I typically don't like people who (I think) think they are better than me. The truth is, if I think someone thinks that they are better, odds are I have merely come to the realization that they have some advantage over me and I want to turn that around, meaning perhaps it is to their credit and I am wrong to express negative energy. But also, perhaps not. To unravel and begin to reconcile these feelings, it is helpful to identify the why and wherefore of their advantage.

Is their power from…

• …money?
• …knowledge?
• …a pretension of knowledge?
• …skill?
• …trickery?
• …deceit?
• …luck?

Alternatively, I could ask, what really makes you right and me wrong? To simply say ‘might makes right’ does not explore or account for underlying factors and their concomitant biases for or against.

Then, regardless of the source(s), I must follow up with the question, are you using your power to maintain and/or enhance your power? Or are you using your power to improve surrounding circumstance and bring about a greater good beyond yourself? If/when asked, a very large majority would argue and believe the latter, yet I seldom see anyone in a position of power advance a common good at their own expense. In fact, zero-sum thinking, (which many of us are inclined to), demands that one not risk their advantage to help another, especially, (according to the recent election), any other who is different, thus less deserving.

Back to the sources of power: I cannot begrudge knowledge or skill and I should not begrudge luck, but every one of us can and should actively begrudge money, trickery, deceit, and ignorance. As for a pretension of knowledge, it is sometimes (perhaps often) difficult to discern from actual knowledge partially because my own uncertainty, insecurity, and fear can be relatively easily played against me to aid power in their efforts to enhance and maintain. Common tools used for this trickery and deceit include confidence, convention, bureaucracy, bombast, bullying, division, and fear mongering. And because so many in power remain steadfast in their belief that they know better and best, and because so many others remain steadfast in their belief that proximity to power is power, and because so many of us remain steadfast in our belief that we are entitled, and because there are so many different definitions for proximity, when we do take a baby step forward we proclaim large strides, and as we cheer for progress we doggedly defend our own backyard. We choose to abide rather than advance.

To abide is to go along. I have been working for my entire adult life, (going on 50 years), to both abide and advance; and I now realize that to try and do both is how a baby step can look like large strides. Actual knowledge is almost certainly bolstered to some degree by pretense. So, when I abide I am almost certainly going along with a pretension of knowledge. And a pretension of knowledge is almost certainly aided by trickery and/or deceit that is in turn aided by the aforementioned tools. To advance one must actively begrudge. The difficulty lies in the fact that though one must actively begrudge money, trickery, deceit, and ignorance, to advance one must also actively begrudge his or her own circumstance, his or her own beliefs, his or her own people, his or her own self. Not an easy ask.

So, where do we turn to make progress?

• Leadership? Ha! See a pretension of knowledge above.
• Consensus? Ha again. The majority is driven by Fear, works toward Comfort and Tradition, and reasons from Belief. Not a good foundation for progress.
• Expertise? Perhaps the best solution for specific answers but an expert's knowledge is typically too narrow to lead, and our leadership’s egos are too brittle to properly organize and utilize the experts.
• Artificial Intelligence? An interesting thought.