The Mostly Men

There is a group of mostly straight, mostly white, mostly guys with piles of money who have convinced themselves that they are special, always right, and should therefore be in charge of everything. Apparently, the piles of money are proof the Mostly Men are special and therefore, right. We are not allowed to notice inheritance, luck, or the fact that their money primarily comes from making money on money and they didn’t really do anything. We are also supposed to ignore their circular reasoning.

This has been going on since, well, humans and money—basically forever. It’s not new or special.

It’s also not really about money. It’s about power.

To Mostly Men, having power means that they get to make the rules. The first rule is that the rules don’t apply to them. That’s because they’re special. They are also completely immune to facts, evidence, criticism, and accountability. Why? Because if there’s a potential consequence to something they’ve done, they write a check and move on. It’s annoying and inconvenient to them, but not enough to change their behavior.

Our systems and culture are designed to encourage and reward Mostly Men. Of course they are; Mostly Men are the ones making the rules.

The current problem is that the Mostly Men in power right now are not satisfied with power that comes from money. They also like to demonstrate their power by hurting people. They started out kicking puppies and putting lit firecrackers in frog butts. And here we are.

Our courts are corrupt because judges felt like they didn’t have enough money to feel special. Our legislatures are corrupt because money buys offices and once you have one, more money rolls in. Our law enforcement is corrupt because they are full of Mostly Men who get off on having power, even if they need a gun for it. And if they have a private island, Mostly Men think they can do anything they want there, including raping and hurting children. Anywhere there is power, money, and influence, you will find corruption and harm to others.

If you don’t look closely, it would be easy to think that our society cares far more about money than people. The Mostly Men like it that way. Because that’s how they see things and they enjoy it when anything confirms their POV. But it’s not real.

When we get through this, and we will, we need to make sure that people are more important than money and that Mostly Men are accountable for their actions. And there’s a lot of reimagining of power that needs to happen in our legal system, our organizations and institutions, and in our governments.

In the meantime, the rest of us can start to see what Mostly Men really are. They’re weenies. They are too scared and insecure to manage without the trappings of power or money. They fundamentally don’t believe any of the lies they tell themselves and each other. They really want to, but they know we see them for who they really are.

Only weenies need to abuse their power to prove to themselves that they have it.

Things feel scary right now. This is an accurate assessment of where we are. When weenies get cornered, they get violent.

But this is also an inflection point where people with power to stop the violence, harm, and injustice are starting to push back. And those people include you and me. We don’t have to agree on everything to do that. We just have to agree that everyone matters.

The only requirement to be in this world, is that we are here. We didn’t create or ask for the circumstances that we are born into. We all deserve dignity and to be treated humanely. This is not that hard.

No matter who you are, what you believe, or even how you voted, we can agree on the importance of compassion for each other. And we can condemn harming people for who they are, where they came from, or what they look like.

Compassion, kindness, and love are more powerful. No one can take those things away from us. Let’s use them together to save our world and each other.