Test of Today - A Committment to Myself

November 2nd, 2025

Hi, there.

I woke up this morning, already anxious about writing today’s post.

I decided to challenge myself this month despite the feelings of doubt and fear of failure. I made this promise to no one but myself, so if I decided to break that promise on the very second day, what would that say about me?

Breaking a promise is one of the worst things a person can do to another person, be that in business or in a relationship. I wondered how often promises are broken and if people keep track of the promises they make.

Before I entered the legal industry, I always thought that corporate law would be easier on the emotions than family law, and at times, that can be very true. However, if I have learned one thing over the years, it is that money means more to some people than their own family (also speaking from personal experience here so I may be biased).

We learned in school that “power corrupts but absolute power corrupts aboslutely.” Replace money with power and the same stands true. I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as an ethical billionaire and here is why.

This past week, I called out Taylor Swift in the comment section of an instagram post regarding her billionaire status. Now before the capitalist bootlickers rise up, I don’t believe in ethical billionaires because I do not believe any person needs or should be allowed to have that kind of wealth. I got a lot of push back from Swifties, telling me to focus my criticism on Bezos and Musk. While I do not disagree that they too, suck, and are guilty of mass exploitation and various human rights and environmental violations, I don’t understand why Ms. Swift is exempt from all criticism at all? Because she is a woman? Well, Oprah, Selena, and Kim K. all deserve to be criticized for their wealth and neglect towards basic humanity as well.

No one person should be exempt from criticism. Nor should anyone be applauded for perfomative actions such as donating to local food drives or giving your own employees bonuses (both of which are tax deductible aka allows for more wealth hoarding).

From the plague that is celebrity culture and the eery parasocial relationship created by fandoms, emerges a codependence between the fan and the celebrity. To support someone so much that you would be willing to not only emulate their attire, follow their movements, and spend your life savings to see them in concert from a distance for less than six hours, is inconsciounable to me today. I cannot understand it. What does the fan receive in return for their efforts and their hard earned money? What had to have transpired for their to be such a deep, soul binding connection between these two people? Where the one being adored has no knowledge or understanding of the person they are performing for, the patron of their talent at the end of the day.

In the Renaissance, patrons of the arts would commission pieces and watch the artists create. There was a symbiotic relationship between the two, where the artist’s work would hopefully gain favour of the other elites and thereby raising the status of the patron of the artist themselves. So, I often wonder, is it the same today?

Does the average fan act for the same purposes as the patron? Does the artist care about the content of their work or only that they gain the favour of the elites? Who held the power in the relationship? The patron or the artist?

Regardless of the artist or the patron, what will last beyond either of the two is the art and the influence it generated. Often because someone (a royal) paid a lot of money to buy and secure said art as their own. Why else do the wealthy (including European Museums) hoard so many artifacts and pieces away from the public? Money is status and money determines power.

Sorry for the philosophical meandering. I say all this to make a point, I swear. The point is - money corrupts. So when a person has access to all the money (and power) they could never fathom, it will corrupt them. Therefore, billionaires are not ethical because there should never be enough wealth accumulated to acheive that status.

When Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey decided to tell millions of people that they were champions of human rights, supporters of women, and they gained the trust of the masses as well as amassing their fortunes, did they not make a promise to the people that supported them? To the fans that gave them their platform? To their employees that put in the work to get their voices heard?

I was personally heartbroken to learn that Oprah wasn’t the humanitarian I grew up believing her to be. I felt like she had committed fraud and I was genuinely puzzled that people didn’t hold her accountable. I’m still astounded at how well her PR team works to keep her name unsullied in the public eye. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the Swifties tenacity and propensity to live this life, idolizing a persona not based in reality (even despite the alleged N@zi associations).

So, I wonder about the promises made and not kept. I wonder about the unspoken social contracts formed and then later broken.

Anywho - those are my ramblings for the day. Instead of breaking a promise to myself, I reflected on the ferocity of Swifties and their loyalty to their supreme leader.

Day 2 - Success? You let me know!

Ta-ta for now!

Disclaimer: I don’t use AI to write, research, or edit my content. I like to use dashes so please don’t fault me for that!