on power

Since I have completely misplaced my vocal chords and now have the voice of kermit the frog, i was searching online for interesting documentaries about trade i could show to my students instead of giving them a free lesson to sleep or do other work (yes, i'm evil like that). i came across a few pretty interesting finds (if you're interested, search free + fair trade on youtube), and in particular, one of them was of Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay, who was explaining that everything on his hand was a symbol of what he believed in. one of them was a big equal sign on the back of his hand, which symbolized his deep belief in fair trade, since we should give back what we take from others.

it was so inspiring to see such a talented musician be passionate about something other than his own fame or success, and it occurred to me that one of the very big problems of this world is that many of those who care most passionately about the big issues in the world, are unfortunately, usually people that do not have the resources to make a big impact. Karl Marx imagined a revolution powered and engineered by the common masses - something that we have utterly failed to do for him, since we have become so globally knitted and intertwined, yet more distant, disconnected, and differentiated from others than ever. i won't go into the details of my theories of why we no longer have a sense of community or connectedness, but the fact is this - somewhere along the line, regular joe's and mary's like us, who have worked hard to climb out of the stickiness of the lower and middle classes, have figured that helping out the rest of the little people was no longer an important task in their social or political agenda, and have left us jumping up in hopes of grasping that little piece of leftover cheese that the rich dangle over our heads.

so what happened? well, power happened. you see, once you put both power and money into play, the picture becomes so much clearer. suddenly you have all this money to spend, and all this influence, people who think you are important and worship you and praise you for your ability to do so well for yourself and your family. you need a nice, well-furnished and spacey sub-urban home and a new, powerful SUV or Benz to show just how well you can provide for yourself, and since you've made all those long-term investments, well, that means you have to work even harder to make sure the money keeps coming in. or else, where else are your kids and pets and clothes and electronic devices and your ego, going to live? God forbid, you can't go back to being one of those lowly regular Joe's that wear clothing from Gap or Blue Navy (or Giordano if you're from HK)...or can you?

being rich and powerful consumes us with the need and the drive to continue pursuing being more rich or more powerful. or at least, making sure we don't fall back into the bottom ranks. with inflation being such a convenient excuse (hey, i have to grow my money or it'll all be worth nothing!), who can blame them? but all these preoccupations leave very little time to make an impact on the people who are still waiting to be lifted up from their gravely unfair and undesirable conditions of living. what people should realize and constantly remind themselves of, is that power is not an end in itself. power is supposed to be used for something. to create some sort of positive change or influence.

so what i ask is this. since i feel like i'm starting to get a steady flow of readership from random next blog clickers,

If you are someone who is of importance or influence, do or say something that is important.

in fact, make it your daily exercise of doing and saying things that are only important, because what you say and what you do is heard much louder than what us little people say, and any waste of that power that was blessed upon you, is really, truly, a shame.