I had a friend recently tell me of an interaction he had with a department chief in a major medical academic center. In 15 minutes the chief carefully illustrated his ever expanding sphere of control, influence, and power within the hospital and university - as if they were ends. He then moved on to tell my friend how he wakes every day at 5:30am and how he has biked to work everyday for the last 4 years - apparently badges of honor to exemplify his self discipline, import and superiority within his construct, his world.
So there is the academic medicine construct where it's not who saves the most lives or reduces the most suffering, it's who has the most number of degrees, the most number of publications, the most self discipline, single mindedness, lust for 'power', influence and control.
Then there is the legal construct - again a completely artificial hierarchy of money,lawyers, judges and human suffering.
The Mob construct - money, fancy clothes, big cars, thugs, power, influence and human suffering.
The organized religious construct - priests, bishops, deacons, Popes - power influence prestige - all sins?
The two party political construct
The business executive construct
The terrorist's organization construct
The street gang construct
The seventh grade boys construct - where pissing the highest on the wall buys immortality.
On and on and on and on
At their simplest there are no real differences in these constructs -
pathetically crude human inventions that by their existence quite regularly attract exactly the wrong sort of people and cause the wrong sort of outcomes. Artificial worlds all - us vs them, who's the most important(important will help you avoid death after-all), the most 'powerful' the most in control, the wealthiest, the one with the most cool stuff and on and on - derailing and defocusing us from just experiencing each other as equals, experiencing our world as it really is and robbing us of the inner beauty, prosperity, and peace that can bring.
I love this-Sarah
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