Most of us have a learned sense of helplessness. It is most often aided by a learned selfishness. This is in no way a blanket condemnation of the majority of people, it is simply a diagnosis of the situation. We are in fact victims of mindsets that have been passed along by our media and our institutions of learning in order to promote the attitudes of our ruling class. Allow me to explain.
Our ruling class is composed of those who have the most wealth and power. In life, you tend to get what you desire most and work hardest for, and those with the most wealth and power tend to have them because they focused their energy and attention on them. Assuredly there are other factors involved that aide them in their quest for wealth and power: physical prowess, good looks, winning personality, intelligence, talent, work ethic, etc. (To be fair, there are also negative attributes involved: heartlessness, obsessiveness, dishonesty, etc. We have to include these since many a fortune has been made through immoral and illegal means. Pablo Escobar, for example, was extraordinarily wealthy.) But overall, wealth and power are acquired by those who most desire them. It is no different in any other field (e.g. First chair is generally given to the musician who focuses most on winning it. Good health is generally given to those who prioritize it the most. Sexual conquest is achieved most often by those who prioritize it over stable relationships.)
So our ruling class mainly consists of those who have acquired the most wealth and power. They do this by concentrating single-mindedly on acquiring the tools and attitudes which will help them to gain wealth and power. This requires an immense focus, and such a focus means not even being aware of lesser aims. Anything that does not lead to their further acquisition of wealth and power becomes irrelevant. In fact, for them, practically speaking, such things do not exist.
Narrative control is a vastly underestimated dimension of power. Those who tell the stories can shape the behavior of others. It has always been this way. The divine right of kings justified the actions of those who had most successfully pursued wealth and power. So too do rags-to-riches stories help promote the view of the wealthy and powerful. While almost none of our ruling class were born into poverty, they like to believe in a system where it is hard work rather than privilege that has put them in the position they inhabit. They like to believe they are in positions of power and have a disproportionate degree of wealth because of their superior attributes and not because of their positions of privilege and an obsessive and unnatural desire for wealth and power at the cost of nobler pursuits. And not only do THEY want to believe it, they want EVERYBODY to believe it.
Those with power wish to share their understanding of the world, which is that pursuing wealth and power is the noblest way to spend your life. They want everybody to believe that the system that brought them to power and maintains their wealth is the finest system there is or ever could be, because it makes the rulers look good and assists in their continued pursuit of ever more wealth and power. They want you to look upon them as role models and want you to live according to their values.
Narrative control is one of the greatest forms of power, and wealth helps them to buy the media that shapes narratives. I don’t think most of us would be too different if we had the wealth and power to shape our world. I know radio would sound a whole lot different if I were in charge. I know the books people read in school would be different if I had a say. So I’m not necessarily even blaming the super-rich for our learned helplessness or our learned selfishness. It’s not a matter of finding someone to blame, it’s about understanding why we feel so helpless and allow ourselves to become so selfish. It’s because the narrative that is controlled by the obscenely wealthy is focused on the things that benefit them and not on the things that might benefit the overwhelming majority of human beings on this planet.
Now that we know that those who most desire wealth and power have both the desire and the means to shape the narratives that instruct us, it becomes easy for us to understand why we feel so helpless. We feel helpless for two reasons. The first is that the rich and powerful (and they are mainly different from us because of their obsessive need for riches and power) have no interest in discussing mindsets that do not further their own goals. This is a conscious decision of theirs. They want to deprive the majority of people (who do not share as passionately their desire for power and wealth) of the powerful tools they need to create a society that helps the masses at the expense of the ruling elite. The tools that would help the majority are those narratives that do not stress self-interest and domination over others. Our rulers obviously do not want to give the majority these tools, so they use their wealth and power to promote a narrative which works in their favor.
While the ruling elite consciously use their power and wealth to shape the narrative, they also unconsciously shape it. As I said earlier, those who desire wealth and power are so singularly focused on their pursuit that they simply do not see the things that have meaning to those who prize others values, such as building strong communities, preserving the natural world, and being present for friends and family. Our rulers have no time for such pursuits, and have no interest in talking about them. Therefore, the institutions which they control will neither talk about nor promote such values.
Parameters are therefore set for those seeking change from within the system. The average person who seeks to make a better society feels hopeless because the solutions they are permitted to discuss are strictly limited. In the realm of voting, they are given the choice of voting out one party that serves the ruling elite by voting in the other party that serves the ruling elite. Given these options, it is no wonder why the majority of people in our society feel helpless.
Helplessness in one aspect of life leads one eventually to find some other aspect of their life they might be able to improve. A runner who becomes paralyzed might shift his energies into wheelchair sports. A singer who loses their voice might take to playing the piano in order to still participate in music. A person who feels helpless to build a better world will likely direct his energies into personal ambitions. The desire to make things better still exists, but the energy will be directed into avenues that jibe with the narratives of the ruling elite.
In wanting to improve our own lot in life, we quickly learn that we proceed more quickly when we share the same values as those who are above us. Those who are in the position to allow us to move upward in society in turn have already discovered this, and so have adopted the values and the attitudes of their gatekeepers. And so it goes, straight up to the top. The more you assimilate the values of the ruling elite, the less barriers that are placed between you and success in the system they have created. Therefore, along the many different levels of society, it is understood that embracing the values of the ruling elite enables you to achieve greater success, while embracing values that run contrary to the people on top are only going to hurt you. When you have already assimilated the idea that you are helpless to make change outside of the system, it is easier to succumb to the values of those who will at least enable you to have some success within the system.
So the ruling elite instill a sense of helplessness in the people in order that they might choose the elite’s preferred “virtue” of selfishness. This in turn increases the power of the ruling elite still further. It also further increases the feelings of helplessness among those who do not place the acquisition of wealth and power above the desire to build a world built upon values such as community, fraternity and equality. Concepts for building a better world that have existed for thousands of years are being systematically scrubbed from our consciousness by a system that works for an elite few while making the rest of us needlessly suffer.
I would like to leave you with a few thoughts. You are not helpless. The idea of you being helpless has been implanted in you by a narrative created by those who want you to feel helpless. Selfishness is not your path to success, it is the path that those who wish to control you would like to see you take. The story they tell you is not one that is intended to serve you but them. There are other ways, better ways that we might take. There is so much more to this world than the tawdry narratives of selfishness and helplessness would have you believe. They have constricted your world, put your mind in a prison of their design. Only a beaten-down slave or a sadistic prison guard would accept the narrative that is given us.
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