESG savvy. (ESG is the new Stakeholder Capitalism Environment – How the company treats the environment, Social – How the company impacts society in general and. Governance – How the company treats its people).
This forced ESG is not genuine and will not succeed in creating safe workplaces.
Personal Responsibility
This morning, Matt Taibbi wrote about how Julian Assange must be released right now. America’s case for charging him is beyond evil. If good people do not stand up, then we might as well all submit right now.
Personal Responsibility means taking ownership of everything that shows up in your life. It is a tough journey. No blame, excuses nor justifications. When your intuition tells you something, you can act or hide. Hiding degrades you. It is not a great place to go. It is never about being perfect, but it is about doing the best you can.
Personal Responsibility is not selfish. It is about learning to live your life in a way that genuinely benefits others, without need for reward or recognition. It is learning to do the right thing, always.
It helps when you find valuable purpose in your life. The questions, “Who is the person you want to become?” and “What do you want to contribute to the world?” are helpful start points. They take you out of your comfort zone and get you moving forward.
As you go, you will realise you can live your own life, serving where you can but not being at the effect of circumstance, temptation, or other people. You will be less likely to have your mind seduce you into vice or delusion.
If you are employing people, you can help them to move forward too. When you support someone to find connection to their sense of life purpose, and you discover how that can be “plugged in” to your mission, then you create a space where that person can fully express themselves.
When people are working for security, they do not ever feel safe. Trust is rare.
Personal responsibility is a difficult thing. I have a question for you. If everything collapsed and you found yourself on your own, could you go and find a river somewhere, set up a camp site and set about ensuring all your needs were met, survive, and regroup to find a new plan? Or would you become consumed with the terror of being alone, with nobody to care for you? It does not matter what your answer is. I ask for the purpose of inviting you to reflect. I know deep in my heart, that I could take the first option. I may not like it, but I would do it.
Stand Up and Be Counted.
Right now, across the world, terrible things are happening under a swarming plague of woke locusts, devouring every morsel of freedom they can find, forcing the world down a terrifying path that ends prematurely at the top of a cliff.
The work has not been done to answer basic questions about the renewable energy craze. For example, if we mine all the copper we know of, it will amount to a quarter of what will be needed.
People across the world are being pushed back into poverty because they cannot afford their energy bills. They are victims of madness but will not be treated as such because they are the unpalatable discards of the woke lust for sainthood.
The rainbow-coloured gender wave is an obscene and out-of-control scam cult using children as weapons as it wages war on heterosexual citizens, scooping up the idiotic woke, placing them on pedestals of pretend morality, and shaming good people into submission.
Like I said, I am interested in your humanity. I have no interest in your gender, sexual preference, or pronouns. Grow up and get a life.
Then there is the black-lives-matter movement and the indigenous rights movements. Most of them are not genuine. Reliable reports reveal that Patrisse Cullors, the founder of Black Lives Matter, took most of the billions of dollars donated for herself and gave very little to the needy communities she used to stir America into donating.
The same here in Australia, genuine Indigenous people living in rural areas are not interested in the “almost white folks” identifying themselves as indigenous, speaking on their behalf. In Australia, 32% of all land has been given back to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the various companies and Not-for-profits owned by those communities receive over $35B from governments each year. And still, this small band of city-based activists use the errors of the past, and the alcohol fuelled violence and mayhem of certain areas, like Alice Springs, to drive guilt through the population and manipulate governments.
Good people do need to stand up now and get active. Join a conservative party, even if you are not a conservative and fight for a new balance.
See, there is a given here. If you live this woke life, parading your virtue for all to see, one day you will wake up and realise what you have done. You will learn you have no actual friends. You will be down at the end of lonely street.
And the same goes if you are not a woke type, but you ignore your intuitive call to duty and service. One day you too will wake up and see what you have not done. And you too, will be down the end of lonely street, trapped in the agony of your laziness and cowardice.
Don’t do that.