Forum Post: WHY we should LOVE the 1%
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 20, 2011, 11:17 a.m. EST by therising
(6643)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
A number of people have made comments on this site about the 99% hating money.
No one said anything about hating money.
The 1% are LOST and that is what causes them to be greedy and heartless at times. They're not happy having over abundance. They're trapped by all that stuff. They define themselves by it.
The form of the word love I'm referred to us agape, universal love. We're talking abou love of humanity, knowing that at the core of every being, however hidden, is a core of goodness. Once you see that, it becomes less about fighting and hating (which only hurts the hater really) and more about loving the lost so they find themselves and stop clumsily hurting the other 99% of the population.
That's not to say there aren't lost among the 99% too who find their identity in money and things or the hope of obtaining them. I'm critiquing that mindset no matter what the oerson's net worth is. It's clear though that the financial winners in this current economy have a pretty big devotion to things and money for its own sake though. Otherwise they wouldn't trade their values and sell their kids, grandkids, country and their fellow citizens down the river just to get from $4.8 billion net worth to $5.2 billion in net worth.
Obviously I'm leaving out the harm they cause to the environment and other countries and the citizens of the world. It's not just the CONSUMER that buys the pair of sketchers sneakers made by 6 year olds in China at a factory that pollutes the air and water. It's also the producer who makes the decision, raises the capital, arranges the marketing etc.
Everyone loves to blame the consumer, whether it's people who buy Nike or homebuyers who borrowed money from Bush's buddy Countrywide's Anthony Mozillo. Yes, consumers should educate themselves and make good choices. Completely agree and I'm not letting consumers off the hook.
But let's not forget the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of marketing that goes on to perpetuate these brands and this business model. Absent a regulatory superwoman like Elizabeth Warren pushing for consistent disclosure,, it's not easy for consumer to see through the smokescreen. That doesn't let the consumer off the hook but it does put the PRODUCER on the hook. They've been given a pass for too long.
The head of Interface Carpet, world's largest supplier of carpet, has woken up to this and has been telling fellow top CEO's, they're going to be putting people like us in jail soon (people who make money by polluting environment and ruining economy).
He's right.
That said, we're going to have to follow Gandhi and King's example and engage in active nonviolent tactics. And we're going to have to do so with the right mindset: loving the 1% enough to set them right. That was King's prescription and that's how he and his supporters won civil rights for millions. It wasn't just the tactics. It was also the mindset. It works.
The saddest part about the concentration of wealth in this country is that it's most often just stored or used for junk. Granted, the junk of the 1% is bigger, fancier and more long lasting than ours, but the key is that the buzz they get from it quickly fades. So it becomes an addiction just like any other addiction. They're going after the dopamine buzz and it gets harder and harder to get it.
If they're lucky, they come to their wits end and discover family, art, life, love, whatever. But most don't, the poor saps. Their extravagant resources enslave them. It seems strange to say but we need compassion for the 1% too. We really do. For our own good and theirs. The reason they're plundering the world is that they're lost.
There's a move in the martial art Aikido where, when your opponent aggresses towards you, you take a slight step to the side. Then, instead of aggressing towards him, you move with him and "help him to the ground where he'll be safer." It's remarkable because you use his energy. You harness it. And you do it with the true motivation of helping him. I agree with others who say that all power flows from that mindset and approach.
Check out this short video -- gotta watch all three minutes to see what happens. Shows exactly why nonviolence is so powerful. If these people had gone with violence, they would have lost. Watch this. You won't believe your eyes. This was on college campus recently: http://occupywallst.org/forum/this-says-it-all-what-were-up-against-and-how-we-w/
Active. Nonviolent resistance with the right mindset: love. This is the answer.
The things you own, they now own you.
