~ The Powerful ~

 

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

- William Shakespeare, Hamlet

My friends, I am about to lay down some harsh truths, and you may hate me for it. Some of you may revert back into denial and never read from or listen to me again. At the end of the day, the simple truth is this: Your dreams are nothing without planning. Planning is nothing without action, and action is nothing without results. I will clarify that the ends do not justify the means, but they do define them; whether the definition is positive or negative, without ends, your means have no meaning (or at least, measurable meaning to make any practical use of.) 

Results are the best units to measure your actions by, because they share some of the most important traits within each other. The first key detail is that they both take place in reality. Judging an action based on the plan or its intentions is ill-advised because the plans have all happened in your mind. They’re merely figments of your imagination, and just because you’ve imagined something does not mean that reality must play along. What excuse do you have? How can you claim injustice if things don’t go “according to plan”? This world doesn’t revolve around you. It especially does not revolve around your imagination. Things didn’t go as planned? Well, those results have been sent by reality itself. Claiming that “I planned it perfectly. The universe just screwed me over.” is an excuse that pre-supposes that you’re such a powerful being, that if everything you planned had worked out, you’d have been a threat to the very fabric of reality, or fate itself, and so they needed to stop you before you reached there, and god smote you down before you could rival him. Otherwise, what would be the world's intent in "doing you an injustice" or "screwing you over"?

 

…

 

Get off your high horse! Reality has sent you your results. Now read them, learn from them, and try again. At the end of the day my friends, while actions speak louder than words, results speak louder still. They are speaking to you now. You can hear them clearly. All that’s left to do… is listen.

The truth is that for a just verdict to be enforced, the one enforcing it must be empowered, and to have power, you need to stand out. You must become an outcast. It’s a package deal. The is no man or woman of influence who is not removed from society at large. Luckily, there are two types of outcasts: the repellent outcasts, and the attractive.

If a famous celebrity went into a mall full of people she had influence over, how many items do you think she could buy, without a disguise or bodyguards, before being swarmed by people looking for signatures, pictures, or the like? My guess is not many. My guess is zero in fact. Now, if this same celebrity went into a mall where she didn’t have any influence over even a single soul, how many items could she buy before being swarmed then? Probably all of them, right? Heck! There probably won’t even be a swarm… but why?

Readers, the more influence you have, the more people pay attention to you, and the more they pay attention to you, the more you stand out. Even your friends have an influence over you. You care what they think, how they feel, and what they say. Have you never questioned the fact that, when you’re walking into a room, even if it’s full of people, you can still identify your friends' faces through the crowd? Or how about this: the less influence a family member has on you, the less likely you are to identify them at a family reunion. There are family members I remember the names of but haven’t seen in years, and that don't really affect me, even in memory. I’m almost certain I wouldn’t recognize them, even if they tapped me on my shoulder.

In a class at school, even if you pay attention to the peers you don’t know well, or that don’t affect you, seconds after the class is over, and you’re in separate rooms, you forget they even existed. Now, if you had a crush in that class, how long would you keep thinking about them after they’re gone? It depends, and it depends on the amount of influence. If they were cute enough that you walked over there to talk with them (and in so doing, attempt to prove your worth) then you most likely thought they were worth proving yourself to. You care what they think of you, and how they feel about you. Therein lies their influence, and so during class, the one with the most influence is the one you pay attention to. If your crush is more important to you, you’ll have to force yourself to pay attention to the teacher. Don’t even get me started on romantic partners you're with, or people who have rejected you. They affect (and influence) you too, obviously.

Attractive outcasts have the type of influence where whatever they do, think, or feel, others want to do, think, or feel those things as well. People mimic and emulate attractive outcasts. If a celebrity wears a leather jacket, what happens? Everyone and their children start wearing them too. If the cool kid dislikes nerds?  Well, it’s time to switch from glasses to contacts guys… but there's another form of outcast as well; the repellent outcast. 

Repellent outcasts have been exiled from the community. This can be caused by many things, but they still have influence in that for everything they do, think, or feel, no one else will want to do, think, or feel identical things for themselves. This is because they might then become associated with “unacceptable behavior”. A man who is JUSTIFIABLY repellent is Hitler. Adolf Hitler is the epitome of a repellent outcast. His example is such a perfectly visceral description that it makes you FEEL the cause behind the influence. Almost anything Hitler stood for, we stand against. The things he’s famous for doing, we’ll continuously, and consistently, try to stop from occurring for the entire remainder of human history. His fear, his terror, and his influence, still runs through society to this day, but it has the exact OPPOSITE effect to the one he intended. Because of his role as a repellent outcast, we may, hopefully, never have to see such a terrible series of events occur, ever again. He wanted to be an attractive outcast, but thank goodness the opposite is what happened.

