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Trapped Inside the Matrix
I recently overheard a conversation between several hedge-find managers at my local caf. One of them, a young Turk, was making the case that they didn't deserve to be blamed for the current state of the economy. He argued that they had followed the law, taken risks, and been paid high returns. He contended that there would always be winners and losers in life, and invited his fellows to join him in a toast to success and to not being caught out when the walls come tumbling down.
And are these, then, the Players who claim victory in the great Game? Is it they who ultimately control our society in such a way as to fuel their personal profits and successes?
As one looks around the table, they are all uniformly well tailored, well coifed, and self satisfied. Each is unashamedly out for number one, but collectively they seem to form a kind of tribe. The all share a rigid, boxlike worldview, in which a pie can only be sliced up so thinly, there are only hard facts, you either win or lose, things are either black or white, grey is for losers and posers.
What these hedge-fund managers represent is the combination of a linear mindset with a mob mentality and a narcissistic temperament. All three characteristics, taken in tandem, serve to reinforce each other. Thus linear thinking, which encourages a visualising of the world in terms of its constituent elements, rather than as a whole, prepares the way for narcissism. The less beholden we feel to a community, the easier it is to see things in terms merely of personal outlook and personal reward. In living our lives like this we come to assume that everyone else is only out for themselves too, a mindset which encourages us to react against them before they have chance to react against us. By adding in the tribal dimension - the mob mentality - we tend to act on the collective level, standing up for our own against anyone and everyone else. This causes escalation. On top of this, the tribes in question are made up of narcissists conditioned to stand up for their own interests, so tensions will be high and perpetually so. Individuals within the tribes will attempt either to manipulate one another for personal gain or to undermine one another for fear of competition.
These three elements work together to generate our current worldview. The relative strength in the mix of each one of the three may vary from culture to culture, but the overall effect is always the same.
Thus everyone who begins as part of a tribe has the option to choose conformity or exclusion. It is fear of exclusion which keeps the tribal community together. And example may be seen whenever one member of the tribe commits a morally dubious act to further the collective interest. In order for it to succeed, the group must put on a united front so that they are all complicit. Should any member refuse to accept complicity they become outcasts, and thus a threat to the group.
This phenomenon found its expression famously in the conspiracy to murder Julius Caesar. When Caesar fell, his body bore wounds from the knives of each of the conspirators, meaning that all were responsible, and none could turn against the others. This principle has been applied throughout history, and is true of the political arena as of the gladiatorial, as true in the business world as in the schoolyard.
The more influence a tribe member gains, and the closer he is to the centre of the tribe, the less choice he has between complicity and exile. Once he has become an insider he knows too much to be allowed to go into exile, for were he to do so he might discredit the myth upon which the endurance of the tribe depends. The group will not allow this, and given its collective narcissism, any threat will be dealt with swiftly and summarily. Security is paramount, and anyone who breaks ranks for their own ends must expect retribution. The form this takes may vary from one society to the next - the punishment met out by the mafia might differ from that called upon by the Church - but the principle is essentially the same.
All this does beg the question, are these manipulators really responsible for maintaining the system, or are they too simply products of it? Could it be that they, like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, play roles of little significance while thinking themselves fundamental to the evolution of the drama? So intensely do they buy into the myths they have come to peddle that even if the rest of us were to escape this grand illusion, they will be trapped forever.
About the Author John Berling Hardy exposes the Big Lie which frames the way in which we see the world, others, and ourselves. For more of his writings please visit www.playingtheplayers.com
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