Bullies, Money and World Peace
By: Frank Sanitate
Tags: Power, Money, Bullying, Politics

I am inspired by Michelle Obama’s biography. She was hit in the face in the first grade by a bully for no reason. Through it all, she said, “Bullies are scared people hiding inside of scary people.” Could it be that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are just scared kids who became scared adults and then bullies?

It seems a long journey to connect childhood fears to two global leaders. A perhaps even longer stretch is: Fear has a lot to do with the drive to riches, the drive to accumulate. We fear not having enough in the future. On a deeper level, we fear that we are not good enough. We try to overcome both fears with the unspoken thought — “If I have stuff, more stuff, better stuff, then I will be good enough. If I have a lot money, then I will be important.” But how much money is “enough”? Actually, I have an answer: X + 26%. Gathering data at my workshops, I looked at the gap between what people earned currently and how much they said would be “enough.” The average gap was 26%. I concluded that at this level of thinking, we will never have “enough.” “Enough” is a moving target, until we do some deeper thinking about who we are and what our life is about.

I wonder if people who have a large amount of money use accumulation as a game, a way of keeping score, of one-upsmanship. If I have two million dollars, I am better than someone who has one million, but not as good as someone who has five million. I wonder how many tombstones have the person’s net worth engraved on them. We confuse net worth with self-worth.

To take it a step further, here is a little drama:

Putin: “But I need my 20 palaces!”

Trump: “And I need my 11 hotels. But wait! I have my name licensed to be on 50 more hotels! I need 61 “Trump Towers.”

Chorus: “How important they are!”

Trump has a blaze of enlightenment and says to Putin: “You know, I am committed to a world that works for everyone. I am committed to work toward every Russian child having the right to grow up healthy and unafraid, and to grow into a happy, self-sustaining adult who delights in contributing his or her talents and energy to a world that works for everyone.”

Putin: “If you are serious, then I am committed to every American child having the same thing.”

Trump (in another blaze of enlightenment): “But if we want world peace, we have to enroll all country leaders to make the same commitment to each other’s children. We can be the founders of PETO — Planet Earth Treaty Organization!”

Putin ( in an even bigger blaze): “But if you are serious, you and I have to get rid of our fear and become totally transparent about all of our money, and stop laundering it, and get everyone else to do the same. Everyone’s finances should be public knowledge. Then we can all invest it in a world that works for everyone, and hold each other to it.”

Trump: “Are you out of your friggin mind?”

Thanks for reading this far and allowing me to share my philosophy of life with you. I don’t expect these two leaders to get the relationship between fear, bullying, money and false power. I do expect that someday we will have leaders who see that the commitment to create a world that works for everyone is the only way to personal and world peace, and to a meaningful, peaceful personal life. What a bully idea! . . . By the way, what’s in your wallet?