Bowing to the Buck.
The media is full of stories of vast financial corruption from Bernie Madoff to the Corporate Executives, Bankers, Investment Houses, and Government officials that have literally scooped hundreds of billions of dollars of the American net worth right out of our pockets. Billions is sent out of this country to rebuild and subsidize other countries while our own people are ending up homeless by the hundreds every day. People are complaining and yet, doing nothing. These folks are still in positions of running the companies, banks and our government. Why do Americans continue to pay taxes to fund the government irresponsibility and corruption and do business with these institutions?
People worship money and the people who have it. People seem to some how feel important if they know someone who is wealthy. Worse yet, they brag about the person they know as if it some how elevates them to some higher status. Regardless of how some one of wealth may have acquired it, it seems folks are in awe of them. They allow behaviors of rudeness, condescending remarks, and tyrant like actions and say nothing.
People seem to gage their self worth and their “success” by how much they make, how much they have, who they know who may appear to have money and “success”. Albeit, if they put the “successful people” that are revered under a polygraph test, it is certain at some point they have lied, cheated, betrayed themselves, their own integrity, their values in the chase for the almighty dollar.
As Carolyn Myss said in a conference, “Our self-betrayal creates our suffering. When we ignore that interior voice that says – Don’t you dare do that…Don’t you dare say yes when you mean no”
Many people will instantly be quiet, speechless or worse, not stand up to a supposed person of “Power”, I have heard countless stories of those that will compromise themselves in the presence of a person of wealth or “status”. So they compromise their personal integrity to appease these people. These acts of self-betrayal create internal suffering, which in turn leads to a whole host of problems. (Emotional physical, psychological). I see people and hear stories about countless folks that will bow to the one who has the money.
A friend called me who is suffering right now under the pressure of the economic downturn. She called her brother, who is a multi millionaire, requesting some assistance as they can barely buy groceries. It was astonishing to hear his response, “I am sorry but I just had to spend $2Million on my plane, send money to two of my businesses overseas. There is too much money going out right now.” He said from his 4000sf penthouse home. It is suggested his personal net worth is in the tens of millions. And the worst part is, with all that, he does not think he has enough to help his sister buy groceries. He operates from a point of “lack” or “not enough”. It can be the only reason one could imagine why he would not help his struggling sister. Yet, in the business and society circles he is revered.
Have we really become a society that betrays our own values, our families and our consciences in exchange for our personal gains, or to raise our perception of our selves and our standing in society? What does it really mean if someone has millions in the bank and lots of things, if they have no compassion or worse yet, they stole, lied, cheated or stepped on countless others to achieve it? Is this, what we as a society hold up as something to be impressed with or to define as “successful people”? We can change this as a nation. Much like our forefathers did when they left to set out to create a new life here.
We have, and continue to give the power away to a system that awards thieves and corruption. People say that is the way of the world. Yet, that is not the way of my world. I, personally, have been around lots of wealth and worked in several industries – I have seen the corruption first hand. And for me, I left those places as I was taught that integrity and honesty are the keys to a truly happy life. I have seen the deceit and worse, the self-justification by these types of people. “Every man for himself and it is just how business is done”. So I ask, “Why?”
It seems to me, that the economic downturn is an opportunity. We have an opportunity to revisit how we think, what we hold valuable in our lives, who we really perceive as the “successful people”. We have an opportunity to reclaim our collective integrity and to stand for hard work, honesty, compassion and to redefine what we perceive as wealth or successful.
Power is perception. A person who walks through their lives, much like my parents did, and treats everyone equally and maintains their integrity in all areas of their lives are the ones to be revered. We learned that every person is valuable from the garbage man to the CEO. I have knows quite a few “influential” business men whose internal lives were a shambles. Yet, the community perception is these people have it all. Slowly but surely, we are witnessing the massive decay in our society. We revere narcissm and simply shake our heads to corruption. We complain, but do nothing. We are all responsible.
The days of my parents’ generation, they prided themselves on integrity, hard work and honesty. Some where along the line it seems we have sold out those values for the almighty buck. I personally don’t bow to the buck. I am fortunate, that I was taught some basics about what is really important in life. Money does not define me or the people that I revere and love.
I truly hope and pray that others begin to awaken to this …that they take this economic shake up as an opportunity to hold what is real and meaningful and important in life.
