What If We Are The Power Elite?!?

The analogy of the power system as a machine is a favorite used in modern protest movements. We have been told to "rage" against it, to "throw our bodies on the gears and levers", to "let our lives be a friction to stop the machine", etc.

Essentially this leaves us with 2 choices: to either unconsciously operate the machine and let TPTB run amok like we have been or we to destroy it and I guess in doing so, destroy TPTB. 2 choices, 2 outcomes....

But what about choice 3. Ignore the machine?

I'll use the analogy of our lives being like that of a video game. We have been told that we HAVE TO play the game, get through all the levels, collect all the gold coins and save the princess, until we hit the GAME OVER screen at the end.

We can play this game with joy, having loads of fun, collecting points and weapons, saving the girl, playing the hero or we can be furious and stressed out, complaining to anyone that will listen how difficult it is to get to the next level, how the game developers have made it too hard, too challenging.

But what if we just put the controller down? Is this not a choice we have as well, refusal to play the game? Ultimately, we hold ALL the power....

Unfortunately we forgot this fact and are living an illusion, and I don’t mean this in a metaphysical way. Let’s take a look –

We consume material objects (electronics, clothes, etc) we do not need.
We buy large homes and cars we do not need.
We bury ourselves in massive amounts of debt.
We shop at grocery stores that give us unhealthy options and eat at restaurants that make us sick.
We entertain our minds with pop culture garbage.
We spend our weekends indulging in base pleasures, drink, drugs, sex, entertainment, etc.

This isn’t new, most of you understand this completely yet it’s still happening every single day. Why? No one forces us to live this way. These are choices we make on our own constantly…

And that means we COULD stop it, if we wanted too. Here’s another list –

We do not buy things we do not need.
We have learned to build our own homes and no longer have a serious need for cars
We have become debt free and are not slaves to the monetary system
We have learned to grow our own food and make healthy meals for ourselves
We entertain our minds with song, stories, playing instruments, reading, talking with friends, neighbours, etc
We spend our weekends building community right where we live, helping others and being helped.
We enjoy drink, drugs, sex mindfully and not as reactions to how we feel about ourselves.

It’s not a grand concept, it’s a reality that pretty much the 99% could create right now. So instead of demanding change from others, what if we demanded change from ourselves? What if instead of destroying the machine, we all just walked away from it?

Now before you type out the reason why these things cannot be achieved, take a moment and ask yourself WHY? What part of you is denying you the opportunity to live this way? Let’s name that part…

Is it fear?
Is it that you are too insignificant?
Is it that “they” are too powerful?
Is it that you are too apathetic?
Is it that you are so stuck in the cycle of created wants and needs?

If you answer NO, to all of those questions but still feel this cannot be achieved, I would love to know why.

ATS is filled with critical open minded thinkers, skeptical but still open to change, researchers who are able to venture through the rabbit hole and come back with incredible finds. Let’s turn that brilliance inward and figure US out. Let’s stop talking about what THEY are doing and start talking about what WE are doing.

I don’t have all the answers, I’m just hoping to create a thoughtful discussion…

Much Peace!

reply to post by wrdwzrd


That would be great, but i feel that most people seem to be all about what they own now.
Maybe something huge will happen soon, and people get back in touch with what's important.

I agree with a lot of what you say, we are the enablers of the elite. Almost everyone in 'modern' civilization is somewhat at fault for this, other than the select few who do their own thing, live off grid and whatever.

We are somewhat enablers, But we are still being taken advantage of no matter what we do in this society. We can live off grid, but does it really help anyone? the system still goes, and you cannot convince everyone to just suddenly do this. There are urban centers that growing food is next to impossible unless you have the money to invest in a hydroponic farm.

We enable the elite, but we are still being taken advantage of, and we allow the extortion of millions of people so the elite can garner more profits and give us these cheap things that mean nothing. The materialism aspect of it is what i agree with most, i hate materialism to the degree society has brought it, its 'nice' to have these things, but really, do you need to have them and have to need them? No. But anyways. We need to tear down the 'elite' and stop the extortion of millions of people, the only thing they are concerned about is their profits, and they gain more profits by extorting people in cheaper countries. They justify it by saying 'well, some money is better than no money', and really, it is, but its slave labour, and we agree with it by shopping at walmart and department stores for the cheaper prices. Cheaper prices only hurt the economy, i dont mind paying a few extra dollars for something if its made in my country, or is not made somewhere where its slaves making it, hard to do these days considering EVERYTHING is made in a country like that.

An ipad is 1000 dollars or more, they pay their employees what.. maybe 2 or 3 dollars? a day? maybe? i dont know the figures, but it cant be very much. Know how much it costs to actually make the ipad? maybe 100 bucks, MAYBE. Seriously, its just extortion for profits.

Its the same with war, statistics show that after you level a country and rebuild it, the economy there gets better, WHO KNEW...

And on and on, we do not do anything here, in the western nations, because most people perceive that we 'have it good here' because for some reason most people blame these other countries themselves for being poor and unable to feed themselves, when in reality it was essentially a trick by the elite to garner resources and take advantage of people who cannot fight back.

The elites tricked them into getting loans they can never pay, That is not OUR fault..
That is also on their shoulders, the media, the military, the government, the corporations, the banks. EXPERTS at tricking populations into doing as they please, we fall for it of course, Its easy to lie and get people to believe it apparently when you can hide anything you wish.

While we are enablers, we are not the ones committing the crimes, we are not the ones actively thinking about this and how to do it. How to achieve global dominance is easy when you control how the wealth flows. I probably go a little offtopic here, maybe not though, and maybe didnt reply to everything you said, but you know, sometimes you just gotta start typing

If we could 'just say no' then a lot of us would, but are trapped, scared. Gotta pay the bills, keep a roof over your head, gotta eat, gotta be warm. Have to pay for all of those things. Even though there are millions of empty houses in the united states, and millions of people without homes..

I would say that for me I feel insignificant and dont believe enough americans would ever stop using most of those things to make a difference. I dont have a car and rarely go to bars/restaurants. I still use the internet, watch tv, use prescriptions and I dont socialize much. I guess that makes me about 50/50 part of the problem. Not having a car and walking/taking the bus is a real pain in the butt.

reply to post by wrdwzrd
Really interesting, thoughtful post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. Reminds me of one of my favorite bits from a brilliant comedian - and I'd bet I'm not the only one on here who loves this riff...

reply to post by wrdwzrd


top notch post my friend star for you!

reply to post by magicrat


Awesome...Bill Hicks was great. And he's right. It IS just a ride..where can i get off, please?

reply to post by magicrat


Bill Hicks is one of my personal heroes!

We're not, we're being horribly manipulated by them.

However there is an element of the mirror to earth, so our inner struggles and minds/hearts/souls are being reflected too.

One thing I thought of with this title as I got very judgmental today on all the power figures and consider them doing demonic things, but I shouldn't have called them demons.

What if we were in their shoes? What would we do differently, raised like that? Would we wake up? I think that is an angle I'm interested in right now, and am only sorry I didn't reach for my compassion for them.

Originally posted by Unity_99
We're not, we're being horribly manipulated by them.

However there is an element of the mirror to earth, so our inner struggles and minds/hearts/souls are being reflected too.

One thing I thought of with this title as I got very judgmental today on all the power figures and consider them doing demonic things, but I shouldn't have called them demons.

What if we were in their shoes? What would we do differently, raised like that? Would we wake up? I think that is an angle I'm interested in right now, and am only sorry I didn't reach for my compassion for them.

Being a legacy with blinders on, or even being one of the few born poor who did so well throughout school that they went with the legacies...

Hard to imagine for me.