Some are good slaves than masters
Some people are born to rule the masses, while others are meant to follow the herd. Nobody likes to admit this truth because it makes them appear average in their own eyes. Why don’t we like this opinion? We have seen that the masses can create revolutions. They can topple governments and change the future of nations, and sometimes even the world. So what makes being part of the masses so repulsive?
Nobody likes being average. But how much one hates being average determines whether they will remain average or not. You really have to dislike mediocrity, so much that you can spot it inside you. Calling yourself mediocre requires brutal honesty with yourself. Improving from mediocrity requires courage. Not everyone can take this journey.
There is a difference between hating yourself and hating the mediocre qualities within you. One cannot become the master of their destiny without a bit of self-hatred with the existing status quo. To be free from slavery requires you to abhor the slavery. Before that, you need to identify that you are a slave.
If you are addicted to the fruits of your bondage labor, you will never like the risk and reward associated with freedom. To be free from every shackle, you need to first hate the current status quo enough to change it. But freedom doesn’t make you a master. The next step is to find ways to walk the path of becoming your master. This can apply to all areas of our lives.
Some people are comfortable with the latest trends, opinions, and friends. Some are rebellious enough to form their own opinion, spend enough time to punch holes in that opinion, and finally make it free of any loopholes. Forming a contrarian opinion looks easy until it is challenged. Then it requires persuasion, data, dialogue, and most importantly, the authority of owning that opinion, which can only come from bouts of thinking.
The world is designed by the masters to ensure there can never be enough masters. If there are enough rewards for the slave, enough incentives, enough pats on the back, would you hate your slavery? If you can think beyond your incentive, if you can identify that you are a good slave despite being highly rewarded for it, and do everything to break the shackles at the risk of losing it all, you have arrived.
It’s easy to call such a drastic step taken to change the status quo madness. Maybe it is so because it’s risky. And foolish. But such are the rewards. And maybe that’s why the ones who rule the world are often termed crazy at first.