The World is Spinning
Finding Your “Circle of Influence” When the Game is Rigged
If you are feeling a little bit like the dog in the “This is Fine” meme this week (I know I am!) you are certainly not alone.
Between the 24-hour news cycle churning out non-stop bombshells and the general feeling that the “Social Contract” has been breached, it is heavy. But it was a specific detail from the Epstein files that finally made the pieces fit for me this week.
The “Pacification” Plan (2014 vs. Now)
We often wonder why, with everything so clearly broken, we didn’t see it coming sooner.
I found my answer in an email from Jes Staley (former CEO of Barclays) to Jeffrey Epstein. In discussing why the U.S. hasn’t faced a popular revolt against the financial elite, Staley allegedly wrote:
“You want to know why we are not Sao Paulo, watch the TV ads on the Super Bowl. It’s all about hip blacks hip cars and white women. The group that should be in the streets, has been bought off by Jay Z.”
Here is the kicker: Staley wrote that email in 2014.
That was 12 years ago. That was before Donald Trump came down the escalator. That was when the distraction was still working. Back then, they thought they could just buy our silence with pop culture and the Super Bowl.
The Mask is Off
Fast forward to today. The “pacification” strategy has been replaced by something far more aggressive. The distraction isn’t working anymore because the pain is too real to ignore.
The Press: We just watched Jeff Bezos decimate the Washington Post (the institution that broke Watergate!) to stifle the free press. We see the Pentagon (our “for the people” government!) kicking out news agencies that refuse loyalty pledges.
The Economy: They have eroded the ACA to the point where affordable healthcare is a memory for many. When people are sick, they can’t fight back.
The Workplace: We are seeing a massive shift where national companies are capping hiring at 20 hours a week just to dodge the 30-hour mandate for employer-sponsored healthcare. They are legally manufacturing poverty to protect their margins.
The Rebellion of the “Circle of Influence”
This is where Stephen Covey’s work becomes a survival manual for us — the regular people, the nonprofits, and our community business owners.
Covey talks about the Circle of Concern (the things we can’t control). Right now, that circle is a firestorm of government shutdowns, billionaires breaking the news, and systemic dismantling of our safety nets. Staring at it paralyzes us.
But inside that storm is the Circle of Influence. This contains the things we can control.
A Call to Nonprofits and Community Business Leaders
This is me speaking directly to the nonprofit leaders and community business owners: We are the last line of defense.
The giants have made their choice. They have chosen to cut hours, cut benefits, and silence dissent. They have broken the Social Contract.
That means it is up to us to hold the line.
We offer stability: When the big guys offer 20-hour weeks without benefits, we strive to offer full-time roles with dignity.
We offer humanity: We can’t always match the salaries of the giants, but we can offer a workplace where people aren’t treated like overhead.
We offer truth: We can create cultures where people are allowed to be honest about how hard things are, rather than demanding toxic positivity.
Strategic Realism is Our Weapon
At JFarrHR, I talk about “Strategic Realism.” It means admitting that the system is rigged. It means acknowledging that the Staley email was real, and the plan to keep us poor and distracted was real.
But we refuse to be paralyzed by it. We shrink our focus to our Circle of Influence not to hide, but to build something they can’t touch. We build businesses and nonprofits that actually care about the humans inside them.
They might have the Super Bowl. But they don’t have our consent to be numb anymore.