The Three C's

Years back, I wrote an essay that nobody read titled The Three C’s: Conquerors, Caretakers and Consumers. It was one of those “the world is divided into 3 kinds of people” * reflections, as follows:

 

Conquerors: These people are endowed with an extra-strength dose of energy, charisma, determination and power. They use it in service of their own personal gain, stuck in the lower chakras of food (resources), sex and power. Their primary aim is to harness their excess energy to dominate others. Money is to be amassed and hoarded far, far beyond their fair share. Sex is conquest, satisfying their needs and proving their dominance with no love or care for their partner. Power is to make all subservient to their wishes and commands to inflate their fantasy of superiority. 

 

Caretakers: These people are endowed with that same extra-dose of energy, but move it up the chakras into the higher realms of love, eloquent speech, wise insight. They use their power in service of others, to caretake our precious land and waters, to bless the poor and the meek, to stand for social justice. The only conquest that interests them is self-conquest, using their energy to nourish their gods and damp down their devils. 

 

Nobody has done a statistical survey, but I imagine perhaps 5 to 10% of the population at both ends. Genghis Khan, King Leopold, Queen Victoria, Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Trump, Putin and their ilk at one end of the spectrum, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Roberta Menchu, Martin Luther King, Fannie Lou Hamer and more at the other end. Same energies beyond the norm, different uses of those energies that either destroy or preserve life. 

 

Consumers: These are the people who make up “the norm,” who just go about their daily business and are content to consume the products of the go-getters, adore the pop music stars, athletes and movie celebrities (also members of the above two categories). They’re perfectly content to give over their potential personal power to others, some part of them knowing how difficult it is to fully own one’s authentic genius. 

 

History suggests that the conquerors and caretakers will always take the starring roles in the movie of life and there is little we can do to change that archetypal dynamic. If we are to tip the scales towards one or the other, it is the middle group that is most important. These are the people that need to move towards their obligation to caretake, break the consumption habit, stop giving all their power to the “stars.” Whether it's Taylor Swift, Jesus, Allah or the Toddler King, their dependence on someone else taking care of it all so they can be free to indulge in their endless distractions is not what we’ve ever needed and certainly not now. As the Hopi Prophecy suggest, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

 

And I feel it. The pandemic opened some doors to some people and the only up side of the every-day-more-outrageous-outrage of the Orangeman is that some people are finally saying, “Enough.” Might he have been sent by the gods not to punish us, but to wake us up through a Via Negativa? Whatever the case, I do see people who would have been content to coast through life as pleasant consumers stepping up to their own power and place in the Universe. If we can reach a critical mass of consumers turned caretakers, I believe the tide can turn. 

 

But please soon. 

* My favorite short joke: "There are three types of people in this world. Those who are good at math and those who aren't. "