Exactly
We really do need to love the 1%. The reason for this is that, 99% is great, but 100% is even better and should be the real goal. United we stand, divided we fall. Let's get to 100%. Let's use Gandhi and King tactics. But let's remember that the means inform the ends. Therefore, let's also use Gandhi and Kings mindset. That is the only way we can succeed. With love, we will win
The argument "Money can't buy happiness" was created by the rich to make the poor leave them alone.
If you're a stable person, getting money (even metric shit tons of it) does not change you.
MOST people on this planet though are by and large petty and mean. So when they get money that's just magnified. If "everyone" had a lot it wouldn't be as much of an issue because people would just care less.
I personally have nothing against the1% It's the misdirected policy/law/rules/playing field that many of them used to aquire that wealth I stand against.
OWS as a whole is very much like this post. At it's core it's an anracho-commune and most of it's members have never even been in business for themselves, or have a basic understanding of economics. It's just "Rich = Bad, Communal stuff = Good no matter what!" lemmings following a broken message where there aren't really a lot of shades of gray.
And now (as their REAL message and obvious decline) gets clearer to the public, you see the kind of RAPID abandoning of support from the other 98.999% of the population.
I've owned a successful business for almost 15 years so be careful what assumptions you make. Also, did you imply that this post was anarchist at its core?? Dthats wrong. You have too little faith in human nature. There is good in each. Just a littl more buried in some.
I assume nothing, I said "the majority", also I have faith in human nature, I just know that almost nothing is as unpredictable.
Wealth has a proven direct corrolation to happiness. If you're shallow it makes you happy, if you're not you can use it to help others and make yourself happy, either way my point stands.
i support. love is the key.
Time for humanity to rise and shine and become the 100%
Love and nonviolence are more forceful than violence.
There are real concrete answers as to exactly what was done to put the 99% in the position they are in today. And there are real cases and real crimes that need to be brought to justice. Only a few people, those that worked in the think tanks of the large corporations and governments, know why things happened the way they did, and this information, of course, helps those "in the know", understand what is required for the proper changes. Most of this information is still not on Occupy sites, nor is it common knowledge.
I'm listening. Where do we get the info then?
I put up Occupy1.org - the purpose is to put on this site, DIRECT MONEY ACTIONs, GOALs and OBJECTIVEs that have consensus from ALL OCCUPY cities. This will give Occupy a real concrete agenda that will work.
For example, Occupy can create its own banks. Internet penny wealth distribution can fund most of Occupy's actions. This is where a million people contribute a penny or a dime to something, over the Internet, and all of a sudden Occupy has an extra $100,000 to fund things.
Occupy should put up its own Communication Satellites. Satellites don't cost much these days. Occupy can do it. I loathe google, youtube and facebook. I use youtube, but I don't use facebook and don's use google.
OccupyVideo.org may replace YouTube. Google is one of the top five worst enemies of Occupy and the 99%, yet people don't believe it. They still use gmail, and facebook, and google, with their govt partners, read all the mail and communications coming through their servers.
One of Occupy's problems is not being able to go through ALL THE IDEAS from everyone. There is software that does this - called H2O rotisserie software. Suppose a million ideas are out there, how to manage that? Each person reviews, maybe 5 ideas. And each idea is reviewed by five or ten people. Everyone scores the ideas. After the first round, to get the best ideas, the million ideas would be reduced to maybe 100,000 ideas. Then, again, every person reviews 5 ideas, and do the scoring again. Eventually, the best 30 ideas will surface, and all ideas will have been reviewed. Occupy IS NOT YET USING THIS PROCESS, and IT NEEDS TO.
There are lots of great ideas not getting to the top. But it will happen. Anyway, hope some of these radical ideas get your heart pumping!
Sounds totally cool
We were all born with a natural instinct to gather and store for survival. A natural instinct to care for family and community. This is human nature.
When modern society was formed, we began to sell out our natural instincts. Survival turned into survival with a little more elbow room. Then survival with a little more elbow room and a nice view. Then survival with a little more elbow room, a nice view, and something pretty to hang around our neck.
