A certain way of thinking prevails among a large number of us. I don’t know how many, but it is substantial. I will try to illustrate by means of an example.
My colleague, in the newspaper business, tends to idealize, and submit emotionally to the two leading newspapers in the city. He talks of how great they are, of how our own newspaper can never reach their level. How every action of theirs is correct (Though professionally, I think they’ve made serious marketing blunders, and have survived only because there is no one to punish them for their mistakes). In other words, he adores them, and places them on a pedestal, because they are establised.
However, when it was widely known that on of the papers was on the verge of collapse, I was astonished at how he began to criticize it. He said they had been foolish, had not played their cards correctly, were a dying organisation, and were incompetent. The above paper, has seemed to have since recovered, and he is back to admiring and adoring it once more.
Another example with the same person. He is an experienced journalist, with twenty five years of journalism under his belt. His behaviour with respect to fresh journalists is mean to the extreme. He tells them how very far below him they are, criticizes every single one of their works, never encourages them, and constantly (Even after two years), reminds them about how new they are to the field.
His behaviour with respect to his seniors is the field, is abject sycophancy. He constantly claims to have great personal relations stretching long back with the topmost men. When, on occasion we have got a chance to meet one of them, they barely recognize him.
In short, he associates himself with established power and authority, and violently attacks those who are helpless. He longs for association with authority that will never fall. Hence the behaviour of calling others younger and incompetent. Such an argument may be repeated even after long stretches of time, and has nothing to do with actual capability.
This attitude may also be observed in job seekers, who idealize, adore, and emotionally submit to the leading companies in the field, whose names are spoken of with awe. A computer aspirant will fawn overa a person from Oracle, or Microsoft.
At the same time, if asked to analyse why an erstwhile giant has fallen, the will crticize every action, and display contempt. Also, they have no faith in companies that have just started small with one or two people, and will harp on how hopeless their chances are.
Such people do not merely pretend to admire, and adulate power. Thye emotionally submit to it, in the way the Germans submitted to Hitler. The characteristics of such people are:
a) Emotional submission to Established authority
b) Violent attacks on those weakened or fallen from Power
c) Utter lack of faith in anything that is growing, and is as yet powerless.
I believe the cause for this, is that such people feel strongly threatened and powerless with regard to the outside world. Being powerless themselves, they seek to borrow power from established authority, by emotionally submitting to it, and trying to associate themselves with it.
However, to do this, they need to give up a piece of their own individuality in order to share in the identity of whatever power they chose to attach themselve to. This inevitably causes resentement towards the power, which is repressed because a direct show or resentement is contradictory to complete submission.
Naturally it follows that they would like these sources of power to be as permanent as possible. When however, this power shows signs of weakening, it no longer serves their purpose, and now, the hidden resentement finally shows itself as a violent attack on the old source of power.
It also follows, that any new upcoming (But as yet powerless) force is seen as a threat to the existing power – Something the person wishes to avoid at all costs. He also cannot ally with the new power, because it’s future is uncertain and does not give him the security that he looks for.
Therefore, his attitude towards this new force is to nip it in the bud, and destroy it. His repressed resentement against the existing power, might come out against these new forces.
The act of creation, and bringing out something new and uncertain is a concept he is completely dissasociated from . He wants everything to be planned out to the last, because he cannot tolerate uncertainty.
The solution to this sort of unstable, and destructive attitude, is for him to be rid of this feeling of inadequacy and powerlessness through his own effort. In other words, the only power one can be sure of, is the power from inside.
To feel powerful from inside, one must have self love. From self love comes a secure sense of identity, which cannot be attacked from outside. The permanence which is is seeking, is found in his faith that he is himself, and will always be so. And that he doesn’t need anything from the ouside to validate his sense of self worth.
Once self love has taken root, forces within him will start to flow out and he will be at one with his powers. The feelings of inadequacy will vanish, and he will be healthy.
It must be cautioned that once self love establishes itself, it might become an even more strangulating power than the one that was left behind. From one concept to another one is caught in a never ending self creating, self preserving and self destroying world. To see this clearly is to go beyond it, to the Source. Silent and Still in the Core.