ambition and it's consequences

There comes a time in everyone’s life when it is time to leave the nest, cut free of the noose of the apron strings and stretch out into the world. In supportive environments we are all encouraged make our lives our own, seek our fortunes and face the world with individual resolve.

However, as Oscar Wilde outlined in his short essay the Soul of Man under Socialism, “The recognition of private property has really harmed individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has made gain not growth its aim. So that man thought the important thing was to have and did not know that the important thing is to be. The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is…What man really has is what is in him, what is outside of him should be a matter of no importance.”

Has striving for wealth, as Wilde suggested, left us poor when it comes to discovering our own personal riches? Everywhere man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chain stores?

Ambition is by definition “a desire for achievement or distinction, and the willingness to strive for its attainment.” We all want something out of life, be it happiness, family, promotion or the winning lottery numbers. No matter how many times we hear that life is a journey, we all seek the destinations; is there not enough beauty in a rainbow without (the need of the reward of) a pot of gold at the end?

Must all work be ambitious – do all singers need to be signed to make the most out of their voice?

There are many positive qualities in the determined and ambitious, they can effect great and everlasting change in the world, as the American anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Determination, persistence and a refusal to let anyone stand in the way of what you hope to achieve are virtuous (and enviable) qualities.  We’ve all watched Dragon’s Den, and it cannot be denied that individuals who excel in the business domain are extremely impressive figures. Lucky is not a word the highly successful even consider, unless in reference to self-made luck, and there is something to deeply admire about a person that takes this kind of responsibility for their lives. 

But is it not time that we, in the west, stopped worshipping money and those who have it? Is it not time we came a little more imaginative with our ambition? I am tired of the fad’s and books, especially in the ‘self help’ (help your-self) market, encouraging readers to think themselves rich, manifest themselves swimming pools and create the perfect world for them.

For the world to be perfect, it has to be so for everybody.

Because, when we consider the qualities evident in the corporate structures of our worlds, there is far less to admire, especially when the ambitious/ greed driven trading habits of companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell literally rape the world of it’s environment to feed the consumer lust of the west.

Wal-Mart is the world’s top earning company, netting $12,011.64 a second, and scooping a revenue of $378,799,000,000 per year, higher than the GDP of most South American countries. And they say there is a shortage in this world?

They are correct: that shortage comes in failing to recognize the true power of the consumer/ individual human being.  These companies would have zero profit if we all stopped buying their product. There are more of us than them. This is our world, not theirs.

We have the power, we make the choice, and if everyone in the world decided tomorrow that they were never going to buy another item from Wal-Mart (they own everything pretty much, so this in itself would be revolutionary) that company would be ended quick-smart!

And the same goes for BP.

It is becoming very evident from recent environmental disasters, such as the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, that Earth can no longer sustain the west and it’s greed whilst maintaining a healthy eco-system for the rest of the our planets occupants.

One has to go.

We really need to decide soon.

“Don’t imagine that your perfection lies in accumulating or possessing external things. Your affection is inside you. If only you could realise that, you would not want to be rich. Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man. Real riches cannot.” Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man under Socialism.