Conformity and the Rich Man

One of the very early articles which I wrote for Social Rebirth...

A recent study by Social scientist Dacher Keltner in an article titled : The Empathy Ceiling reveals that in general, the Rich really don’t care that much about the rest of humanity …

This is something which is implicitly understood by everyone else at the lower end of the Bell curve.

We placed them in this invidious position.

We elevated them to this rarefied atmosphere in which they live by inflating their absurd Egos.

Telling them all that because they had hoarded more of Societies Life-blood, they were somehow ‘special’…more important than those who were less ruthless, less greedy and less obsessed with outward appearances.

Take a good look…welcome to your value-system…welcome to your nightmare.

Scratch the surface of most rich men, and you could easily be forgiven for thinking that beneath their glittering facade must surely lie a scared, insecure person who, out of necessity requires fake social props, artificial enhancements and superficial outward trappings in order to feel ‘adequate’ enough to interact with the rest of us.

Following this thought process we strip away the persona and find a scared , vulnerable being with a serious complex infact some argue a pathological complex.

A complex which contains hidden within it’s intricate facade, subtle and cleverly concealed  ‘Empathy  Impairment’ issues, and usually the more they need to flaunt their obscene ‘wealth’ the deeper the complex.

These are natural responses to our environment and it’s system of stratification.

In our present World it is a good thing, a noble thing to be Rich, to be a success story.
In other words, we have  ALL inevitably drunk from the electric Kool-Aid, all bought into the myth of the capitalist dream whether voluntarily or against our will.

It really makes little difference due to the nature of our profit-driven paradigm which imprisons and implicates us, and therefore these negative attributes are naturally in all of us.

It is merely a matter of degree…

So, why did the rich man cross the road…?

So that he could show everyone the huge new diamond on his ring finger and the fat wallet in his pocket.

If no one was watching, what could possibly be the point in wearing all those status symbols?

“Look how important I am!”  ~  It’s an illusion folks!


A little magic trick with props and wardrobe.

Abra Cadabra…Shazam!…and he is suddenly really Important…puffed up, riding high on the hog, with a Limo load of shiny baubles and plastic gadgets from which the blood has already been wiped…and the hog has already been bled.

The ‘Yes Men’ in their inimitable style demonstrated perfectly our ‘weakness’ for these types of conformist ‘group think’ assumptions and superficial value judgements in their now infamous documentary.