This week Elon Musk became the first trillionaire in human history.
A trillionaire.
I don't actually understand what that means.
A million dollars I can kind of understand. A billion dollars already feels fake. A trillion dollars is just a word. My brain can't hold it. I don't think the human brain evolved to comprehend numbers that large.
What I do understand is that it's evidence we're doing something very, very wrong.
One of the stories I was told growing up is that people work, contribute something useful, and then get paid for the value they create. Some people make more money because they have specialized skills or because their work creates more value for society.
As we all know, that’s not actually how it works.
How exactly are we measuring value?
And if all human beings have inherent dignity and worth, why are some people's labor valued a thousand times more than others?
But that's not even the point I want to make.
Even if I accept capitalism on its own terms, a trillion dollars is absurd.
There is nothing, LITERALLY NOTHING, that any human being could ever do that is worth a trillion dollars.
No one is that valuable.
Not me. Not you. Not Elon Musk. Not Jesus. Not Beyoncé.
Nobody.
I mean, we all are, which is why no one should hoard that amount of money.
A trillion dollars have been extracted by Musk, not created.
This is more evidence that a system that could distribute resources has instead become a machine for concentrating power.
And power is the real issue here. The ability to shape public discourse, political outcomes, labor markets, technology, media, and culture. It's the ability for one person to exert outsized influence over billions of others.
I don't think any human being should have that much power.
Because history is basically one long cautionary tale about what happens when too much power accumulates in too few hands.
From where I sit, this is a spiritual problem. Of course economic, political and social, but definitely spiritual.
When one person is permitted to gather this much power while millions struggle to meet basic needs, we are witnessing an imbalance of energy so profound that it distorts the entire system.
Something feels off because something is off.
We are not well. This is a sick society.
So yes, I take the arrival of the world's first trillionaire as a symptom.
A giant flashing symptom of a culture that has lost its way.
The good news is that symptoms aren't the same thing as death.
Symptoms are information.
A fever tells you something needs attention. Pain tells you something needs healing.
And maybe that's what moments like this are doing for us collectively.
Maybe we're being rearranged.
Hopefully into something that honors our bodies, our hearts, our minds, and our spirits.
Into something that actually makes sense.
I don't know exactly what comes next.
But I know a trillion dollars isn't the answer.
Until then, I'll keep working my magic.
Courage, truth, and infinite love,
PS: And before anyone comes at me with dreams of colonizing Mars, let me say this:
I actually think going to Mars sounds kind of fun.
What I find bonkers is the idea, spoken or unspoken, that the Earth is somehow disposable.
That if we trash this place badly enough, maybe we can just move somewhere else. As if another planet could replace this one. As if this astonishing, living, breathing miracle we call home is somehow expendable.
No thank you.
The Earth is not disposable. Neither are people. Neither are communities. Neither are future generations.
The End.
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I don’t believe in magic, but I know that it works!
Magic is not a belief system, it’s a practice that works. Don’t believe me? Come try it out. If it doesn’t work, you lose nothing. But if it does… your dream life is about to begin!
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