Fast forward a few thousand years. With the industrial revolution, came mechanized transportation, modern housing, air conditioning, and television.
We had become somewhat spoiled. Somewhat motivated. Still relatively down to Earth. Still modest enough to appreciate one another, care for one another, and work towards a common goal.
Along the way, the potential for increased personal wealth became more and more intoxicating. Now, the vast overwhelming majority want to be rich. They want it so badly, they are willing to sell out basic morality to attain it. They WILL sell out basic morality if given the opportunity.
How can I be so sure? That's easy. Human nature plus years of corrupt influence plus opportunity.
Mother Nature did not plan for modern society. She did not plan for extreme personal wealth. Once attained, we become fully intoxicated. We simply can not process the concept without being corrupted by it. Without compromising our basic morality.
Extreme personal wealth is the single greatest corrupt influence of modern society. With every 'zero' on the paycheck, our basic instincts to care for family and community are compromised.
Those of you who still aren't convinced, consider this:
If God himself gave you the power to end poverty, bring about world peace, and take a bonus of $100,000,000 for yourself, would you do it?
If God himself gave you the power to end poverty, bring about world peace, OR take a bonus of $100,000,000 for yourself, which would you choose?
Which would the vast overwhelming majority choose?
Why are the richest men and women in the world so incredibly determined to get even richer?
How did the world's wealth become so incredibly concentrated?
Why is the concept of a partial redistribution for the good of all so incredibly divisive and controversial?
How is it that virtually every developed nation in the world has become riddled with fear, instability, and rising debt?
How have so many world leaders and those affiliated become even richer as their own economies falter?
The answer is greed. An obsessive desire for extreme personal wealth. It's become a worldwide epidemic. Smashing through moral character like a runaway train.
Not only is the greatest concentration of wealth in world history the single greatest underlying cause of economic instability. The very concept of extreme personal wealth is the most intoxicating and corrupt influence in the history of mankind. There will be no recovery. The train won't stop until the track runs out.
Greed kills. It will be our downfall.
Greed is the fluff that people use to fill the holes in their lives. In order to fight against greed, we need to offer something other than the fluff, the materialistic goods, the power, to fill that hole in peoples lives. That new thing to fill the hole in peoples lives is Community. I certainly believe in individualism. It is an important part of life. However many people forget about the other half of life, the beauty of living in community with others. When we wall ourselves off and gated communities, we miss out on the benefit of living in community with others.
Damn good thoughts. Damn good. I'm 'a' gonna save 'em.
God himself DID give me the power to end poverty, bring about world peace, to the tune of $15 billion per year. And yes, I was ready to respond to "save the world". It has always been my nature. I have always been the righteous-hero type.
Back in high school there was a black girl and a muslim girl who were being picked on by bullies. To stop it the girls discussed their options: police, teacher, principal, or me. They didn't go to the other people, they went to me, and I was just a 15 yr old student. I am not particular big, but I am tough, and everyone knew because of my athletic talents. And yes, I responded, had a conversation with the racists, showed my fist, just like the Occupy fist, and the problem was solved.
Think about Lord of the Rings, and all those stories about how there are a few benevolent princes, that, if they have the power, will not succumb to greed, but will help the people. There are BENEVOLENT leaders out there. GOD DID provide these people to us. I am NOT the only one like this. But all the princes have had their money taken, they have been assassinated, and otherwise kept away from their fortunes and kingdoms, and so they CANNOT help the people, because of the corporate greedy fraternity.
And yes, I would always choose helping the people over the $100,000,000 bonus. If someone helped the people like that, that person wouldn't need any money, the people would always give back to the hero, in gratitude, and the hero would be blessed with free meals, free plane tickets, free parties, and the hero wouldn't need any money at all. THAT WAS MY PLAN - over the course of my life, I would have spend it all to help save the world, for me, for my family, for your family, for all of our children, for the earth, for the dolphins, etc.
