If there were an
illuminati, an invisible cadre of infinitely powerful and rich people, what
would it look like? What would those
people choose to do? How can I use my understanding
of human nature to fill the invisible void?
“Like
the notables assembled under the king’s roof at Versailles,
official Washington
divides the known world into only two parts.
First there is Washington,
and then there is everyplace else. The
planes arriving and departing National Airport cross the only frontier of any
consequence- the one between the inside and the outside- and all the truly
momentous topics of conversation center [sic]on only one question, which is
always and unfailingly the same: Who’s
in and who’s out”
From the
preface to Lewis Lapham’s 2001 book “Lights, Camera, Democracy.”
Lewis Lapham, one of my
favourite human naturalists, has a privileged perspective. Coming from America’s aristocracy, he has a
window into a world most of us can only imagine. However, politics is not something that only
happens in governments or between powerful people. Politics happens in offices, academic units,
worksites, film sets and families all across the world. The only escape from politics, in fact, is to
become a hermit and not interact with others.
The term politics does not itself suggest that any particular method or
perspective has the advantage over others, but in reality, certain methods
do. Some people are afraid of
confrontation and will avoid situations which present the potential for it. These people are not usually successful in
the game of politics. And that means
that those people are not usually as successful in office situations, or
academic units or any other environment, as people who enjoy or do not shy from
confrontation.
We call it self
confidence. Jewish culture calls it
Chutzpah. You can also call it
entitlement. Whatever name you give to this personal quality, the possession of
it is like having a fairy godmother. Or
perhaps it’s like having a V12 under the bonnet when those without are left
driving 2-stroke scooters. No matter
what situation you are in, having self-confidence makes you more likely to be
singled out for forward momentum. Many
confidence tricksters, some of whom have run hospitals and banks, have
explained that self-confidence is in fact all you need for success. How is it so powerful? Could a more intelligent and qualified person
really be passed over in favour of someone with less ability but more self
adoration? Yes of course, don’t we see
that happening constantly around us?
That’s what I see.
Let’s think about
compassion and empathy. Sympathy is to
feel sorry for someone. Empathy on the
other hand is to attempt to understand another’s perspective or point of
view. Compassion is based on empathy not
sympathy. I point this out because it
seems to me that many people are confused and think there is some value to
sympathy. There is not. Sympathy is wasted energy at best, and at
worst an insult. Empathy on the other hand is very valuable. Empathy and compassion cause a person to
consider the rights, needs and perspectives of others. At times our openness to the perspective of
others, combined with our rational processing may lead us to believe that
someone else’s need might be greater than our own. If two people are competing and one always
pushes their own interests while the other one occasionally concedes to the
other’s interests, maths tells us the one with no compassion will prevail. So perhaps you can see where I am going with
this. The Illuminati would not be very good at empathy.
Bullying is an extreme form
of confidence and entitlement. Bullies
take extra confidence and disregard the empathy. Unfortunately that doesn’t automatically make
them stupid. New Zealand has been offered a wonderful insight into bully and Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater, thanks to Nicky Hager's new book Dirty Politics. One of the particular aspects to his bullying to my mind is the brazen
manner in which he accuses and abuses others of the very same things he is
doing himself. Here
he is condemning Nicky Hager because he
”didn't even have the common journalistic courtesy to contact a single
person contained within these emails, while he breached everybody's
privacy".
Did Slater ring those people who’s name suppression he
breached? Probably not. Did he worry about their privacy? Certainly
not. In and attempt to minimise the fallout, John Key is using this exact method of accusing "the [entire ed] left" of a dirty smear campaign against him. Interesting, as that is actually the charge you are defending yourself from John. Slater and Key show us how confidence
slides on into bullying. While one
person may be confident despite the opinions of others, a bully is confident
regardless of others opinions or rights.
A bully is someone who is very confident and uses no empathy.
Finally in this thesis, the issue of privileged. While wealth is not power,
it can buy you power if you are canny.
Power is disproportionately accessible to the wealthy. In other words while poor people sometimes gain power, and not all wealthy people do, achieving power is infinitely simpler for a rich person in general. Another important modifying factor in the mix in my opinion is that the fear of the loss of wealth or power may
be greater than the fear of never having it.
Power and wealth breed insecurity, which often leads to gratuitous greed
and the obsessive amassing of ever greater wealth and power. This concept is well illustrated in the proliferation of ever more deadly and destructive weapons over the past century. No amount ever appears to be enough to allow a country to feel secure.
So my experience of the
world tells me that if there were an illuminati, they would be compassionless, narcissistic
bullies from a privileged background, because those are the people who are
driven to compete incessantly against others, and those are the people who are
best able to use the architecture of our society in order to succeed. To be honest, I find it almost impossible to
believe there is not an illuminati (it would be a little surprising if that is the term by which they referred to themselves however).
Everything I know about humanity tells me that it is the obvious
continuation, ad extremis, of our everyday society.
Phoebe Taptiklis
