The way to the top is cloaked with attractive behavior that hides the corruption beneath the skin. Still, not everything is as it seems. The following is not a view from up above, but more like one from down under.
Take Donald Trump, for instance. Trump is a good looking 6ft 2in alpha male. Elvis Presley was 6ft 2in. Both Trump and Presley have similar physiognomy. Trump may not have been a heart-throb celebrity as a young man, but he had the money and the connections. From money which he borrowed from his father, he claims to have built his fortune. People think Trump lives in a bubble.
To many people, Trump is crass. He doesn’t do drugs. He doesn’t drink alcohol. He graduated from college with a economics degree. He went to Norman Vincent Peale’s church as a child and was strongly influenced by this man. Norman Vincent Peale wrote numerous books. Some of his titles are:
- Six Attitudes for Winners
- The Power of Positive Thinking
- The Power of Positive Living
- Why Some Positive Thinkers Get Powerful Results
- Sin, Sex and Self-Control,
- The Positive Power Of Jesus Christ.
Elvis Presley, from what I can gather, did not grow up under the influence of Norman Vincent Peale and a father who was a property tycoon (of sorts). Elvis Presley we are told died from a drug overdose, even though legal. Unlike Trump, Elvis Presley is called “The King”. Although, when he was alive, Elvis would say, “There is only one King, Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.”
One could say that Presley chose to live his lifestyle, although he claimed that his devotees ruined his marriage the night of his comeback. But Presley apparently had another problem, which was the cause of his ruined marriage to Priscilla. He detested women who had given vaginal birth to a child.
Trump has had a number of marriages. His children appear to respect him and love him as well. Trump is a family man, who has had a number of wives. Trump in some respects is like a Sultan without the concubines.
The real issue for those of us who are not in the league of Trump or Presley is whether we want to do evil. Evil has a habit of catching up to us in this life. If we decide to be humble and accept our circumstances, we will discover that people will relate to us and we can enjoy conversations with other people, providing we do not attempt to make ourselves out to be something that we are not. For, in general, people hate hypocrites, know-it-alls, holier-than-thou types, braggarts and other wannabes. In the main, most people recognize that they are human and have various inadequacies.
I was once a conceited obnoxious person who had just as many enemies as friends. My enemies saw me as a conceited obnoxious person who needed to be exterminated. My friends were those who, on the rare occasions it was on display, had been recipients of my better nature. Yet I discovered even those whom I thought were my friends were very much like me and had a tendency towards being conceited and obnoxious. Still birds of a feather flock together; even thieves are known to hangout together. Although, I am not sure how long murderers last hanging out together. From what I am told, even in prison, murderers are more likely to be in solitary confinement.
We are spirit beings that possess a soul and have a physical body. If we seek truth and desire to know why we are here, life can change radically. Mine did. Instead of being conceited, I started becoming more concerned about other people’s welfare, even though I had to still work out who I am and what life is all about. This is the case for me, even though I have found the answers to the questions of being born into the futility of sin and death, the injustice of suffering and the inability of humans to love—true love never ends; it does not appear today and disappear tomorrow.
Socially, from my observation, people are conditioned by the family and the subculture they are born into. Further conditioning takes place through peer groups. Then it is a matter of where we fit within the groups to which we are attracted.
Some of us become loners and reject group-think. But even being a loner does not preclude social conditioning. We are conditioned socially by the people we interact with, even if this is distant and only comes in through the television.
For example, one man I know is physically unattractive, with warts on his nose and a huge belly. He looks like an ugly gnome. He has never married and lives alone. He interacts with his television. If you were to pass his place, when his window is open, and hear him talking to the television, you would think that he was actually speaking to real people—he thinks aloud. Just that being a solitary individual, he probably does not realize that thinking aloud in response to what he sees on the television is something he also does when walking down the street. This person has no friends that I know about, yet he engages with anyone; that is, anyone who will talk to him in the street, on public transport, in shops—in fact, anywhere.
Being at the other end of the spectrum of Donald Trump and living on a pension, our acquaintance, the ugly dumpy gnome (for he is short) seems to make the most of his day. Now, whether he has a habit of doing things that are evil, this is yet to be determined. Sometimes the gnome has been rattled. Like the time his mother died and there were issues concerning her will. In the main, the gnome relates to anybody, whenever and wherever he may be. He gives the impression that he is content with his lot in life. This is the case, even though he indicates to me that he would have been ostracized and ridiculed many times when growing up.
When it comes to being evil, being evil is not difficult for humans. Evil is a matter of how one relates to other people. What some people call evil, other people call expediency. Evidently, the body-bag count around Bill and Hillary Clinton seems to be higher than other people. In some quarters, they are said to have a higher body-bag count than some of the mafioso's made men. However, if you acknowledge bearing false witness, adultery (includes rape, seduction of innocents, pederasty), theft and murder as being evil, then a person’s looks have nothing to do with behavior. Evil actions have to do with our conscience.
We all begin with a conscience. Searing one’s conscience might be extolled as an art form in some circles; for many people, it is just a matter of numbing the pricks from within. Similar to getting through the coughing when a non-smoker decides to take up cigarettes to look cool. Both smoking tobacco and searing our conscience we can learn to do as children. Although, it is easier if someone leads us by the hand and reassures us that everything is going to be just fine.
Good looking children are more favored by chicken hawks and other pedophiles. Ugly children, fortunately for them, are often overlooked. Yet, ironically, in the number of street rape cases of which I am aware, very few of the victims appear to have been possible Miss Universe candidates. Mostly the victims of street rape are ordinary women. However, when it comes to the better looking children, they get the most attention. The eyes of pedophiles and chicken hawks always find the attractive children, even if not lost and lonely. People are naturally attracted to beauty and, unfortunately, for those who are the more attractive, the attention they receive tends to push them towards petulance and less towards maturity.
Egocentricity is difficult to divest from oneself when one believes one is the star of one’s own solar system and everybody else is but one of planets that survive because of one’s own illumination. Not every good looking person is handicapped by egocentricity. I have meet a few who, surprisingly, have a level of maturity that only comes with experience and responsibility. Nevertheless, I have met many people who are not so attractive, who are just as retarded as the spoilt ones found among the glitterati.
Attractiveness, after all, is in the eye of the beholder. Evil behavior has more to do with how a person perceives himself rather than how another person perceives the person. If a person perceives that he (or she) is the light of life, or if that person has a chip on his (or her) shoulder, both, being the center of the Universe or feeling hard-done-by can cause an inclination towards evil. Depends on whether the person has seared his or her conscience and can still recognize the pricks within.
As for superiority, have you ever heard of the arrogance of the ignorant. Ignorant people overlook the fact that we all die and have need of a Savior to take us from death into life eternal. Some matters are more important than others. For each one of us to understand why we are here, surpasses the fact other people think that they are the reason for our existence.
