At some point the question has to become just how much to shield people from exactly. Can you truly protect someone from everything without placing them in a bubble? That old saying in the US about giving up liberty for the sake of security comes to mind.
Even the smartest and wisest among us can still become the victim of a con-artist that has spent decades perfecting their skills. Much of advertising and marketing is using the way our mind works against us quite successfully.
I often use the squirrel-proof bird feeder as an example. It’s something that ultimately will fail for the simple reason that no matter how much time people spent thinking about the design of a squirrel proof bird feeder, the squirrel spends exponentially more time thinking about how to get to the delicious treasure within. It is his life.
Being human involves a complicated process of influencing and manipulation, we even do it to ourselves using these very products in an effort to shape us into better versions of ourselves. Trance-states, visualization and meditation work because we allow ourselves to be open to suggestion. We shut down the critical part of our conscious mind.
So in your opinion, how many vulnerabilities can we patch in us before we become someone so shielded from the world that we have difficulty opening ourselves up to the simple ups and downs of interpersonal relationships?
The assumption seems to be that people are not intelligent or are evil by nature, and with just a little incentive, they will go deep into the evil ways.
I do not believe this. It simply is not true.
Why? Because I have experienced this again and again: honest and sincere people win and stay winning. And evil narcissistic people might get a win short term, but all those that had win-lose with them will GTFO and ruin their reputation, and they end up in a bad place.
The thing that evil bad manipulating guys are the biggest winners is a myth. It’s in stories and movies. Like Thanos or the Joker or whatever other villain being “cool” and succeeding.
But in reality, the top of the food chain are people like Warren Buffer and Charlie Monger and Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Those people are not known for manipulating, and bullying the good guys, and always scheming. They are known because they add tremendous value to the lives of other people.
We haven’t produced any sex fiends with the seduction & masculinity products lineup,
and we aren’t going to create any dictators out of this one…
Nor has this best-selling book after being available in every major bookstore for over 20 years.
I’d have to counter this by pointing out the “cancel culture” that’s become prevalent in the United States. Digging through people’s pasts, finding things from 15 years ago and using it to ruin people’s lives and jobs.
Social media gave people a bit of influence and power and look how they used it? By creating Twitter outrage mobs to literally destroy everything a person has built over a mistake. And then, if you follow this trend, you’ll see that apologizing and owning up to the mistake makes the mob even more furious – because it’s not about growth, it’s about subjugating that person. It’s about power and manipulation.
Those people who get sucked up into this outrage mobs are literally drunk off the power it brings. The people who survive these outrage mobs are the ones who realize what’s happening, the intentions of those mercilessly pursuing them, and give them no thought and energy. They are, in fact, denying them the power they think they have.
This happens all the time even at SubClub. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who, after having a minor dispute with us (seriously, one started because it took two days to process a refund instead of one, so they wanted free subliminals as “compensation”), and the result is them threatening us with bashing our reputation on social media. Think about that. A person is literally going to try and destroy someone’s livelihood because they had to wait an extra day for a refund? They do this because of the perceived power they think they have because of the hyperconnected Internet. When we deny their threats, they generally always try to come back and apologize, because their intoxication from power has faded and they’re back to being a normal person.
Those who are truly balanced have no desire to destroy someone else for personal satisfaction. Like I was saying before, there’s no benefit to denying the allure of power.
Power Can Corrupt is a reminder to watch others, but also watch yourself from making rash or immoral decisions when in power.
I’ve spent a lot of time studying Warren Buffet and other billionaires because I’m incredibly interested in the art and science of accruing wealth, not just “money.” I’ve encountered people that said that the “good guy Warren” persona was a strategic move. By pretending to be a quiet “good guy” that saves all his money and lives in a small house in Omaha, people always underestimated him (EDIT: This is in line with LAW 6, LAW 17 and LAW 21). The truth of the matter is, Warren Buffet DOES still own his small house in Omaha. He also owns a mansion in California and another on a remote island.
He’s also made some questionable “investments.” There was one company that had flagging stock sales, so Warren Buffet called the CEO of the company and told him he’d purchase a huge amount of stock in order to boost the price, but the CEO had to cut him a huge deal. The CEO did just that, the stock skyrocketed, and Warren Buffet sold his interest back to the company for a massive profit. When he approached the CEO again to do the same thing, the CEO this time wouldn’t give him as much of a deal. The result? Warren Buffet bought the controlling interest of the company and immediately fired the CEO. The name of this company? Berkshire Hathaway – the company that’s arguably the most associated with his name.
