When wealth ceases to inspire admiration and begins to provoke fear, even the rich must ask what their money is really worth.
I like all the different protest initiatives in the US and in Canada, but one that doesn’t get talked about enough — and maybe the most effective — is “naming names.” Holding exploiters and oppressors accountable — out loud. It’s not about gossip or outrage. It’s about truth and consequence. What social media calls FAFO.
We all watched Trump get loudly booed at a recent Commanders game. To me, that was protest in its most basic form. He already knows what people think of him, but that’s not the point. The point is, this makes his life unpleasant — directly unpleasant. That moment was a mirror, held up in public, forcing him — and those close to him — to see how deeply they’re despised. It’s one thing to be criticized online. It’s another to walk into a stadium full of angry people and feel their disgust. And to do so on a world stage.
The Worth in Naming Names
We’ve started to see more of it. Unpopular politicians getting shut out of nice restaurants. Celebrities losing endorsement deals. Billionaires being publicly shamed, booed, or denied service. These moments matter. For a long time, the very wealthy floated above society, shielded by their money and power. But they still live on planet Earth among the rest of us mere mortals. For people who built their identities on being adored, public rejection cuts deeper than any fine or headline. It also signals something darker: hatred. And hatred, once earned, is very hard to shake.
Part of the allure of wealth used to be showing off. Fancy yachts, luxury homes, private jets—all meant to inspire awe and respect. But it’s not like that anymore. The world has changed. The divide between rich and poor has grown so wide that the old admiration has curdled into anger. What they once showed off so proudly has become a cage; they can’t exist among the rest of us without walls, bodyguards, and private bunkers.
For all their talk of freedom, they live trapped by fear. Don’t they understand that the more they take, the less safe they become? The danger is real. When you live among people you’ve starved, frightened, and lied to, it becomes harder to move through the world untouched.
Fear Is the Price of Greed
Even more confounding is watching the wealthy “bend the knee” to people like Trump — out of fear. Fear of losing their money, their relevance, their place at the table. In doing so, they reveal what they try hardest to hide: how fragile they really are. Afraid of the mob they helped create, and of those even more powerful — the ones who write the laws.
Ultimately, it makes me wonder: is it worth it?
Is the money worth the hatred? Is the power worth the isolation? Is the fame worth the quiet fear that being recognized might no longer be safe? Is it worth losing touch with the very world you live in? At the end of the day, no matter how many layers of privilege they wrap around themselves, they still crave what everyone craves — safety, respect, and a sense of belonging.
And they’ve traded all of that away.
So when I see one of them booed in public or denied service because of who they are, I smile to myself and think — maybe, just maybe, they’re starting to realize what the rest of us already know: they still live here, among us. And when the crowd stops clapping, there’s nowhere left to hide.
