What is the greatest power that I possess as a human being? What is the greatest thing I possess that has to be my power to choose, to choose the life ultimately that I want to live? I think this is totally true, isn’t it?
So today I’d like to talk about poverty thinking. It’s a concept that’s sweeping over us at the moment. It’s imbuing young people with a sense of defeatism.
You know, this needs no employment education or training phenomenon is running right. So what is poverty thinking? Well, essentially, poverty thinking is the thought that I will never get out of this negative life.
No matter what happens, I will continue to be poor. Of course, what does that mean? We’ll delve into that a little bit.
But poverty thinking, ultimately, is the belief that I’m poor, my father was poor, my grandfather was poor, my children will be poor. And it takes on not only an economic stance, of course, because essentially, it goes into many areas.
But let’s probe three of them, if we may. One would be financial poverty thinking, of course, the easy one, psychological poverty thinking, and ultimately spiritual poverty thinking.
So the financial poverty thinking is relatively straightforward, isn’t it?
This is the American dream model, for sure. I go to school, I graduate, I get a degree or degrees, and I could be a doctor, a lawyer, a candlestick maker, you know, it doesn’t really matter.
But I get this job and I begin, and I look at my salary and I go, wait a moment, my salary times infinity will never match the money that trillionaires like Elon Musk are making. I’ll never get there.
And then of course, you multiply your salary and you think to own a home would be 35 or 40 years, maybe, if this possible at all. And you just kind of give up, you surrender. Wow, it’s impossible.
And these are at the most extreme, these are of course, the neat, and also the so-called freeters. These are people essentially that graduate and they take a ordinary job, whatever it may be, because they have no desire to achieve something further.
They don’t get a car, they barely get an apartment, don’t get a girlfriend or boyfriend, just live out life, go along basically. So, give up, and you ask yourself, why would you give up economically?
Because at the very end of the boomers, in a sense, I was born in 1956. In fact, today, I’m 70. Can you believe it?
That’s an aside. But that said, we were imbued with this idea that all was possible. Really, you worked hard, and you would have some…
Well, I’m shocked, actually, because I never imagined 70 would be like this. Unlucky breaks for sure along the way, but you would achieve something.
Now, my parents’ generation, of course, they came out of the Great Depression, you know, the 1929 to 1939.
So their great, great gift, in a bizarre sense, was World War II, because they were so excited to go off and fight, and somehow society had forgotten the lessons of the First World War, as bizarre as it seems, and we were into it again.
The great, great tragedy, of course, of course.
So their children, which means, of course, me, got down to work, and we were able, with a lot of our work, to be able to have a job, get away from being a wage slave, have a job and then go off and start a business, make some money, and etc., etc.,
right off into the sunset, so to speak. But our children and their children believe that it’s a tough go, and the stronger ones can make it, maybe, but most of us can’t.
So this poverty thinking is just imbuing, economic poverty thinking is filling a lot of people with this sense of hopelessness. And that lends itself, of course, to psychological poverty thinking, which is pure defeatism.
Life is just a grind to the end. No joy. I just grind it out.
I have an average job, and I might go forward in my career, get a middle management job, you know, but all I want is stability. Stability, I can work for the post office, I can work as a teacher, but there’s no win in my life.
And I have that, of the opinion that we all deserve a win. Because who’s your teacher? Who’s my teacher?
Myself, of course. And I’ve told myself that I’m a unique human being, as we all are. We’re all unique.
The eight or so billion of us are all unique. Maybe 10% are not that smart, 5% are brilliant, but the rest, the 85%, just like you and me, has got a chance to be successful, whatever that means. And this generation, of course, is gotta work harder.
And that’s true, for sure. Looks like, right? You gotta have to do some extraordinary things.
Start a business, have a second job. But the point is, it can be done. Poverty thinking tells you it cannot be done.
I give up. I’m a neat, I’m a feeder at its most extreme. I’m homeless.