Evil? Immoral? Or was it just business?
Consider the fact that at the time, Berkshire Hathaway was selling just textiles and it wasn’t even profitable. So, Buffet now owned a company that was unprofitable simply to get back at the owner.
As for Bill Gates, let’s not forget the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ITSELF successfully sued Microsoft for antitrust after the company threatened to take away the OEM discount for Windows (companies like Dell paid around $10/per license) to companies that also included Netscape on their machines. This effectively killed off the market share for Netscape, whose rising popularity due to following good security and web design standards began to chip away at Internet Explorer’s dominance. Even after they were sued, IE was the reigning browser until Firefox and Chrome came around.
Evil? Immoral? Or was it just business?
Power can corrupt, gents. We get no benefit in denying that or any absolute. Saying all power corrupts is just as dangerous. As conscious creators, I believe our goal is to seek balance between the two poles.
“So in your opinion, how many vulnerabilities can we patch in us before we become someone so shielded from the world that we have difficulty opening ourselves up to the simple ups and downs of interpersonal relationships?”
This is a profound question, and I don’t know the answer to that question.
This forum has a tendency to draw people to it who think deeply about the world, which is one reason I’m glad I’m here.
I know that what I think is possible is likely based on my experiences, and since my experiences are limited, what I think is possible might also be limited.
I know that what I think is possible might be based on my imagination, but I also know that what I imagine to be possible might also be limited because what I imagine to be possible now is much more than what I imagined to be possible 2 year ago.
I know there are things that I want. I know that if it is absent from my experience, it might still be possible. I know that even though something I want might be absent from the world, it still can be possible.
Even if I have a set of experiences indicating one conclusion, might it be possible to reach other conclusions or other results somehow?
I know that I wonder.
I wonder if someone can be completely protected without being interpersonally isolated, and yet be in the fulfilling relationships they so desire in the ways in which they desire.
I wonder if life can be without suffering.
I wonder if infinite liberty can co-exist with infinite security.
I wonder if our minds can be aligned to only work for us.
I wonder if success can be measured in terms of degrees on a continuum rather than as a binary.
I wonder if being human can be simple rather than complicated.
I wonder if we can be invulnerable, completely shielded from malice, and yet completely open to that which we consciously want.
I wonder if it’s possible to have a life in which interpersonal relationships are with ups and yet without any downs.
I wonder what our subconscious is truly capable of.
I wonder how far I can imagine beyond any limits I used to have.
@AMASH, although I believe that nearly all people have the potential for being good/evil/right/wrong, I also believe that there are certain paths that are so much easier to walk and come with a quick payout, while other paths may be more rewarding in the end but take a lot of effort to walk. As such, I see most people around me choosing the easy roads. As they say, the Light side may be good, but the Dark side is so much more fun.
I also most definitely believe that it takes a certain mentality to be at the top, the true top. And that, unfortunately, brings us full circle, back to the paragraph above combined with absolute power and absolute corruption. The power plays that go on at that level, there’s simply no way to do that and still be morally good. The good and bad energy of everything and everyone whose lives you touch influences you. It’s inevitable to develop… quirks.
There are only two things that make me question this belief. First, I sometimes fear that the better I get at manifesting, the more I’m turning this belief into a self-fulfilling prophecy, since much like action taking to subs, the world keeps confirming it in so many small ways.
Second, the concepts of good, evil, right, wrong and morality are all things we humans made up to make sense of the world around us. There are serial killers on both sides, who determines which one kills and which one murders? Certainly not the universe, it has no concept of these things.
Finally, you name these big people that you say are at the top of the food chain, and yet I know for a fact that they are as much dependent on others as you and I are. They are just players in someone else’s sandbox. Big players, but still players. Each one of them can be completely broken in a single day. The reason that won’t happen is because the owners of the sandbox don’t want to have to replace all the sand afterwards. They secured their position by making it unprofitable to destroy them. As long as they obey the rules of the game, they don’t matter.
