Let's make this difficult ⚫🟣⚪🟡<p>Billionaires, Responsibility, and Agency</p><p>At some point we stopped saying “I can’t believe it’s (year) and we are still ____”, but I believe that “we are in the worst timeline” is a different version of the same empty sentiment. It’s a rhetorical throwing up of the hands and rolling of the eyes. It’s just another way of saying “this stinks and I’m at a loss”.</p><p>This type of hand-throwing arrests us and absolves us of responsibility. Responsibility is scary because it exposes us to shame and guilt. But responsibility is empowering because it gives value and meaning to our actions, and a pathway to change.</p><p>We chose this path: all of us (I am specifically referring to dominant culture). We chose materialism and ‘technological advancement’ over human well being. This world is a direct result of those choices. Looking at ourselves that honestly is scary because it is a lot easier to blame billionaires. But billionaires wouldn’t exist without our values and choices allowing them to exist.</p><p>Billionaires aren’t individual agents – they are figureheads at the top of corporate behemoths that have a life of their own. If Musk disappeared to an island tomorrow, some other similarly cruel figurehead would take his place. There is a reason they all seem the same.</p><p>Yes, it feels good to direct our vitriol at them, and they are deserving of it, but isn’t it more empowering to say “we gave you this (responsibility); we can take it away (agency)”? We are active participants, and assigning blame to others only serves to devalue our own agency. It is asking someone else to save us (who? Democrats?) instead of attempting to save ourselves. If we want to reject the trappings of billionaires, we can. Responsibility, then agency.</p><p><a href="https://beige.party/tags/uspol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>uspol</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/SolarPunk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SolarPunk</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Democracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Democracy</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Billionaires" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Billionaires</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/BigTech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BigTech</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Autocracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Autocracy</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Republicans" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Republicans</span></a> <a href="https://beige.party/tags/Democrats" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Democrats</span></a></p>