Bob Schwartz

First, not all billionaires, not even most billionaires, are bad for the nation and the people of the nation.

Second, absent some horrible investment decisions, the billionaires will not be impoverished, in this or any future lifetime.

But there are billionaires who are using their money and power to make things worse for people or who don’t care if their money and power make things worse for people.

Here is the good news: A number of those billionaires made and continue to make their money from the buying power of consumers. Buying power as in power. Consumers as in…well, maybe you.

If this sounds simplistic, it isn’t. I am not alone in thinking about where the profits from my purchases of goods and services are going. Sometimes I make conscientious choices. Sometimes—I admit it—I choose price, convenience or utility over other factors.

The thing is, when I see and hear about the billionaires I’ve funded and fund, making the individuals or their companies richer, the path to alternative choices continues to shrink. Consolidation, conglomeration, oligopoly, monopoly rule.

The leverage is still there. ______________ will not find themselves living on the street or standing in a breadline, unless that is where they get their kicks. But if some choices you make keep a little of your money away from them, that’s not such a bad thing, is it?

We know what fight without enlightenment looks like. There isn’t enough space on the unlimited internet to chronicle that. In terms of overturning a bad situation, one example of unenlightened rebellion is ironically the French revolution (France being the birthplace of the Enlightenment).

Enlightenment without fight is more complicated. That is the situation where more elevated personal and social principles are promoted and maybe partly adopted, but the forces of the unenlightened hold the power to suppress that and even to move us backwards and down.

To give America its historic due, our revolution was not a half-bad example of enlightened fighting. Which is not surprising, given that the literal Enlightenment was a driving force and guiding philosophy, with a pragmatic American twist. Maybe the outcome was less than perfect and less than vulnerable to the worst counter forces. But not half-bad.

Enlightened fighting is easier said than done, and certainly in America 2025.

Enlightenment doesn’t just require a good heart and good feeling. There is real thinking and real knowledge involved. Am I saying that there is not currently enough real thinking and real knowledge in America? Am I?

Fighting doesn’t mean just doing something, anything out of frustration, anger or even hope for a better tomorrow. Doing something, anything can leave the impression that the fight is ongoing, while that may be an illusion/delusion. That’s where enlightenment, thinking and knowledge come in. Not to mention, of course, courage.

So if you are one who wants to hasten the end of this dangerous nonsense, ask two things. Are you or those who want your support enlightened in ways that will advance the fight beneficially and successfully? Are you or those who want your support courageous and fighting in ways that will advance the fight beneficially and successfully?

Light on. Fight on.