The idea that money corrupts everyone is just not true. And the corporate greed people KNOW that. They KNEW my outlook, and that's why they stole all my money, stole 12 years of my life, and what people don't understand when I tell them the story, is they think I just want money for myself. They don't get the real story. When I tell most Occupy people the story they think - "Oh, he was supposed to be a big shot 1% guy, and he got ripped off! Good for him!"
They don't realize that my entire life of schooling, and working, culminated into GREAT discoveries for mankind and the reason I made these discoveries, the real INCENTIVE, was NOT money for me. The real incentive was how to help the world. And the reason my discoveries and inventions worked, WAS BECAUSE my incentives were in the right place. The reason, NONE of the corporate greed people NEVER made the same discoveries was because they were too busy trying to create a way to make money for themselves!
The irony is, the guy who was trying to save the world came up with the big money making discoveries. So they stole all I had, and now I am going to get it ALL back.
Our downfall is not greed. Our downfall is lettering the BAD people, keep our princes and heros from coming up. The reason "they" stole from me, is they knew I was not part of the greed train, and they didn't want me, so they stole.
I had protest posters 3 weeks BEFORE 9/11 at the WTC - no one was listening. I was a decade to early. Now that Occupy has started I have a VERY difficult task in explaining to Occupy my story. Occupy does not UNDERSTAND, nor do they believe, that when I get my billions back, that my focus will be to help all my brothers and sisters around the globe.
I dream of the day when I will walk into Occupy handing out hundred dollar bills to people, and do that to every Occupy area around the world.
Yes, God himself DID give me the power. But that power can only be realized if I walk the path of getting my property back, getting my kingdom back, that was stolen.
And it was stolen from me, and it was stolen from YOU. Your life would have been different, if the theft did not happen. What happened affects EVERYONEs lives here on Earth.
First of all I want you to elaborate on that first line involving 15 billion per year. No individual has ever been compensated anywhere near that much in a single year for any reason.
You can't just throw out a line like that and expect me to take another word seriously. I will not debate a single issue with you until you elaborate on that first line.
i am the inventor and patent owner, and copyright owner of Google's adwords, which earns over $15 billion per year. I am supposed to be one of the wealthiest humans on earth, and I have nothing.
And they abuse the system. The original invention was an Internet based Global Labor Marketplace. It was supposed to be a fair marketplace. Google stole it, paid off my attorneys, made me wait 7 years for the patent, and instead of using the system to help the people with labor, they use it to earn as much money for themselves. They violate anti-trust laws by adjusting bids, and they leave small business out of the marketplace. About 80% of all of Adwords is for labor. It controls about $400 billion of commerce. The $15 billion is for leads, and those leads result in about $400 billion of commerce, most it slanted so Google's favorite partners get the business, and no one knows about it, except me, and a few others.
Next question?
Well, not that I necessarily believe you but I'll fake it just for the purpose of discussion.
No one man's contribution to society is worth anywhere near $15,000,000,000 per year. Or per life for that matter. The very concept of compensation anywhere near that obscene for one man is beyond reason. That sort of concentration inevitably alters the scale and the value of currency. It causes economic instability. It causes poverty. No one man with an ounce of humanity would consider himself worthy of such a fortune. There is no excuse. Therefore, I can not take another word from you seriously.
So it's my fault that according to the US Constitution that I have rights to my intellectual property. And you hate me already because I invented something great? And then I had it stolen? It's funny, it's ok to help someone who had $100,000 stolen. But if a man had his $300 billion company stolen, that's ok. What caused economic instability and poverty is the people who stole it!!! NOT ME!!! but yet, you, who is not the hero type, hate me because I am supposed to be wealthy according to rules. Go ahead and look up the patent and the documents. It's all there. But I will tell you what, after I get my money back, I will give all Occupy people enough money to live on, except YOU.
Assuming that our founding fathers were somewhat noble, they could not have imagined just how complicated the economy would become and how much wealth would eventually be concentrated. That being said, the constitution is in desperate need of an amendment.
