The Problem With Great Riches and Great Fame

Bill and Melinda Gates are getting a divorce, and it appears that there's more going on than just a case of "growing apart". Melinda is said to be furious with Bill for something that happened eight years ago. Now, all of a sudden, Melinda finds the Gate-Epstein thing tasteless and a cause for a divorce. This is strange, to say the least. Clearly, something is going on below the surface.

People as rich as Bill and Melinda don't have to divorce if they tire of each other. They don't have to live in the same house. They don't have to see each other on a daily basis. They can agree to keep a distance from each other, and do their separate things. Divorce, like marriage, is a legal construct. Getting a divorce is a way to split off and protect a fortune in times of trouble, and that is the most likely reason for Melinda's sudden change of heart. There's trouble ahead for Bill, and Melinda is doing her best to distance herself from it, and save the family fortune in the process.

What exactly is going on below the surface is anybody's guess. There's no lack of skeletons in their respective closets. They've been involved in all sorts of shady businesses ranging from vaccines and vaccine passports to software and surveillance. A large number of people have been adversely affected by this, not least over the last 18 months, which makes the timing of their divorce all the more noteworthy. However, the most interesting side to this is not the details but the broad Faustian outline of the overall story. At some point, relatively early in their lives, they struck a deal with the devil.

The story is the same over and over again. It even features in the Bible. Great fame and great riches are offered in return for people's soul. Jesus was presented with this avenue. He would become the wealthiest man on the planet if he merely went along with a few changes to his doctrine. However, he rejected the offer, and in the end, he was nailed to a cross for his refusal to go along with the devil's plan. Other's are not so strong, and others still, are eager to sell their soul for any kind of benefit.

The way this works is that someone ambitious and clever comes up with a new and novel way of doing things. This is registered higher up in the hierarchy, and an agent of this hierarchy is sent out to contact this person. The agent tells the person that his or her novel product or idea has great potential, and a deal is proposed in which the person in question is offered great riches and great fame if some control is handed over to the agent and the agent's masters. The agent will also let it slip that a refusal to go along with the proposal might result in difficulties. It is in essence an offer the person in question can't very well refuse.

This agency is what the Bible refers to as the beast. It's the state and its agent is a government bureaucrat. However, the offer is not quite as black and white as it may seem. There are ways around it, because the beast is a many headed monster, often at war with itself, and not loved by anyone, including its own agents. We don't end up nailed to a cross if we decline the offer politely and roll back our ambitions sufficiently to no longer be a threat to the beast. But the problem in this is that most of us would love to be rich and famous, and rolling back our ambitions is right out painful. Almost everyone contacted by the beast will go along with the offer.

Those who refuse and stubbornly continue their project unabated, get crushed. Only those willing to scale things down and perhaps do something entirely different get away from such an encounter with both their soul and their health intact.

Once a deal is struck, the process of moral decay starts in earnest. Little by little, the state takes control of the product or idea. The original idea gets solidified and corrupted into something colossal, and the inventor, still officially the owner, is rewarded handsomely with fame and riches. He or she is also introduced to the inner circles of the state. Its inner workings and logic is revealed to the newcomer. It's made clear that everything has to do with power and coercion. Further rewards are offered to those who go along with this. The outsider has the option of becoming an insider with authority to send out agents on his or her own terms. Laws and regulations will be custom made, all to the wishes of the newly inaugurated insider.

At this point, the corruption is almost total. However, there's always some remaining unease. There's an awareness of the evil that's being done. These people are not ignorant of their own corruption, and they will try to fix it in some way, either by appearing generous or by actually being generous. They will also let a bit of truth slip out on occasions. Elon Musk called crypto a speculative asset the other day, which is interesting because he's central in the latest pump of DOGE coin. On the one hand, he lures people into this scam, and on the other hand he's warning against it. His behaviour is that of a man in conflict with himself.

The problem with the Faustian deal is that it leads to this sort of inner conflicts. Those who take it become rich and famous, but how much are they able to enjoy it? They have huge mansions and immense wealth, but every closet they open has a pile of skeletons in them. How much fun is that? Can they even sleep at night?

The Faustian deal may be better than being crushed by the beast, but it's not better than the true alternative. Once we focus on legacy rather than fame and riches, we find a way around the beast, and we find that affluence and happiness is closer at hand than most people think.

Surveillance

By CC BY-SA 3.0, Hustvedt - Own workLink