You may not be seeing the actual top of the food chain. To borrow a little cliché and use it incorrectly: “Cherchez de l’argent, mon ami. Cherchez de l’argent.”
PS I interrupted your typing, didn’t I?
It’s only impossible until someone does it. I can think of no better example than the 4-minute mile.
I picked this nickname for a very good reason. I think about the big things, theorize about them all the time. But I also hold a very cynical world view. It allows the world to pleasantly surprise me.
And if I can’t think of anything big, I can always come back to Schrödinger’s Cat: “In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat. Although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.”
Yes, definitely. And I’ve been there. Five years ago, I lost everything. When I left California and began wandering aimlessly around the country trying to find meaning, I had less than a thousand dollars to my name and everything I could fit in a convertible Mustang. I remember wondering how I got to that point, and it was simple – I gave way too much power to other people. I vowed to never let that happen again.
Ironically enough, the Mustang ended up blowing up in the middle of the Texas desert. Seriously, I was driving along and the oil light clicked on. I had stopped in Arizona and had all the fluids checked, so I knew the car had oil. I called my brother, who used to fix cars and he told me that I was in serious trouble – having the low oil pressure light click on while it has oil probably meant the head gasket was blown.
I had just spent over $1500 getting the engine rebuilt from scratch because of a blown head gasket. A month after I had the rebuilt, I started having problems. I KNEW there was something wrong with the car, but the mechanic kept ensuring me that it was just “things working itself out” in the rebuild. When I began to pressure him for a refund, he became irate, starting asking why I was questioning his integrity, etc. I should’ve pushed, but I was a pushover back then.
Cue six months later, I’m staring at my broken down car in the middle of the desert. Luckily, I was traveling during the Christmas holiday and had a ton of people stop and ask me if I needed help, so I caught a ride to Abilene, Texas – about three hours away. I ended up having to pay $700 for a one-way rental (which took my funds down to around $300), went back to the 'stang, got my stuff out and just left it there.
When I called my ex to tell her what happened (since she was waiting on me to deliver her stuff), she didn’t even ask how I was AT ALL, she just expressed extreme irritation at having to wait. That was the awakening moment for me, when I said “never again.”
Now, that being said, the next period of my life (about two years), I went the opposite direction and went completely ruthless. I was so angry at what had happened to me that my response was to do whatever it took to regain what I had. I was already well versed in the 48 laws, as well as other frameworks. I studied game theory in college and was good at getting what I wanted in a situation. That… was not healthy.
That’s when I started to pursue seeking balance and now I’m leading the life I’ve always wanted. Power can corrupt, but it can also manifest your dreams. We’ll discuss this on the sales page (which, btw we’re going to use a new format to address some concerns).
Im i too late to the party Idk if someone guessed it or not the convo is too damn long… We have the title
Power can corrupt. Ye in power, 6 fingers ( 6th sense ), some succeful guys from movies… then yall talking about bible stuff. Then saint says its not a stand alone sub. Possibly a Khan/EoG supercharger
Power can corrupt.
It truly can. But to only those who aren’t capable of holding it. Power corrupts those who obsess over the power they have, those who take great pride in their power. Power won’t corrupt you if you could let go of your power. If you are carefree from your core. I would be happy to explain myself with examples if anyone calls for it.
About the power corroupts thing. It doesnt. It only reveals whats inside. If a person is truly good then no power could corroupt him.
This is also a weak mindset to have. We all aim to be Alphas, Khans, winner of life. Viewing power and or money as a source of evil and corrouption is a limiting beliefe.
I don’t know about that. That’s very simplistic thinking. Who we are inside is constantly changing. Put a person in a situation with the right variables, the intoxication of power, and maybe even some insecurity or lack mentality and you can push them in directions they wouldn’t normally go. The human mind is bendable and moldable, everyone wants to believe they aren’t easily influenced but there are people that dedicate their whole lives to manipulating.
It’s not a weak mindset, it’s an informed and educated one based on real evidence in the outside world. It’s more dangerous to assume that you can’t be corrupted because you’re “good inside” vs being aware of what could cause that and being mindful of it. Nobody is saying power or money is evil, just that it has potential to corrupt you. It’s not a black and white thing, there’s a lot of nuance to the human psyche and how it’s influenced.
