How the Mighty Have Fallen (Disintermediation)

In a time not too long ago, the people who held the power, were those who controlled the information -- and what people were allowed to think on any matter.  They may have claimed to know all the information worth knowing -- since they owned the printing press, and those who wanted to access it, were at the mercy of their approval and favor.

All that changed at the beginning of this century, although the seeds for that development, had been sown by all the generations previously -- by those who dared to challenge that authority.  That was true for Martin Luther, Columbus, Socrates, Jesus, Buddha, etc.  They challenged authority -- because they felt they heeded a higher one, and a bigger picture of what had been known up to then.

Now we know that nobody owns all the information -- or even their small part of it.  It can be known by anyone who wants to -- because they are not convinced that they can only access it through certain self-appointed authorities, who thought it was their job to keep all those unauthorized from knowing what only their self-appointed few had a right to.  That's how much the world has changed in such a short time.

However, not everyone who merely challenges authority, has greater authority to do so.  They may have rightly and deservedly less authority to do so.  Authority implies authorship -- or one who creates that idea, and not the countless many who merely repeat it -- while having no idea what they are talking about.  They simply copy what those they think know, are doing -- regardless of whether it has any basis in fact.  They are fond of saying that the majority is always right -- and that might, makes right, and is its own reason for being.

If someone else comes along and tells them to think differently, that is what they will do blindly -- as well, because they have no way of determining the truth of any matter for themselves -- which would make them an authority on such matters.  They would have come to that conclusion on their own -- and not simply accept what others say, without any attempt to discern the truth for themselves.  That form of mass control and propaganda, was perfected in the last century by the mass media and other institutions of mass control.  It was possible because of one-way broadcast media and tactics.  The one spoke to the many, but the many could not speak back, or even to each other -- because only the (self-)designated leader, had that authority -- to think (and talk) for everyone else.

That's what made certain individuals powerful (mighty) -- being able to convince the masses that they were, and having a few self-selected "other" voices vouch that they were.  That reached its height in the era of mass (media) advertising -- and the control of a fabled few on "Madison Avenue," being able to convince everyone of anything they wanted them to believe -- even that harmful practices were good for them.  Of course those who bought into that advertising (propaganda) paid a price with their lives and well-being in chasing and worshiping all the wrong things.  Most had no idea of what they were doing, because as "good citizens," they did and believed what they were told to.

Only years later, would they realize the consequences of those ill-advised behaviors -- as those impacts took their toll, although many attributed those ravages, as just the process of "natural aging," that all but an exceptional few, seemed to be immune from.  Such achievements however, were usually dismissed and derided as extraordinary and eccentric deviations from the norm.  Excessive eating, drinking, smoking, and vices, were encouraged as the privileged way to be -- and people knew no other.  Those who wrote and promoted such excesses, were usually their greatest victims of such unhealthful and unwise practices and lifestyles.

They were invariably those who thought it was their right to exploit all the others for their exclusive benefit -- rather than that everyone had a right to everything as well.  But that is a lot more than just about money.  It is more about having an equal access to all the information -- and not just what some other would want everyone else to believe for their own exclusive advantage and benefit.  Such people were the countless middle men (intermediaries) that required others to have to go through them, to get anything they wanted.  Thus, fewer people got what they wanted -- and only a few really got rich enough to afford what they truly wanted.

Now there are more millionaires than ever before -- but even more importantly, many more who have most things they really need.  The major division in the world today, are those who have everything they really need, and those who have everything that is bad for them -- and not knowing how to tell the difference for themselves.  Those latter, fall further behind with each day and acquisition.  It is not that they have nothing -- but rather, it is the abundance of all the wrong things -- that set them back further each day.  Those are plainly and obviously the victims -- but less so the enablers and codependents that eventually suffer from that same fate -- as their own "normal."

That pattern can continue for generations -- or end with a single individual -- who has the awareness to see their own thoughtlessness and end it there.  It's not the hardest thing to do but actually the easiest -- once they have that clarity.  The problem is that they truly do not want to see that clarity -- but want to continue as they have been doing -- with the deceptions, delusions -- thinking still to get ahead in their misguided way.  But they no longer have any idea of how that is accomplished -- or why it is they continue to do what they do.  It has all become obsessive-compulsive behavior -- with no rhyme nor reason for being.  That's just the way they are -- and expect to remain until they die, even realizing it is killing them.

It's because they expect somebody else to save them -- and not that they have to save themselves.  Another will not save them, they have to be their own saviors -- and in that, become the authors and authorities in their own lives -- rather than further removed from all those possibilities and opportunities.  That is how far they have fallen -- from their original intent.  They have become irrelevant and powerless even to themselves -- thinking it can only reside in others, the middle man, the intermediaries -- the false gods of a previous age.