Tag: tyranny

Creators and Destroyers

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Both come into this world needing stimulation and nurture to be able to thrive.
From the start, the desire for friendship and love is felt by both.
Basic skills are soon acquired to function in the community.
But something begins to happen at about there.
The group one belongs to, has rules that should be followed to better manage the inevitable conflicts.
The Creator sees the benefit of it. The Destroyer starts to think, how can I get around them?
With the acquisition of work skills, the desire for personal autonomy gathers strength.
The realization that one need not be tied to one’s community of origin sets in and there is a large world out there that beckons.
Early in our existences two questions come forward to face us. What to do with our lives? What can we do best?
How we answer them will determine our futures.
The better responses will come if we’ve developed a good sense of self, which in turn flows from having had positive interactions with fellow human beings.
The Creator thinks in terms of improving themselves and earn the admiration of peers.
The Destroyer also thinks of their improvement, but with a twist – how to be feared and take advantage of others.
The Creator sees the need for deepening friendships.
The Destroyer sees the need for developing alliances.
I see envy as a key driver for the Destroyer. They asses, early on, that they are different, that they don’t have what Creators do but find that they can use them.
Shallow friendships would be the norm for the Destroyer, or else they’d betray their true nature.
While both busy themselves in the quest for advancement, the Destroyer never loses sight of
how to gain advantage over others.
Once Creators find a path for their strengths, they set about to improve themselves and, in doing so, enrich their communities by the services they render.
The Destroyer may have identified personal strengths they could develop, but what attracts them the most is the desire to manipulate and use people.
They may be aware of envy as a powerful motivator in their lives but, if they are, they choose to not wrestle with the emotion and learn how to manage it. The desire for control supersedes it.
Creators, in their commitment to their work, find meaning in their lives.
Destroyers may find meaning, too, but of a different kind, one filled with the power wrested from those who didn’t have the courage to follow their own paths.
In our world today, there are Destroyers in position of great influence. Some have become leaders of nations. Those who applaud them or have become their pawns, should ask themselves, ‘why did I choose to not find my own path? Now, each time I applaud the Destroyer I am saying, I am your accomplice, your vassal and instrument.’
Man earns his freedom every day.

Oscarvaldes.medium.com

Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping

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They have something in common, don’t they? Yes.
And it’s their clear intent to trap people. And keep them trapped.
But they have something else in common. And that is what they promise their followers.
‘If you follow me,’ they say, ‘you will have a better and stronger country.’ Thus, it is implied, you will be better and stronger.
For Trump the promise is MAGA, Make America Great Again.
For Putin it’s a larger Russia, a Russia that restores the might of the former Soviet Union.
For Xi Jinping it’s world dominance.
For Trump to reach his objective he was willing to make a deal with Putin but not Xi Jinping.
For Putin to reach his goal requires the annexation of Ukraine, regardless of the cost in human lives.
For Xi Jinping it’s further asserting China’s economic power while seeking alliances with whomever suits him best – for now Putin.
The followers of these men don’t even know they are being sold a richly decorated fiction.
They are thrilled that their lives have now a sense of direction and that they can spare themselves the trouble of doing their own homework.
Followers may have a vague idea they are surrendering their freedom, but the charisma of the leader calling to them proves stronger.
The follower may never have known freedom. They may never have troubled themselves to nurture their minds.
I say this because once you’ve known freedom you never want to give it up.
But to keep it you have to exercise it. You have to see it at work. You have to quarrel with it, smell it and taste it. You have to see how it bears you fruit. And grief. And failure.
How odd then that men like Trump, Putin and Xi Jinping can rise to such positions of power when their message is so clear, ‘leave the thinking to me.’ But they can do it, because they attract enough people who prefer not to think, and who then proceed to intimidate those who do think.
And that’s their story – Might Makes Right.
To have a mind – the capacity to reason while integrating our emotions – and to have health are our most precious possessions. And yet we don’t nurture them as we should.
We don’t set aside enough time to reason and assess the complexities of what we feel. We pay little attention to our diets in a massive exercise of denial. ‘Oh, it will be okay.’
Our voices need not be loud when we stand up for what we believe every day of our lives. But they must be heard. What may seem like a small voice added to another small voice makes a difference.
So let yours count too.
We cannot let a few people take over the world.
If a leader of a nation keeps getting reelected they are noxious to their people and the rest of us too.
Freedom gives you a voice, if you work on it. Tyranny takes it from you. And your life, too.

Oscarvaldes.medium.com, apple podcasts