4 ms·
I was 20, naively unaware of the ways of the real world, and nearly overnight, I lost everything and everyone I cherished in my life. Over the next 6 months, i
by Stryder 9y ago
I was 20, naively unaware of the ways of the real world, and nearly overnight, I lost everything and everyone I cherished in my life.
Over the next 6 months, it slowly dawned on me that those who survive and thrive are those willing to screw other people over for their own benefit without as much as blinking an eye, as long as it suits them.
"This is the way of the world", I thought to myself.
Over the next decade, I focused, and worked my ass off. On my way up, I encountered countless more rich, successful and morally bankrupt individuals, and the higher I go, the more sophisticated the moral bankruptcy gets.
To be fair, it's not the fault of a lot of these individuals. Some of them genuinely do not comprehend the consequences of their actions - it just doesn't cross their mind. Instead, the fault lies with a system that not only enables but promotes this kind of behavior to the very top, without an effective counter-balancing weight on the other end. And we are the custodians of the system, we are the ones who shape it on a daily basis, by the actions that we take, the investments that we make, and the kind of relationships that we build.
- xxSparkleSxx 9y agoI agree, but can we honestly put all the blame on those at the top. Many of of us in the middle and at the bottom are just as complicit. We go to work for companies we know make the world a worse place, we work under horrible people and hand them part of the value we create every week. Those in the middle and below do not have as much power as those on the top as an individual, but as a collective we have much more power. We can sit down and choose not to work, we can choose not to contribute to certain companies or to certain individuals. We can say "NO!" But most do not because money. The same reason those at the top do immoral/awful things are the same reasons those in the middle and below do immoral/awful things (those at the top just have a bigger impact). And some of those in the middle that just accept the status quo because "I've got a mortgage! I've gotta eat! I made these crappy kids and now I have to do awful things so they can eat!" will go on to be those at the top who continue the same behavior.
- NTDF9 9y agoI want to know more. As a late 20s person, I am experiencing everything you described.