Strength
What does it mean to be strong? Are you the only one ‘man enough’ to speak the truth, regardless of how that might make others feel? Are you ‘man enough’ to say what needs to be said, to do what needs to be done? Can you keep the needs of the many a priority over the needs of the few? Can you make the hard decisions?
Someone in a position of power that has the ability to make decisions without emotion, using only logic, necessity, numbers and analytics can create great and terrible things. But they are not strong - they are afraid.
It may be that our greatest heroes and idols of the past have done more to guide humanity in the wrong direction than those obvious villains of our past, by espousing false, childish, selfish, authoritarian, “manly” attributes as something we all should all aspire to.
True strength can no longer be masked as dominant masculinity.
If you’re unable to listen to an opposing viewpoint, you are afraid and you are weak.
If you have to belittle others to make your point stronger, you are afraid and you are weak.
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If you prejudge others simply based on how they look, you are afraid and you are weak.
If you feel like you have to voice your opinion, firmly and forcibly in order to keep others from establishing their own opinion, you are afraid and you are weak.
If you feel like you need to keep others from acting in a way that you deem inappropriate, but harms no one, you are afraid and you are weak.
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The biggest bull buffalo doesn’t lead the herd. Its only job is to survive and procreate, and through doing so, only the strongest, healthiest genes are carried on from generation to generation, making the herd thrive. But the biggest and the strongest do not lead the herd. The herd doesn’t move in any particular direction until 51% of the herd looks in the same direction. Then usually, one of the older females moves in the direction the herd is looking, and the whole herd follows -regardless of what the bull is doing.
Attila the Hun's empire encompassed around 10 million people of approximately 200 million people on earth, so he had an effect on 5% of earth’s population. 5% is pretty powerful.
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In 1939, Germany had 80 million people. There were 2 billion people on earth at this time, making Germany only 4% of the population. 4% is pretty powerful.
Cristian Ronaldo, a Portuguese footballer, has 917 million followers. Selena Gomez has 688 million. Justin Bieber has 596 million. Taylor Swift has 550 million. Each of these rock stars “have an effect” on between 7% and 12% of earth’s population. All totaled, they could theoretically have an effect on 20% of the world’s population. 20% is pretty powerful.
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When we, as a people, understand our true power, we can move the herd. Regardless of the large bull stomping around the perimeter.
We live in a world where; “if your enemy is my enemy, then we are friends.” Regardless of the means to which we must stoop in order to defeat our enemies or the morality of those with which we have chosen to align ourselves.
We live in a world where; we all want the sneakiest, most unscrupulous, under-the-table, street-fighting, fly-below-the-radar, evaders-of-the-law, attorneys and politicians – as long as they’re on our side – because we both want the same thing.
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We live in a world where; a group of people, all united for the greater purpose of their organization, can commit atrocities that not one in the group would even remotely consider committing should it be their own singular decision.
We live in a world where; we might vehemently disagree with the morality of a corporation and see their inherently single-minded and evil policies, yet we continue to aid-and-abet, by buying their products or even their stocks, because we get a better price or a good return on our investment, which buoys up their status, profits and perpetrates continued evil-doing.
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We live in a world where; parents of small children can scream at the umpire in front of an entire school sporting event because they thought their child was safe and not out. Multiply that by 40,000 and you have a stadium full of fans with the same mentality, screaming at the umpire because they thought their player was safe and not out. If you somehow could stop the process in the middle of the turmoil – and even if you were the player that was called out – and you could tell all your teammates and fans that, “you had a really good vantage point, and you believe you were actually out”, you’d be booed, kicked out, or hanged for treason.
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We live in a world where; we glorify beautiful people because of how they look before we even know who they are as a person.
We live in a world where; we idolize people capable of driving luxury vehicles and living in mansions without knowing who they are or what they did to amass their wealth.
We live in a world where; it is negotiable that every man, woman and child deserves food, water, healthcare and a roof over their heads, because it depends on their income, effort, worthiness, laziness, abilities, mental capacity or ethnicity. Unless they meet a certain standard, they will simply have to live in filth, discomfort, fear, famine, garbage, drug addiction, alcoholism, hate and hurt.
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We live in a world where; if and when we begin to believe the opposite of all these things, the energy of this world would soar to a new height that we can’t imagine.