It’s a difficult time at the moment. The people we have elected to work on our behalf seem to have forgotten what they are there for. Personal interest appears to have taken over from taking care of us, the people who elected them, and our children who will have to live with what is happening now.
I’ve been looking at various writers’ take on the phenomenon, about what happens when people’s values change.
Hari (2018) writes in his book ‘Lost connections’
“...they aren’t just suffering from the absence of something... They are also suffering from the presence of something - an incorrect set of values telling them to seek happiness in all the wrong places...” (Hari, 2018, p. 103)
Sometimes people set out with the best of intentions. They want to help people, contribute to society, make positive changes. What sometimes happens is that people around them start telling them they are great. They are inspirational. They are Role Models.
And they start to believe the hype. They decide they have a “brand” and begin to mix with people who tell them they are inspirational. People who tell them how great they are. Then these people living in bubbles, who started off meaning to be helpful and to contribute, begin giving each other awards to publicly say great they all are. They tell each other they are doing a really great job and inspiring future generations. They forget what a real job is and focus on being inspirational and making speeches. They can do this because they can afford to.
For ordinary people like me, it used to be tempting to believe the hype people created around each other. To believe that being in a “position of influence” was something to look up to.
Recently, however, we see it for what it is. It’s not about helping us feel ok. It’s not about creating jobs so that we, the people, can live. It’s not about caring and serving the community.
It’s about personal careers. It’s about their own self worth, which seems to require constant validation.