Notices by Madeleine Morris (remittancegirl@mstdn.social)

Everyone needs an ego ideal. A kind of persona we want others to see us as. Warren Buffet, at one point the richest man in the world, styled himself as this folksy financial genius. It was a persona that he managed to pull on and wear quite well. It was a coat that he could fit into. And it had a marginally socially redemptive aspect. Like Gates, who imagined himself the nerdy magnate, who would save the world for various global diseases.

But Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos and Thiel have all failed to create coherent personas for themselves. None of them are imaginative enough to weave an ideal they can actually fit into. Often because the costumes they attempted to wear were so outrageously far from any concrete reality, they appear to us as monstrous clowns.

In essence, they are all constantly shitting in their own pants because they cannot create a pair of pants that fit.

One interesting aspect that unifies them is that not a single one of them can tolerate taking personal responsibility for their misjudgements or failures.

So while they spend most of their time imagining themselves as 21st century techno gods, the costume can't fit because... the thing about being a god is that gods take responsibility. You cannot be a god without being responsible. If it's someone else's fault, then you're not the top god, are you?

It's sad not a single one of them took a humanities degree. And it's now, after their climb to the top of a financial mount olympus, that it really shows.

Not a single one is capable of imagining himself coherently. I'm going to say something that will sound odd, but it requires a certain poetic talent, a certain writerly capacity, to forge a coherent heroic persona on the obscene level of power and wealth where these men dwell.

They resort to the tired, threadbare robes of Roman emperors.

I watch all these men swing manically from 'please love me' to 'fuck you, bitch' repeatedly.

It's as if the only referent their woefully unimaginative minds have been able to come up with has turned out to be various incarnations of Caligula.

I think one of the most ironic facets of this is that, unlike Buffet or Gates, these men are desperate to be loved by everyone. And yet, for all their wealth and power, they cannot make you love them.

And in a way, that has always been the peasants' superpower. Even in the face of gods. We can refuse to love them. We can refuse to admire them. We can see them for the pathetic, underdeveloped infants that they are - every single one of them.

And, let us be honest, it is quintessentially human to, from time to time, shoot yourself in the foot. But these self-mutilations are spectacular by any measure. These men may have once been all about the money at one point in their lives, but now they have so much of it it has become an abstraction.

What has happened to these men is that they have no measure of themselves. Nothing to model themselves on. And, as if proof were ever needed, they have shockingly uncreative imaginations.

I think in order to get a firm coordinate on what people like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are actually like, it is important to remember, as @GossiTheDog said, just how spectacularly they continue to shit in their own beds.

https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/113840676503949388

@passenger ha!!!! My cats have had plenty of chicken! They had some for lunch!

Be careful. My cats are master manipulators. They just want chicken from two sources instead of one 🤣

@randahl I wish I could find a flaw in your reasoning, but I can't. As a European, I'm disturbed by what I perceive as a lack of gravity on the part of European leaders with this situation. I'm hoping these discussions are taking place behind closed doors in order not to exacerbate already shaky relations between Trump and Europe.

But we're on our own, now.

@NatureMC Well said. I get that there is a deep desire on the left for leaders to be publicly demeaning to Trump’s face but fucking his plans up in private is more effective that grand gestures. @randahl

Arghhhh it’s finished finally #sewing #kimono #yukata

Jacques believes bed-making is an unnecessary human folly #CatsOfMastodon

Please list me the female CEOs of these massive tech companies....

(drums nails on desk)

No?

Well then the lack of 'masculine energy' must be entirely the fault of Zuckerberg, Musk, Gates, Cook, Bezos, Ellison, Thiel....

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-slams-biden-administration-194515530.html?guccounter=1

In fact, please take a look at the appalling lack of 'masculine energy' of the worlds richest CEOs.

There is exactly ONE woman.

Maybe the problem is that billions of dollars turns you into a eunuch? I can help you with your problem

Good morning.

I want to talk about something quite difficult.

I want to talk about boundaries.

Especially drawing boundaries with people you love, who may not be capable of not crossing them.

1/

There is a fine line between caring for other people, doing what you can for them, and falling into the insidious trap of being a martyr.

We all want to feel like we are good people. We all want to be understanding of another person's limitations.

We all want to help people who need help.

And yet...

2/

You have an obligation to care for yourself also. And to not fall into that trap of becoming the virtuous martyr who is constantly living in service of other people. It looks admirable from the outside, but it's not healthy for you. It's feeding an unhealthy form of identity.

And just because that person in need is not capable of empathy (and you understand that), it doesn't mean that you don't need or deserve it. 3/

It has taken me may years to really digest the metaphor of putting on your oxygen mask first, before you try and put one on others.

That ideal image of myself as the self-sacrificing, responsible adult who addressed everyone else's need first - it's an easy trap to fall into. Our popular narratives are full of praise for people like that. But let me tell you, there is a really unpleasant enjoyment to it. There's something of a monstrous underbelly to it. A sanctimony that is ugly.

4/

And I can honestly say that I've been guilty of being that person. I've totally gotten off on being instrumentalized by a whole family of narcissists. And understandably, because it's very familiar caricature.

But it isn't life affirming. It isn't ethical. And ultimately, it's not sustainable.

It's important to remind yourself that setting boundaries IS ethical. It's not selfish or uncaring. It's what responsible people do so they have the bandwidth to help other people when it really counts.