When children build castles in the sand, they always like to destroy them in the end. It is a moment of profound psychological catharsis: they are teaching themselves to laugh at loss.
But it is also an action of tyrannic control: destruction can be an incredible indulgence. No one is sure how, and why, Nero burned Rome. But between his vanity, sadism, and artistic obsession, he had plenty of reasons. For sick minds, destruction does not signify anger, regret, or even violence: it is yet another form of domination and control, just like creation. If I have created this sandcastle, then I should also be the only one allowed to destroy it.
As one menacing wave after another laps up against the sandcastle, the children have to think fast, and grow up suddenly: they know it in their bones that the castle’s days are numbered. They decide to destroy it and bask in the ego boost of becoming both creator and destroyer, rather than sink in lament as they watch the sea have its way with their creation. They create the illusion that they are in control.
The sandcastle of course, is only one of many lessons in life for these children. But it is an essential one: it is a lesson about accepting harsh truths, compromising with the inevitable, and even colluding with your enemy, the sea that threatens your castle. If you cannot defend the castle, join the enemy. If you can’t rebel against an oppressive system, become the oppressor. if you don’t want to grieve the victims, then become the killer: Conform. Submit. Collude. Conspire. “Win”.
Isn’t that what the rich and powerful are doing to this world? They are neither revolutionaries nor “self-starters”, as they claim. They only know how to hire others to build their sandcastles, run away when their businesses go bankrupt, then start another sandcastle on another beach two towns over, using a new set of fools and free money from taxpayers to build it. They are neither powerful, nor smart. They just saw the waves coming for the castle and, rather than alert the others, decided to ride the wave and save themselves. They went with the flow, even if this meant everyone drowned except them.
Today’s technobroligarchy is comprised of some of the biggest cowards humanity has ever seen. They are slaves to profit, tiny mice erecting pyramids from cheese crumbs, meticulously building their sandcastle empires and letting them crash on purpose whenever they see a wave approach. Whether the incoming wave is late-stage capitalism, genocide, nuclear holocaust or AI, they fully embrace it. They, of course, couldn’t give two shits about all the people that they have trapped inside their collapsing castles. Not because they are mean, or evil, but simply because there is no room left in their brain for other people. It is all taken up by their ego. These creatures are natural-born egomaniacs since the day they came into this world.
As Rome burns, Nero rejoices in his illusion of control: I own this. I own all of this…destroyed land. I can build it again if I want to, then burn it again if I choose to. I am creator. I am destroyer.
From Nero to Elon Musk, what all megalomaniacs have in common is their delusion that they have control over the world by virtue of being able to either create or destroy. The idea of neither creating or destroying, but simply preserving and protecting something that someone else has created doesn’t simply bore them: it abhors them, because it does nothing for their own image or ego. This is why they will despise anything and everything that is publicly and collectively owned or managed: democracy, the environment, healthcare institutions, peace, international cooperation. All of these values and institutions are existential threats to their ego: they are the expensive tide levees protecting the sandcastle society we live in. But it is much, much cheaper to let it all wash away in the ocean, and find some new fools to build you a new castle the following morning.
The monsters ruling our society are not “men”, but mice. They are spineless cowards. I don’t think many people realise this. It is about time we start throwing them in the deep water and see if they, for once, learn to swim on their own.
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