The Elephant in the Room

The Elephant in the Room

According to the Global Wealth Pyramid report published by Credit Suisse AG in January 2018, the number of those with a wealth of 1 million USD or more is only 36 million. These people, who are 0.7% of the world's population, have acquired 45.9% of the world's wealth, which is 280 trillion US dollars, or 128.7 trillion US dollars.

When we go down to those whose wealth is only 10 thousand US dollars and look at the top of the pyramid again, we see that the rate has barely reached 30%. In summary, 70% of the world lives in abject poverty. On top of that, every initiative that will increase world wealth is funded by those at the top of the wealth pyramid. The lion's share of the new wealth that emerges is shared by them.

Of course, every institution is established and operates to make a profit. I have no words for institutions that operate in accordance with the law and ethical rules, are managed by enlightened leaders who understand the responsibilities of their existence, have sincere corporate cultures equipped with human values, and share their earnings transparently and fairly with everyone from the top to the bottom. But unfortunately, the corporate majority operating in today's world are not like that.

Just as a society is the sum of the individuals that make up it, institutions are the sum of the people that make up it. If the founder of a company is an incorrigible ambitious person, the company will inevitably be ambitious too. It is impossible for a company whose boss does not value people to be an institution that values people. Today's companies founded and managed by dark leaders are no different from the barbarian tribes that attacked and plundered any country they came across in primitive times.

It is naive, to say the least, to hope that our world will one day be a better place for humanity under the majority leadership in every aspect of society of these daring, insatiable, dark ambitions who are trying to get away with relying on (supposedly) Ayn Rand's rational self-interest. Whether industrialists, entrepreneurs or politicians, such people work only for their own rational interests, and they never care about the rational interests of others - as long as it is not in their interest.

While we teach our children not to lie, not to cheat, to work hard, to deserve, to throw their garbage in the correct recycling bins and pay our taxes before they even receive our salaries; They never stop dumping waste into the seas for more profit, cutting down trees for new land, winning tenders by establishing relationships with the right people or taking advantage of loopholes in the law, and finding more and more creative ways to evade taxes.

Their relationship with money is bad: They are either wasteful or stingy. While some people hoard all their earnings in their bank accounts without compensating their employees, others buy sports cars that do not fit in their garages and even go on holidays by private plane or helicopter.

Their business model is about being smarter than everyone else; in other words, they built it on the gullibility of people. You believe in the man and sign a contract in five minutes. When you are unhappy, you cannot get rid of him in five years. They are masters of lies, deception, manipulation and politics, and they specialize in passing the responsibility on to others.

They measure success by having one of three things: Wealth, Power and Fame. A fat bank account, a high seat and a well-known name, a well-known face. They are trying to achieve one of them - or rather, all of them.

Even though what they have has ZERO marginal benefit for them after a point, they always want more as if they are caught in a cursed hunger. When we look closely, we see that the endless hunger of these dark ambitions is behind most of the economic crises that deeply affect the world.

It is not known whether it is because while they were studying, they were always faced with teachers with poor grades who did not give points for the way they were going; They don't care about well-intentioned effort, hard work, etc., they only care about the result. For this reason, they go to any lengths and try every method to achieve results and be successful.

What about failure? For them, this is nothing but a terrible, deadly and contagious disease. They are so afraid of failure that modern psychology has included their fear in the literature as a type of phobia (Atikiphobia).

Do you think these ambitious people, who hold half of the world's wealth, will not protect their wealth? Or in other words, while 70% of the world is hungry, can those who buy a Louis Vuitton bag for 30 thousand Euros live without installing an alarm system in their homes? This alarm system is none other than the media, which turns dark ambitions from being responsible to heroes.

While they work day and night in pursuit of wealth, power and fame, the media does not remain idle; It ranks business people according to their wealth, publishes their names on the most powerful lists, fills magazine covers and television screens with them, and even features their glittering private lives in society magazines.

As we are exposed to this bombardment that rains down from every direction every day and envy the lives we see, their definition of success is deeply imprinted in our brains: If you want to be like them, you too will be rich, powerful and famous.

Thus, each of us becomes trapped in our own dark triangle of wealth - power - fame. Our life consists of the edges we keep bumping into while searching for the corners of this triangle.

However, most of us will not have a story in which we found even one of these three, let alone this trio. We will neither be rich nor powerful nor famous. After chasing these goals for years, one day we will lose hope and give up. While we sit in our own corner and try to silently digest being one of the losers, we will actually resent our luck, become increasingly unhappy, fall into severe depression, suffer from panic attacks, diabetes, stomach disease, and become friends with doctors and friends with medications.

I wish at that point I would first realize what was happening and say, "There's something wrong with this." If only we could say! But we won't say, we don't say. Because our inner voice pulls us in line and says, "What can you do alone?" says. So, we quietly pass the baton to our children and enter them into the race we couldn't win, and it continues like this for generations. However, what is the difference between a person who does not question what he does and why he does it, and a mouse that runs around in its circle every day until it dies of a heart attack?

What we don't realize is this: When we confine success to the triangle of wealth - power - fame, life turns into a race where the only way is to win. While this makes the world we live in a dark place, it also makes our lives unbearable. Because when life is a race, there are always winners and losers in the end. And of course, no one wants to be a loser.

The person who is condemned to live in this dark triangle seeks happiness in being superior to others, in earning more, in having more. That's why he deals with others instead of dealing with himself; He compares himself to others instead of comparing himself to his (own) inner potential.

As the number of people entering the race (population) increases, opportunities (resources) decrease and targets move further away. In this case, in order to survive (!), man embraces his predatory instincts and chooses to be one of those who win at all costs.

Where superiority over others, winning, and possessing are appreciated; Values such as equality, helpfulness and sharing are portrayed as weaknesses and corrupted. With references to jealousy, one's human right to criticism is plundered. "Who are you?" It is becoming the sentence we hear most.

Unfortunately, at the end of such a life, from the bloodcurdling eyes of man; With the hatred he will feel for himself and the lies that only he will believe; In the end, it becomes nothing but a completely wasted life.

Americans call facts that are obvious but treated as if they do not exist the "elephant in the room".

Today, there is a great truth that stands out clearly: The world population has increased 3.5 times in the last 100 years. In the next 100 years, it will increase 4.5 times compared to today and exceed 30 billion. However, we know that the world's wealth is not shared fairly and that the resources required for life cannot meet such a population increase. We can solve the acute problems of our world, which will soon become intractable, not by competing for resources according to our strength, but by sharing them fairly despite our strength.

However, in order to achieve this - that is, to continue our journey to the coral color at the top of the theory of spiral dynamics - it is not enough to make new and magnificent discoveries in fields such as science, technology, medicine, agriculture and industry.

Now it is time to make two major revolutions in thought and action: 1) Redefine success 2) Raise enlightened leaders who will embrace and strengthen this definition in all areas of society.