Are you going to take the vaccine?

[Diana]

In my experience, after working with some people in high positions of power in both the academic and private sectors, I found many of those people to be less elitist and more of the hyper-productive workaholic sort. They lose themselves in their work, either for the escapism in it or the love of it. And what a gift these people offer the rest of us, keeping our complex civilisation-maintaining systems running day and night! I’ve done work experience in a medical lab, the great scientific minds at work there were a marvel to behold. It’s just so hard for me to dismiss D&D departments at pharmaceutical companies as being STS in nature...

These people you describe can indeed be a gift, as all people are who strive for excellence and have supreme focus. I don't see scientists as people who are STS Adepts—more like highly focused to the exclusion of other things. In a pharmaceutical lab, for example, a scientist may have a closed-off heart to the suffering of the animals being tested on that may lead to a human lifesaving drug—so where does the polarization land?

I too have known (and know) high-level business owners. A very small percentage of them are what I would term consciously polarized or polarizing STS. They are at the top. They have immense drive and vitality to LEAD. They feel they have to lead because most people aren't capable (there is truth to this). They support themselves in this endeavor because that's how they continue. One might even class Elon Musk in this category. But because his purpose appears to be serving humankind, people see him as a hero. I don't see him as a hero at all, just a highly focused person on a mission. Frankly, the idea of finding a way off the planet (and populating other planets) is bypassing the idea that we should take responsibility for the one we live on first. What happens to other planets if we haven't learned to live in harmony with our own?

I know the general idea, because of  examples in the Ra Material, is that STS individuals are all evil (don't get me wrong, the men—I know no women in these high positions—are what might be called "dicks" because of the way they operate).  The way I see it is that the STS Adept operates smart. The Adept would be efficient, and giving into self-indulgence would be inefficient. I think they just "use" what resources they have to their ultimate advantage which may include causing suffering but that is seen as collateral damage. Their egos would demand a higher purpose for the world, like a king who rules a kingdom.

Think of certain political figures such as our last US president. One might say he is STS but he is no Adept; he is sloppy, unfocused. Scientific labs that employ high-IQ scientists all the way down to low-level staff—are they STS? It is likely a mix. The CEO may be STS, but under that person, I see it as highly unlikely an Adept would be in any position below a CEO. As mentioned above, let's say a pharmaceutical lab tests drugs on animals. In that case, I would say that every single person who works there has polarized some toward STS, unless they are truly ignorant of the idea that animals are suffering. And by extension, anyone who supports the results (the medicine, the personal products) by buying them and contributing to the support of such practices is also polarizing STS (if they have the awareness of the testing).

It just isn't as black and white as some make it out to be. A person may call themselves an animal lover (because they love dogs and cats), but think rats or fruit flies are not worthy of love. This of course is ignorance so there would be no polarization. My point is that so-called STO people here are not angels and the STS people devils—and that is not to say this isn't sometimes true (metaphorically of course). 

So, in the case of this thread, in my view, one must take responsibility no matter which path one is on. We are not victims because we have choices. Sometimes those choices involve deciding whether or not to be controlled by a government. This concept isn't so much what the government is (and in some cases such as North Korea it would be a main feature), but what the individual is. Who are you as an individual; what are your conscious convictions; what is your chosen path; and how do you live and represent that path. These are the questions I feel are at the heart of choice.

And even with the reality of there being elites in this world, Ra specifies that even these people justify their actions by trying to do “what they believe is best” for the rest of us.

I agree with this. Otherwise, STS polarization would be nothing but self-indulgence and that is illogical in terms of polarizing enough to actually gain any real ground on the negative path.