I don't want a dime from you. Or this cause. I'm not even here for myself. You are.
i am here to save people like you. And it's not the constitution that needs amending. The US Constitution is just fine. What we are going through is an economic evolution, and during that evolution, the BAD people got hold of the reins!!!! that's what you don't get!!!! The GOOD people did not get to make the decisions 10 years ago. That's why I went around the world trade center 3 weeks before 9/11 with PROTEST POSTERS!!!! I was a VERY EARLY Occupy protestor. Not for me. FOR YOU and everyone.... because i was there when the BAD people were making the decisions that led YOU here today.
It's not smart to change the Constitution as a response to a TEMPORARY bad state of economic affairs. You put in ACCOUNTABILITY and REASON, and then you will find the US Constitution is NOT BEING followed NOW. The problem isn't the US Constitution, ITS THE FACT THE JUDGES and ATTORNEYS and POLICE etc., etc., ARE IGNORING IT.
You are absolutely right. "I am not here for myself". You are right, I am not. I am here to save YOU. I am already gonna be a billionaire. I don't need YOU, or ANYONE in Occupy to get my money.
When I am a billionaire, you can remember how I said I was going to help everyone, and then you can watch what I will do.
Bullshit. Stop concentrating so much God damn wealth.
you stated this on the internet working group as well. if you had a case, no attorney in the world would turn down the opportunity. stop trying to discredit corporations without cause, you look like an idiot.
Every attorney in the world DID turn down the opportunity, for many reasons. You obviously don't know the world of venture capital and lawyers. Watch me arrest the corporate executives for stealing what is mine. Without cause? you must work for google! you can read the case yourself. And by the way, I am not an idiot, it's just like someone once said: "Humans have a unique ability to disregard the truth, if the truth is disturbing." And that's what you are doing.
It's interesting that you and the woman, modestcapitilist, have VERY LITTLE power to help the Occupy movement, where I have HUGE potential power, which I want to help, but .... there is this little thing called disbelief... and jealousy.... I am used to it... You and her, both or your reactions are very common, mundane, and uninteresting.
According to the IRS the top 1% is anyone who makes $350,000 or more:
So are these the people who you dislike and think need "help"? Your programmers and engineers and managers?
What exactly is your point?
Some of them. Yes. And some in the 99%. Anyone with a materialistic mindset who will trade on the suffering of others to get a little more for themselves. The key is to help people discover the benefits if community. In their isolation the many who live in gated communities are missing out on half of life.
That sounds like the crap I hear churches preaching. I don't want moral dictatorship from the Pope, and I certainly don't want it from the President. The government is not allowed to force us to adopt either a religion or religious moral code.
Is helping others a good thing? Yes absolutely.
Should we force people to be charitable? No absolutely not.
It appears you aren't reading carefully. You see, walling yourself in individualism and gated community creates situation where you miss out on half of life. Nobody said anything about the government forcing you to enjoy the other half of life (being engaged in a dynamic community). What undid say is that it would be wonderful if you got past the cult of individualism.
Martin Luther Ming, Jr. put it like this "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. We are, all of us, inextricably linked.".
Beautiful.
Pastor King forgot Jesus' advice not to bother your neighbors. "Do not criticize the splinter in your neighbor's eye, when you have a log in your own. Remove the log from your eye first." In other words focus on yourself and improving yourself.
Individualism. The opposite (shared wealth) encourages slackers (like me) to do nothing and just live off the free cash I'm sucking out of my neighbors' wallets. It fails due to sloth.
I have no idea what you're talking about. What are you talking about? You think MLK was bad?
No.
Re-read what I wrote. It's clear.
Which is exactly why entitlements should be ended.
I don't think we need to "end" them, but at the very least we should stop calling them "entitlements". It's a HANDOUT. Money was taken from you and your neighbors & handed-out to others.
In the case of the TARP Bailout and Stimulus bills passed by the Democrat Congress, those handouts went to corporations.
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