Are politicians creating a global depression?
What do you see when you open up your morning newspaper? Global Depression in the making? The downfall of a crypto market? World leaders predicting a global recession — which, of course, all of them can solve if only all the others will just get in line? Jeff Bezos concerned about an ‘unnecessary’ economic decline and its effect on share prices?
For most of the world’s population, recent economic developments are like a Fata Morgana (look it up — we have all seen them!) far away on the horizon but that may never be reached. A vivid chimera…but does it have any sense in reality?
Do Economists understand the world right?
And I am certainly not claiming to understand everything that is happening. On the contrary, I believe that most economists, like the rest of us ordinary mortals, don’t really understand it themselves either.
The recent interest rate increases are an old method that may have worked in the past. Don’t forget, however, that central banks are now independent of governments so their actions can be readily disclaimed by our political leaders. Now it rather seems as if interest rates are just a tool to generate a fresh news cycle (‘see how proactive we are being!’) even though they clearly make life more difficult for the ordinary person in the street.
Let’s be honest, the Bezos’, Biden’s, Musk’s, Russian and Middle Eastern oligarchs or any other men that have been speaking up on this matter are not really impacted by these events in any way at all.
Should we continue celebrating billionaires' donations?
I am also not impressed by statements such as “Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his $121 billion fortune”, “Billionaire Arnault’s family and LVMH to donate 200m Euros for Paris’ Notre-Dame”, “Warren Buffett has pledged for years to give away the bulk of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation”, and so on. Wonderful statements, but isn’t it curious that they all maintain their rankings on the ‘world’s wealthiest’ lists — even after their so-called philanthropy!
They made their money on the backs of other people — by paying low wages and demanding insane work hours. They are not giving away hard-earned money. These people are giving away what should have not been theirs in the first place (although, to be fair, Warren Buffet very indirectly made his money off the back of other people).
Are these men intelligent? Yes, of course. Were they willing to go the extra mile? Absolutely, yes!
But should 1% of the world population hold 99% of the wealth? Absolutely NO!!!
And here is the kicker. THEY ARE ALL WHITE and they are all MEN.
Just like the white men that we have seen in the latest news of the G20 meeting, I had to do a deep google search in order to find some photos that also showed women. But, no, I am not trying to be a feminist here. That is not the point of this piece.
The point is to ask: When are we going to start doing things differently?
The ‘boys’ club’: a never-ending story!
Is this ridiculous boys’ club unbreakable — not because they are sticking together, but rather because men in general are leading our lives with their egos? And I am not talking about just businessmen. I am talking about our politicians as the main culprits: with Trump, Johnson, Kaczyński, Putin, Erdogan, and many more as the pinnacles of our current human idiocracy. And yet, Biden, Scholz, Trudeau, and others are far from doing a better job as they might align more or less with some of the ethical views.
But honestly, as a woman, I don’t feel represented at all. I am really tired of seeing the same mistakes being made over and over again. Can we call this depression? We certainly can, in my opinion!!
But is it a global economic depression or instead a global psychological depression? For the longest time, as a social psychologist, I have questioned if the increase in mental illness throughout the world is due to current social structures or to a trend of self-diagnosis caused by social media. And while I believe that social media plays a big role in how our children and teenagers are developing, mental illness is what is causing people like you and me to go through the best and worst years of our lives — and doing both at exactly the same time.
While I deeply believe that most of the economic crisis can be solved by communicating differently, I also believe that, leaving aside the male use of emotions and stepping away from a place where emotions are being controlled and managed by egos, we can avoid emotions being used as a weapon of creating fear and anger. Instead we can empower emotions as a source of energy and flow, and end up understanding these feelings as a subjective experience — which can be guided by the individuum.
The even more unfortunate negative to this is Mr. Trump proclaiming that every personal feeling is not just correct but is also essential to be heard (referring to his use of Twitter). A rather extreme example of the Donald’ confusing feelings with logic and reason, and feelings with emotions, too!
So what is the problem?
The problem is that men have proclaimed for centuries that emotions are irrational and women are too ‘feeling’ to be leaders . Men have been so effective with this view that even women themselves have started to question their own abilities. And all of this happens while we, women, are actually using our own feelings as a tool of reason.
But it is time to realize that, yes, women might be emotional, men are still definitely ‘feelingonal’. A lovely word but very accurate when applied to men: they basically use their emotions without being aware that they are misconstruing their own belief of rationality and, in so doing, are making themselves believe that they are managing their emotions by suppressing them (not a very convincing argument!!).
Somehow, in their minds, men believe this is making themselves more logical, but, what their argument does, is create more egoism and self-centrism. A trade that is so well known to men but which must be counteracted if we are to provide more equality in opportunity and presence.
It makes one wonder if we should be paying more attention to the achievements of Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, Sanna Marin of Finland, and Greta Thunberg on the environment or Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omar, here in America, all of whom are showing more concern about the ordinary citizenship of our planet than any national leader has exhibited in may years. Perhaps our future is in younger women leadership than it is in years of male dominance?
