I decided to share a small secret with you today because I see so many people struggling with it. Having spend a few decades on this planet I have come to realize a few things about the ongoing human endeavour. On some level, even superficial, we all need each other in order to survive. Most tend to analyze things with the prospect of complaining: The government sucks, corporations manipulate markets, big pharma is greedy — this is more or less how it goes. A few others, a small minority, are opportunists that operate behind the scenes, creating what philosophers desire — and ironically — end up complaining about.
No matter how much we like to pride ourselves about independent and sophisticated thinking, the majority of us are desperate for guidance. Most people have no clue what they want in life and desperately wait for someone else to show them the way. Even though things are never black and white people tend to fall inside certain behavioural crevices that dictate their overall approach in life. it is only natural in a species that is dictated by group behaviour.
Philosophizers are usually people read books that give advice about how to live life. They will follow the teachings of other people instead of developing their own. They are also the ones that over-analyze situations but end up doing nothing but complain. They are caught up in their own narrative without having the balls to take action. This is the nature of the philosophizer. He is mainly the audience; the passive element rather than then active participant.
Opportunists are usually the people who understand the basic premises about how the world works. They are street smart instead of college smart. They understand that people have no clue about what they want and that they are the ones to give it to them. Their words become actions, not just a topic for discussion. This is how you end up with college dropouts and C students having A and B students working for them. This is how the majority gets caught up in glorying stupid metrics like I.Q, academic achievement or book publishing but forget the larger picture under which everything belongs.
A good example to illustrate this dynamic is social media. Billions of people engage on a daily basis in lengthy discussions about politics, religion, economics and every other topic you can imagine. They spend hours upon hours complaining about capitalism and injustice while they are puppets in the hands of the site owner who is the biggest capitalist of them all. Religions and political parties function much the same way. People clash with each other, thinking that their opinion matters while the leaders pick up all the rewards from all the fuss they are creating.
This dynamic is not new. In fact you can observe it throughout history. Even if we take into consideration people who were historically mass murderers like Hitler, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, what remains is their ....greatness. We can sit here and analyze this and that all we want. The matter of fact is that these assholes were opportunists that arose from the pettiness of their whiny followers.
This is why after their death, they still remain in the history books. In the same respect Putin, Trump, Merkel and other famous politicians might ignite a passionate discussion about their deeds but in the end only themselves matters. What the 99% will talk about will be rendered obsolete almost as soon as it was mentioned.
When I have discussions with friends and foes, I try to channel this perspective to them in order to understand the bigger picture — the point upon which the discussion is taking place so they can take appropriate action. Most people get lost and frustrated in the discussion because they have no mission. They just like to talk, forgetting the original point. If you have found yourself debating about the "injustice of the capitalist system" using your capitalistic phone in your capitalistic social media then you have a philosophizer problem. You are doomed to be someone else's bitch by succumbing to your own intellectual dishonesty.
There is no meaning to anything other than the one we decide to apply. Anyone who is trying to sell you their own narrative is testing the spectrum upon which you belong or they try to reassure themselves about their own mission in life. An opportunist will take control of situations that arise from philosophizers. Philosophizers will always serve opportunists even if they complain about them. Learn this simple concept and life will be much easier for you.
