It's the LOVE of money... now I get it.

[jasonderoga86]

A Medium article I read this morning opened my eyes to the way wealthy people are mostly seen among the rest of society. It covers things I knew in theory but was never able to fully explain or put into a comprehensive statement. But it’s quite clear now.

They say too much money is a mental health issue. Suddenly that stereotype that most rich people are spoiled brats, some even known to have been born with a golden spoon in their mouth, makes a lot of sense. Even more frightening is the fact that some of the richest people on the planet have absolutely zero empathy, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or David Zaslav (okay, not on the planet in his case, but he still lacks any empathy). Some are really frauds behind the “successful” image, like Trump. In other cases, some people have massive wealth, but are (or were) unhappy with themselves, bordering on miserable, very much like the late Michael Jackson. In Musk's case, there's the story that shortly after he took over Twitter, an incident in which he was heavily booed led him to suffer a mental breakdown and literally lock himself up in his office, prompting his staffers to prepare to call the paramedics to possibly commit him involuntarily to hospitalization. And Trump, well, his fake business empire, his "wealth", is in serious danger and his already sucky mental health is spiraling into bloodlust -- he's getting hit where it really hurts. The real killer is that the general public unknowingly feeds into these people’s notions of superiority, whether they truly believe their status equates to such or not.

During our traditional Thanksgiving family gathering, I remember having a huge conversation with my brother and cousins about many things, among which were mental health, politics, religious extremism, “cancel culture”, the country’s unaddressed gun violence epidemic, and education being attacked by the “Anti-Woke” crusade. As everyone was packing up and heading home, I remembered bringing up the role of money with one of my cousins from Los Angeles. I stated that the adage that “money is the root of all evil” was certainly true in the grand scheme of things. He corrected me by saying, “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.” It felt like the proverbial light bulb went off in my head. There it was. The true point.

Money by itself doesn’t bring happiness or harm to anyone. But the love of money, the obsession with money… that can destroy entire countries, especially if the ones who are obsessed command so much influence. Anyone who said “too much of anything is bad for you” would surely be rejected by these individuals and their fans/followers/worshippers. For all they care, some of them equate their wealth to godhood, and there are plenty of examples of that; one of them is in major legal trouble civilly and federally right now... and is still running for the highest office in the U - S - of - A. In short, the love of money really does corrupt people, and to a more grievous extent… makes them completely oblivious to humanity around them.   

Man... I gotta say, that article was deep.

Comments

[matt_zimmer]

Do you know the most amazing thing about money? Its dirtiest secret that no-one is willing to admit because it could bring society to ruin? Money has no inherent value in and of itself. It's just paper and cheap metal discs, as well as banking information. Money only has value because we have all decided and agreed that it does. If one day in the near future every single person on Earth rejected its value and decided to use old socks as currency instead, the billionaire class would be good and fucked. They literally only have so much wealth and power because we all arbitrarily agreed to that. Nobody ever once says out loud things could change if we as a society collectively changed our minds about that.

[matt_zimmer]

The billionaire class' brand of evil isn't just banal, it's outright foolish. They believe their wealth and power (and bodyguards) will protect them from the upcoming climate apocalypse and water wars. The little people will suffer, but they'll be all set in their bomb shelters, and sociopaths gotta sociopath.

It never occurs to them in the event of a societal collapse, their money will not protect them. They actually own nothing of value then, and if their "loyal bodyguards" decide to murder them and their entire families then and there, and then take their bomb shelters for themselves and THEIR families, that's not some cruel twist of fate. It's the most obvious and likely outcome.

Fact. ✊🏾

[jasonderoga86]

I WANT to laugh at how asinine it is that people literally put HUMAN LIVES at stake for the purposes of amassing tons of green paper and metal discs, but I can't. It's that fact alone that actually makes me sad, and at the same time, really angry. To make matters worse, people are constantly being coerced (or in most cases, forced) to accumulate vast amounts of these objects in order to be seen as powerful and commanding of respect, and most of all, "successful." How is anyone supposed to be "successful" when the bar for the accumulation of these insignificant objects keeps rising? And all of this is supposed to represent "survival of the fittest"? No. That's bullshit. Your points are spot-on.

[a_natural_beauty]

I think you hit the nail on the head! As a child we grew up with little money. At the time it bothered me here and there, but I'm glad I grew up the way I did. It made me appreciate everything I have. Some of the worst people I have known have been swimming in money and I feel like at the end of the day those people truly not happy.

[jasonderoga86]

Yep, absolutely right. Not having millions of dollars, at least in my experience, allows one to appreciate what they have, their blessings, so to speak. Having millions or even trillions of dollars brings a person to an "instant gratification" mindset, as they believe that getting expensive thing after expensive thing will sustain their well-being... only to later realize those things actually have no value and don't identify who they are.

[a_natural_beauty]

I think those people will always be lacking basic people skills anyway. They believe money will buy anything and everything, but sometimes all I see is a person with a wallet full of cards and cash but a body with no heart.