I’m one of the two million people in North America, 500,000 permanent and 1.5 million semi-permanent homeless people. Don’t have a home, I’m a victim, essentially. And I just don’t believe this somehow, because who makes me a victim?
I do. Now, if you read stories about people that were in these so-called death camps during World War II, what kept them alive? People like Viktor Frankl, a famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning.
I recommend reading it, because he talks about the fact that he had lost everything. Everybody died in his family, his immediate family, and yet he came away from that with the belief that we have choice.
He says Freud talks about, of course, sexuality, and people like Adler, Nietzsche, they talk about power. He said that’s not the purpose of life, it’s meaning. I must have a meaning.
But who gives me that meaning? I’m one of those who believe the meaning is inside me when I’m born, and I must just uncover it. I must just open it.
And it requires work, work at all levels, but mostly work on me. I’ve got to be a reader. One young man the other day in class told me I don’t like to read.
Well, if you don’t like to read, you’re destined to slavery in this age today. If you don’t like to read, to take in knowledge, analyze it, slavery is coming your way, guaranteed, right? Because now is a time of information.
And why do I go to university? Comes the question at this point. I go to university not for a degree, doctor, lawyer, engineer, nice, but that’s not really the reason.
I go to learn how to learn. Because we live in such a dynamic age that knowledge is going to run in front of us if we’re not responsible. And we are responsible.
We are, because AI cannot love. It could talk about love, but it can’t love. It can’t feel emotions.
It can simulate emotions, I’m sure, but it can’t have those emotions. Only we can, fortunately.
Then we come to the final poverty, which is spiritual poverty, right? Carl Jung says that people that were extremely ill, the ones who recovered had some spiritual basis.
And he’s not promoting Christianity, even though he believed that Jesus, of course, was the archetype of the perfect man. He’s not promoting Christianity or Taoism or Buddhism or any ism, really.
He’s saying, find your own path, your spiritual path forward with the cosmos. And we all can, we all can. So I think the point here is that I can’t be a victim, can I?
I just can’t be. Had a friend who was a great musician when I went to high school.
We played in a band together, I played the piano, and he was lead singer, guitarist, fantastic. One of those type of people that you should be saying, I knew him when, that people would be laughing at you.
That’s impossible, you can’t know that superstar. No, no, really, I went to school with him. Leon, please, that kind of person.
Instead, today, he’s dead. Drugs, alcohol, et cetera. Why?
Why? Because he stopped believing in his intrinsic mission. He adopted, obviously, poverty thinking, and he took to substance abuse because of the guilt and all sorts of other psychological excuses.
I am sure, tragedy. How many of us could be like this and decided not to? Because each and every day, when I wake up, what’s the first thing I do?
What’s the first thing I do? I show some sense of gratitude for being me and being alive. And today is a new day.
I have a chance to do many things today, to go forward, to create wonderful things, don’t I? Because every day is a precious day, because I’ll never get it again, will I? So think of these things when it comes to poverty thinking.
First of all, financial poverty thinking, don’t be afraid of money. I know when we go in banks now, it’s almost like you’re in a church. Everyone is hushed, very obeisant, et cetera, et cetera.
But it’s just money. There is always more money than ideas. Famous statement of one of my friends, right?
If you got the great idea, you can get the money. And all you have to do is research this statement. And you realize the great entrepreneurs had no money many times, but they had great ideas.
And then the poverty thinking financially lent itself to psychological poverty thinking. Poor me, I’m a loser. I’ll never pull this off.
I’ll never be successful. I’ll never, whatever the never is, you can fill in the script. And the third one, the spiritual side.
You need a relationship, I believe. Every human being needs a relationship with God, Gaia, or the universe. Absolutely.
Something bigger than me. And those that don’t have that, I think, ultimately suffer. So think of those things.
Don’t be a victim. Be a winner. Get rid of poverty thinking.
If it ever comes to you, dispel these thoughts immediately. And you know what they say. You know what they say.
Critical thinking is everything, especially if we’re going to beat poverty thinking in our society. And critical thinking is great. Truly great.
You take care. God bless. Bye bye.