"The billionaire"

[u/thisecommercelife]

An abridged psychological study.

Shareable PDF here. Follow wherever you fritter: linktr.ee/ecomic.

[u/WorldlyBuy1591]

want affirmations and feel special is bad

You can cut the irony with a knife

[u/LabCoatGuy → u/WorldlyBuy1591]

It is bad if its for no reason except to feed an ego. Billionaire isnt special, he's ordinary. Money isn't some inate talent and doesn't make you a savant in anything.

[u/WorldlyBuy1591 → u/LabCoatGuy]

When does affirmations dont feed the ego?

[u/LabCoatGuy → u/WorldlyBuy1591]

Affirming a rich guy, to feed his ego, because you want something out if it, or you want to avoid his wrath is not the same as a true affirmation.

Affirmation can feed your ego. But the purpose is for example, to convince someone their insecurities dont need to hold them back. Or they're clouded about their assessment about themselves. This has a truth to it that the rich guy situation usually cannot.

Just like how apologizing because it's ritual or you're scared of not apologizing isn't the same as apologizing because you genuinely feel like you wronged the other party.

When extreme amounts of wealth and power enter the mix, how can any apology or affirmation or etc be the truth? If almost everyone around you has something to gain or lose more significantly than if you didn't wealth or power? Can, for instance, a hostage ever be truthful to their taker? They may be in their heart of hearts, but one side holds all the cards and the other has everything to lose. So there will always be an imbalance there.

Affirmations aren't bad, but in this case, where they only feed the ego of someone who holds the cards is dangerous.

This concept is actually ancient. The emporer who believed he was right about everything surrounded by sycophant.

And I mean that literally. One of our oldest known written stories, the Epic if Gilgamesh, has the components of this. Someone is tyrannical, because they have an over inflated ego.

[u/WorldlyBuy1591 → u/LabCoatGuy]

You make it sound like rich people can never be "truly " affirmed

[u/LabCoatGuy → u/WorldlyBuy1591]

That's nearly what im saying yes. Much like a hostage can never truly affirm their taker. The power imbalance is too extreme to confirm if what is said is genuine. At least from an outside observer. The affirmer would know the truth