The Absurdity of Exploitative Power
Imagine an octopus whose tentacle becomes convinced it's superior to all the others. This clever tentacle studies the weaknesses of its fellow limbs, then systematically works to disable them - pinching nerves here, restricting blood flow there. With each successful attack, it feels more powerful, more in control. Soon it's the only functioning tentacle left.
Our triumphant tentacle has won! Except... now the octopus can barely move. It can't catch enough food. It can't navigate complex terrain. The "winning" tentacle, in its quest for dominance, has engineered its own demise. The oxygen-rich blood it depended on grows thin as the weakened system struggles. In destroying its "competition," it destroyed the very ecosystem that gave it life.
This is the absurdity we see playing out in human systems every day:
The executive team that boosts their salaries while cutting worker pay and benefits, then seems surprised when there aren't enough workers left to generate the revenue that paid those inflated salaries in the first place.
The "success coach" who preys on clients' insecurities for quick profit, burning through relationships instead of building a sustainable practice that could have generated exponentially more value through genuine transformation and referrals.
The leader who becomes so intoxicated with their own intelligence that they use their keen insight into human nature to manipulate rather than uplift - not realizing they're poisoning the very well of human connection they drink from.
These are not merely unethical choices. They are fundamentally irrational ones. Like a farmer who burns their soil for quick ash fertilizer, gaining one season of abundant crops at the cost of permanent sterility.
The true absurdity lies in how this behavior is often celebrated as "ruthless intelligence" when it's actually a form of high-functioning blindness. It's sophisticated technology used to measure the ocean's temperature solely to extract resources faster, while missing how this extraction creates dead zones that will make the entire ocean uninhabitable - including for the extractor.
What many call “clever” is an autoimmune disorder of power - where systems of influence turn against themselves, mistaking domination for success while engineering their own collapse.
It’s a tragedy that harms others while simultaneously impoverishing the experience for the perpetrators themselves. In choosing exploitation over cultivation, they sacrifice the rich experience of genuine connection and sustainable growth for the hollow victory of temporary control.
In the end, the "winners" of these games find themselves at the top of a pyramid they've undermined, rulers of a kingdom they've made uninhabitable, possessors of a power that's become powerless.
The ultimate irony? The energy spent studying vulnerabilities to exploit could have been used to strengthen the entire system, creating expanding circles of abundance rather than contracting spirals of scarcity.
This is the lesson that keeps playing out through myth and history, that we keep failing to learn: True power doesn't come from domination. It comes from cultivation, from understanding that our individual thriving is inseparable from the health of the systems we're part of.
Real intelligence does not exploit the vulnerabilities of others; it collaborates and empowers because it in recognizes that we are an interconnected system, there is no such thing as sustainable exploitation. There is only the choice between: mutual flourishing or mutual destruction.
Choose wisely.
