Stripping away the distracting BS, this is what it all boils down to. (In my opinion.)

[BrotherIvan]

58. I will check out that book

I'm glad that you are calling him your "ex" because it sounds like you have chosen a path that fulfills you rather than crushed by his narrow views. I know my mother wasn't so lucky. It does take a while for people to wake up, since the idea of the pursuit of riches being so lauded only reinforces that destructive behaviour.

I often find that the only thing that wakes people up is some sort of tragedy. Most especially my well-off friends who use their wealth as armor to protect them from the slings and arrows of fortune. But one can't outrun it indefinitely. And it truly shocked me to realize that wealth made them feel safe, from uncertainty or grief or suffering. And when it hit them, they were the most ill-equipped to handle it. I often wondered to the universe, How did they get away with it for so long? How were they so demanding and confident they would get exactly what they wanted if they rejected all else? It is so different from my own life experience. But as I grew older, I did find that no one is immune to life's challenges. And some people have grown and improved after great tragedies, sad that they had lived their lives selfishly for so long. It was so apparent with Mitt Romney and the awful stories of tripping is daughter in-law or shoving his grandchild's face in a plate of food (something to that effects) and his creepy sons, that no one in that family actually liked each other. They are most probably waiting for him to die so they can inherit all his money. And I'm sure they cringe at his demanding wife.

I do hope that collectively we wake up. We have let advertising define who we are and it has made a society and culture we don't like. I hope there is some way to change that course. Though I don't know exactly what that is.