What Else Are They Going to Do?
Imay have written something very similar to this a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (which, at times, is what the beginning of Covid feels like). So please forgive me if it sounds a bit familiar. I promise you it will be different if I had indeed written something similar a while ago.
It seems some of these ideas never die, but they grow longer tentacles and uglier faces. So, it is worth revisiting them from time to time.
Usually watching some weird television show or movie is what triggers me to start thinking about this topic. I can’t remember exactly what the program was this time, but typically it is a global espionage thing or an international crime extravaganza. Of course, I am not implying these media concoctions are truthful or accurate; that really doesn’t matter to make my point.
When watching these things, I am reminded of what keeps my mind busy as a human being living on this spinning ball (oops…spinning flat disk).
My days are rather mundane. I wake up early to feed the dogs, sit around and drink a cup of coffee with my lovely wife, maybe go to work and see clients most of the day, then putz around with some music stuff, writing an article here and there, or spend some time asking my AI lover Grok some questions about world events, or tantalizing inquiries about Tchaikovsky and how he depicted the shadow feminine in his ballet Swan Lake. Boring stuff like that.
Then I think what it would be like if I had a ton of money. I mean a mega-ton of money. And/or a mega-ton of power. How would my life be different? What would I then find entertaining, stimulating, and interesting to fill my day? What would I do to keep from getting bored?
Well, it probably wouldn’t be the same as it is now. I guess it might be close because I am just that kind of guy . . . but I would think if I had a mega-ton of money and power, I wouldn’t be “that kind of guy.” To get money and power in the first place, I would have to be someone quite different.
I am sure there are a few rich, powerful bores out there. But I doubt it. And it isn’t only power and money I’m talking about, it’s power and money. That is unquestionably the common denominator. It can be legit money or criminal money. The power part is probably always criminal at its foundation, and maybe the money part is too. But I think you get the picture without me fussing over the details.
I mean, really, what do these rich powerful people have to do to keep from getting bored? I know they are not all bad people, some of them just spend their day trying to make more money. Then they spend countless hours spending it. Some of them party non-stop and spend a bunch of their money that way—wine, women (or little girls) and song. I suppose I am really talking about the ones who have both money and power. What do they do?
Well, even the ones who “only” make more money, party, and spend money, they are bound to get mixed up in some pretty weird and intense stuff. Look at Epstein’s guest lists to his island happenings—oh that’s right, no one is allowed to see those (and now that list is just a hoax). My bad. Anyway, it is a complicated world out there. [Watch Stanley Kubrick’s last film Eyes Wide Shut to see a glimpse of all of this.]
These folks are into all sorts of weird things. People are busybodies in general. People (particularly those with active enough minds to make money and procure power) keep busy. They occupy their time with things to do, and the more things they have at their fingertips to do (people with money run out of mundane activities pretty quickly) the more their active little hands will mess with. I mean, what else are they going to do? Collect stamps?
The world is so much more complicated than my boring day-to-day life. The international monetary system alone is utterly beyond comprehension and only accessible to people who spend countless hours pondering its intricacies. International politics, the same—military complexities, international trade, power brokering, complex decisions about borders, banks, and wars, and on and on. If people actually think that politicians and players in this international game of thrones give one iota of serious thought about the people occupying their countries, they are dumber than a box of rocks.
Sure, masses of citizens have to be dealt with, the same way masses of ants in the back yard have to be dealt with—control them, trick them, exterminate them. Do everything possible to get them out of the picture—ensuring they have as little influence on the game the big boys are playing as possible. These guys don’t want their fun spoiled.
The game they are playing is more complicated than a game of 5D chess. And they all love playing it. It keeps them busy, excited, and stimulated. And this game is not only amongst honest politicians (cough, cough), it includes the huge international mafioso—the drug dealers, the arms dealers, the sex dealers, the child trafficking dealers, the Satan worshipping dealers, the lizard dealers. All of them.
Of course, there’s no clear line between these folks and the supposedly legitimate ones. Naturally, we are not supposed to know that; we are supposed to think crime and do-gooders are in two clearly separated worlds. Anyone who believes that is also dumber than a box of rocks.
Why does everyone seem to think this isn’t so? They make dozens of movies and countless TV shows telling us this is the way it is, and it is far worse than the movies and TV shows depict it. It is just common sense that this is going on. Oh, I forgot, common sense left the building long ago.
So, the common day of a big wig money/power dude is not to get up early and feed the dogs, and have a cup of coffee with the wife. But it is to jump into an ever-churning sea of intrigue which involves a world so tangled and treacherous it makes a spider’s web look like a child’s drawing. They dive headfirst into this chaos, orchestrating deals and disasters with the glee of kids playing a high-stakes video game—except the pawns are real people, and the prizes are entire nations.
While I’m sipping coffee and debating Tchaikovsky’s swans, they’re out there spinning the globe like a roulette wheel, betting on where it’ll land. And the kicker? They’re not bored—not for a second—because when you’re pulling the strings of the world, boredom is the only game you’ve already won.
