This email departs from my usual write-ups on this substack because I feel we live in a world of anger, disagreement, and tension. We live in a world where men and women feel uncomfortable with each other and their existence. I want to write this email as an essay and a reflection.
Trump is an answer to our growing polarisation and undercurrent that many of us are living with for a very long time, whether extremely progressive ideas disturbing a lot of liberals, to investors globally, why only US markets are so inflated, why all the other capital markets are meh, but everything goes to the US. I wonder if what Trump is doing might be good - he is not just changing the world order, he is also pushing people like me, who for a very long time felt uncomfortable with venture capitalists from Silicon Valley. I know for sure that a lot of these venture capitalists are highly racist, sexist, and borderline psychopaths. And no, I never liked Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and their apartheid type wild ideas made me highly uncomfortable. Now I can say it with confidence - these people are psychopaths who are flush with money in the name of innovation. I disagree that innovations happen in the US - ponzies happen in the US, and the whole world was buying Ponzi schemes in the name of USD stability and the rule of law. Trump broke that trust, so now many are saying the same thing about those Ponzi makers.
You know where real innovation happens, everywhere, and you know which gender or race is innovative, all of them. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and we must stop being slaves to the US capital markets in the name of US defence. I am writing this from a beautiful library in Helsinki, Oodi - a national treasure - where people come to learn, meditate, and work. Yes, Oodi is a public library, there is beauty when markets and public sector can exist in harmony - an ethical capitalist society can be like that - we don’t need to go to extremes of socialism or crony capitalism. We must value the balance, and ethical / morality-based capitalism is possible. It will be made possible by kind-hearted politicians, policy-makers, investors, fund managers, and capital allocators.
We all need to look within, before we point out the fingers to Trump or Elon Musk, can we be better as a human, a better contributor to the society, can we feel empathy for other’s pain, can we be friends with jews and also spread love & no-war to Palestinians, I wonder if the power doesn’t lie in Trump or leaders, it lies in us. We can feel depressed, helpless, and disheartened, but we can also feel hopeful that we are living in the best period of human existence. We have the potential to create a ginormous impact in this world. There is nothing more important than hope.
We don’t need extremists—whether right-wing or extreme left-wing—activists. We need to be able to live in harmony with each other. We don’t need to fill ourselves with an ego that we are better than others. Even doing good feeds into ego; it leads to moral superiority; instead, we must approach it with humility and an inquisitive mind. Don’t judge someone; that should be the first premise. Be empathetic to everyone, including humans, animals, and nature. I am not morally superior to anyone; I am on my journey to be a better human, which we all should try to be. The only firm advice I will have is don’t put labels, don’t be an activist, and don’t be an effective altruist. Though this advice comes with “maybe” because I don’t know enough and might be wrong, I do not want to feel morally superior to anyone and not make others feel bad because of my beliefs and moral compass.
I want to leave you with hope; you need to be hopeful. I need to be hopeful too because all this chaos in the US is leading us to think critically, to build new relationships between nations, to rethink about venture capital, to redefine capitalism, to transform the public sector, not to be dependent on one nation, not to fuel unlimited growth of the US capital markets and let us not become part of a ponzi scheme.
I believe in Finland as much as Japan, India, South Korea, China, Singapore, Germany, the Netherlands, Africa, Latin America, etc. It is not a zero-sum game—the Western world won’t be poorer if the developing world becomes richer, and men won’t lose jobs when women also work. We need to learn to coexist because we can. We don’t need to fear because we can find calmness, peace, and true Zen without fear.
It is time to hope!
From,
“Nobody”