WHAT RULES THIS WORLD — OR HOW TO GET 99.93% ACTION!

In a few days, the new year will ring in, and it will be time to look ahead to what will happen throughout the next decade. But before we do that, let’s take a look in the rear-view mirror for this incredible decade we are about to say goodbye to. And we start with what the macro level crept up on us as perhaps the greatest turnaround for the society, i.e. a total change in the balance of power. For this is the decade when politics has increasingly lost its power. And this is the decade when what is really playing an increasingly important role, companies and citizens, has taken over as the force in the world.

When I came home from a refugee mission in Iraq some year ago, I should have been happy. Happy we actually succeeded in making contributions to children who had their fathers and brothers slaughtered, to women who were kept as sex slaves in the hell of ISIS in Mosul. Happy to have at least made some small contribution to a world that has yet not experienced the fruits of modernity’s victories, but instead suffered the most conflicts since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and for the first time in world history having 65 million people in refugee camps — including 113: e person in the world on the run, of which totally insane 51% children: — /

I should have been happy and grateful to all the hundreds at home in Sweden who backed up what we did and call myself and my friends “heroes”. Happy with the efforts we actually managed to make, even though we had no funding to speak of, even though none of us had a penny in salary, and even though we all have other jobs to do — some of us at the 16-hour level.

So that I was, i.e. happy ;) I had gone from hell to heaven, and during the summer I hade been in the most beautiful and important place in the world with my family ❤ ❤ ❤ At the same time I was terribly tired. Not on rigours, I’m made of rough wood and “put up with anything” as people usually say. Nor I was “tired” of the hell I’d been seeing in the Middle East, that part is more about being incredibly “sad”, disappointed, and sorrowful on the one hand, and full of fight spirit to take care of it all on the other.

Instead, I was “tired” on all talk, extremely tired of all the bullshit. I hear it every day. Both in conversation with ordinary people, colleagues, friends, acquaintances. And also as a representative for the refugee NGO I started, RHEB, where all too often I was perceived as some kind of authority in the area, even though I am just like you and anyone. The big difference is one. I, and everyone I work with, act. Some might act a little, some might act a little more. But one thing I’ve shared with all these wonderful people is that I got tired of talking and started acting.

I even got so tired of all the talking so I hardly want to talk anymore. I only (!) wanted to act.

Everything else is BS. I heard friends talking about that politicians should take care of things, that EU should do this, the authorities should do that. That Saudi Arabia has to jump in, the US should get things done, aid organizations must do this instead, politicians must do that instead.

And I get so damn tired!

1 day in 4 years you have a chance to influence the politicians. 1 day!!!

And the rest of the 1460 days (= 99.93% of the time) you choose to spend your time speculating, arguing and fantasizing at best? And in the worst case, sit and chat clean and crisp shit talk !? With the “politicians” as the target???

Besides the most obvious that politicians do not hear you, do not listen to you when you sit there and are so damn wise at your kitchen table. Besides that, it was if not centuries ago, so at least decades ago that politicians ruled this world. Today, individuals and companies are doing it.

That is you and your actions. That is, you and those you buy from.

People may like it or not, but we have been living in a consumption society for decades. If you don’t like a company, how they treat their employees, animals and the environment, well then you stop buying their products — and crush that company. If you do not like a country, how they fight, handle the environment, treat their inhabitants or neighboring countries, well then you stop buying that country’s products — and crush that country.

A company acts the same way. If you do not like the conditions in a country, then they stop investing in that country and do not put any production there. That is, both capital shortages and labor shortages — and companies are crushing that country.

The politicians, on the other hand, what can they do? Yes, they can try to control the companies, but then the companies leave and then the politicians know they will come out bad. And they can try to control their inhabitants, but then it starts to resemble dictatorship and then they know that it is over.

Even on the s.c. The third power, media, is now completely off in relation to social media totally taken over. Where more than 4/5 of all content on the web is user generated (UGC) and where social media has dramatically much higher media consumption than old media. And who controls social media?

Exactly. Again, you, and your actions. As well as you and and those you buy from (i.e. the companies).

Politicians simply cannot make a damn fog, and their friends in the traditional media are soon as toothless. Businesses can do even more. But above all, YOU can do everything, the most. Through passive or active action.

The passive action is done by “voting with your feet“ and through your consumption control both companies and countries. The active action you do by taking the first step from thinking and discussing, to instead starting to act and actually make an effort.

An effort for something you believe in, where you produce a difference instead of producing bullshit.

Action speaks louder than words. What you do is what is truly you. Factum Verum. If there is something that defines who you are as a person — what you will like about yourself when you look in the mirror, what you will like about your life when you are on the deathbed, what people will remember you for after your death — yes then it is your actions. Never your bullshit (at least that’s nothing you would want them to do :-D).

So forget the politicians in 1459 of 1460 days. If we were more go-getters who used this 99.93% of the time for action instead of bullshit, then there would be no problems in this world. It would be a better world. A fantastic world.

That is exactly what all the wonderful angels that I had the pleasure of working with in RHEB and elsewhere in the balkan route and in the middle east represent. They act. They are REAL angels, because they act. Babbles a little and acts a lot. And makes a difference. For real.

For nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something. The only catch is for these “everyone” to realize it. That YOU realize it. And I actually think you do. Deep down. That’s why I thank you. Thank you for being there ❤ ❤ ❤ Cause it is YOU who are the hero !!!!