So I finally took the time to actually read the OP and
Kulee Baba's
TL;DR, as well as to watch the TurkeyTom-video.
And so, I do feel that I've gotten a little better grasp on this sad story that qualified a (temporary) board in this website.
Do forgive my astounding autism and spectacular nerdism, but the rundown I've read makes me think of what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about desire in Lord of the Rings.
Are you ready? Here comes fantasy-aspergers such as you've never seen before:
Alright, so the One Ring forged by Sauron offers temptation proportionate to the bearer’s ambitions and powers. This is why it is so incredibly dangerous for Gandalf, Saruman and Galadriel etc. They're all very powerful, and equally as ambitious; ambitious to do good, that is. The Ring will inevitably take hold of that desire to do good and corrupt it in equal measure. As such, when Sam temporarily got hold of The Ring, he appeared as a terrifying lord to the Orcs he faced, yet Sam didn't succumb to the power of The Ring since he possessed neither great power nor great ambitions. Sam merely wanted to have his own great garden, not to be the Lord of the Gardens.
In somewhat the same vein, Gollum had The Ring for approximately 500 years, yet he never did anything with the power it offered. This is, again, because Gollum had neither great power nor great ambitions. He was perfectly fine to live in dark caves for centuries, and only use The Ring to sneak up on unsuspecting foes in order to slay and eat them. The daily rationing of raw fish and the occasional Goblin was perfectly fine prey for Gollum. Other than that, he didn't care for anything else.
When I happaned to search for more nerd-lore on Gollum and his possession of The Ring, I found this post on a forum, which I regard to be quite excellent:
This is a feature of all the various powers and their accompanying temptations that we encounter in life. While many imagine the power will be a salvation ("just wait until I'm rich enough to ___..."), in truth it just magnifies the character that is already there.
Intoxication tends to reveal our underlying emotional pattern — there are happy drunks and there are angry drunks. Sex tends to intensify whatever emotion is already present, whether lust, sorrow, selfish pride, or love. A windfall of money reveals some people to be productive or magnanimous, others to be indulgent or miserly.
We all have our 'ring of power' — that which catalyzes our dark or light nature. In fact there are many 'rings of power' in this world, many commodities or technologies that empower us to be more of whatever we are.
It goes to show that our fascination with shiny things (with 'powers') is fundamentally fruitless — at best a time-and-energy-wasting diversion, at worst the lure that draws us into personal hell — until we have the capacity and will to develop our own character, and to gain control over how we handle power (or how it handles us).
I often compare our relationship with tokens of power to the relationship between the keel and sail of a boat: the bigger the sail, the deeper and more stable the keel had better be. Most people get this the wrong way around, seeking only to catch more wind without giving a thought to stability and direction.
We ought to develop our character before we consider acquiring power, though by far the vast majority of people habitually grasp for power before they've even considered taking responsibility for its use. (This seems to be reflected in the fascination so many LotR Redditors have with effortlessly acquiring a sword or world-cursing ring or tattoo instead of doing the hard and actually empowering work of emulating Faramir's integrity, or Finrod's, or Frodo's.)
As far as I can tell, Nicholas was given everything on a platter on account of the work done by his maternal grandparents, and when he launched into relative fame himself through his YouTube-channel, his character was truly tested. And he failed.
He gave in to his desires, rather than to build the strength of character needed to control his power and ambitions. He got the big sail he wanted, but neglected to work on his keel, so to speak.
I'm ready to receive the autism-stickers now, please.