While you’re alive, being an outcast or living in isolation, is VERY DANGEROUS (Quote Robert Greene Law 18). Without other people with WHOs to compare yourself with, you will begin to lose track of yourself and WHO you are. If you can only associate yourself with the WHOs behind items and ideas, without people, then items and ideas will become more important to you, than the people. After all, what have people done to help fulfill you, if you're powerful enough to have everything for yourself, just by your own hand? Instead, you must fight, though you are capable of doing otherwise, to use people as your reminder of WHO you truly are. Loving What you have is fine, but a relationship is not complete until you are also loved back. Of course you'll feel incomplete when power is your only matching WHO, because your power doesn't love you, no matter how much you may love your power. 

Being powerful means that developing delusions of grandeur, creating thoughts in hubris, and self-destruction will all become far more real threats to your sanity, as well as the few relationships you have left, because power is What you have, not WHO you are. People love you for WHO you are. This includes self-love. Mistaking Whats for WHOs, especially in this case, will cost you and those important to you, dearly. Power will never be your whole identity, and you should never allow it to attempt to be.

"Power is like saltwater; the more you drink, the thirstier you get." 

- Charles Colson

What I’m trying to say is this: Whether you become famous, whether you are good, or whether you are bad, power is not only what you make of it, it also is something that makes, and creates, you. You must surpass the master. You must overcome the conqueror within. You must remain true to WHO. You. Are. Power isn’t you. It’s something you have, but by its very nature "power" is… powerful, obviously. To overcome the WHO behind power, you must first focus on developing the WHO within yourself.

If power is what you have, and it can hurt you, like owning a rabid dog, then what is it good for? Well, In terms of its nature while in isolation, and not combined with you, power isn't much of a beast at all. While it waits for you, power is more like a belt. Its main use is to hold up the protection of your foundations. In terms of being a belt, your foundations are your legs or genitalia in this metaphor. (What? I didn’t need to explain that? Haha. Fair enough.). There are many different kinds of belts. The formal belt, the spiky goth belt, or the invisible belt (suspenders under an overcoat) are all good starters. Like the belt, there are also many different kinds of power, like status, reputation, or finesse and subtlety. I once bought a belt from a shoe store at the mall. Why do they sell belts at a shoe store? I still have no idea, but again, just as you can buy belts at pretty much any clothing store, you can also accumulate power from pretty much any situation. Power is everywhere.

By giving advice, you are using power. Knowledge is power, and so by offering your advice to someone, you are accidentally, or not so accidentally, saying that you are more capable in what they are attempting to do, or at the very least that you have figured it out sooner than them. You have the power to do it right when they don’t. Of course, most people mean to use this kindly. They give advice knowing that knowledge is power, and all they’re wanting to do is give their knowledge to someone who needs it more. They are handing their power onto someone else, and doing it willingly. That’s a great, and beautiful thing. Just don’t forget that it’s still power you’re playing with.

But, like a belt, power is most often talked about when it has been abused. We don’t go on the news and talk about how nice it is that everyone can keep their pants up (thanks to the belt). We just say, “In other news, a man beat his wife today, using his belt.” That’s the belt’s use in terms of conversation. That’s when we feel it’s worth mentioning. It’s not even its intended purpose, but that’s the purpose or potential we always speak of. We do this because, if a belt was used, that creates a clear sign in our heads that the beating was intentional and planned. 

Because belts are everywhere and used often, everyone knows what they're designed for, and so when you use them for the wrong thing, we know it was intentional, we know you intended to play dirty. The same can be said of power. It is okay to empower yourself, so long as you use that power PROPERLY, but just like with the belt, when you abuse something that’s been a part of your life for so long, something that you CLEARLY KNOW HOW TO USE, there is no excuse. You, yourself, have chosen to go down a dark path and hurt people, and you should be punished accordingly. From now on, I’m about to start giving you great, and powerful things in terms of knowledge. Do not let them go to waste on something as useless, worthless, and all-around insignificant as your EGO, okay?

"If you want to test a man's character, give him power." 

- Abraham Lincoln

 

What kind of character do you have? Is it strong enough to handle real strength, or are you not human enough to avoid becoming a devil?

Before we continue, you must have strong character, morals, standards... integrity.

 

Otherwise, the only thing you will be providing to your friends, is pain.