The Traveling Wilburys, "End Of The Line"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, September 10, 2020
Chris Martenson, "Top Conclusions After 9 Months Of Reporting On Covid-19"
Chris Martenson, Peak Prosperity
"Top Conclusions After 9 Months Of Reporting On Covid-19"
"This Is Why America's Bankrupt Government Will Fail To Save The Economy From A Disaster"
"This Is Why America's Bankrupt Government
Will Fail To Save The Economy From A Disaster"
by Epic Economist
"The American economy is facing a complex dilemma - while it's drowning in debt it also needs to create more debt to avoid deeper damages in the already hurt Main Street economy. In simple terms, it needs at least another 3 trillion in fiscal stimulus to support American families and businesses to survive and prevent unemployment rates and business bankruptcies to continue soaring every week. However, the American debt is so high that it is forecasted to exceed the entire size of the economy and surpass the GDP growth for the next years, which indicates that at this point, the very least we can expect is half a decade in deep recession. That's why today we decided to scrutinize some recent studies to show you what are the forthcoming troubles in the next chapters of the US economic collapse. So stay with us and don't forget to hit the like and subscribe button to support our community.
Yesterday, chief economist at Milken Institute, William Lee told CNBC the US needed at least $3 trillion in fiscal stimulus to support its economy, which has been highly affected by the global sanitary crisis, but it has been suffering for a long time before the current outbreak. While Congress and the White House remain in an impasse over what to comprise in the next relief package, the economist affirmed that these $3 trillion should be used to develop programs such as incentivizing businesses to increase remote working capabilities and helping the unemployed find jobs in companies with viable business models.
So far, from the trillions of dollars printed and injected into the economy, most of it ended up on financial markets and were not effectively used in the benefit of the population nor with the intent to keep businesses safe. On the contrary, it has stimulated big businesses to file for bankruptcy, furloughing millions of workers, not to compromise CEOs' profits, most of which surely knew their companies would be bailed out by the Fed or the markets. The Fed's lack of planning in asset purchasing and strategics also stimulated such large corporations to lay-off their workers at a record pace so they wouldn't be responsible to provide for their workers anymore or compromise their wealth during the crisis because the government would be in charge of that.
The government fell into the market's trap and had to be responsible not only for the workers, by granting stimulus checks, but also for the companies, by "saving" these large corporations, that weren't broke in the first place, and neglecting aid to small businesses that didn’t employ as many people. Otherwise, workers wouldn't be reinserted in the job market again and the economy would crash right there. As time passes by, more and more stimulus is required in the financial markets, since CEO's realized that they can demand whatever they want, because the government has to keep injecting money into the financial markets or face the threat of this designed economic collapse, which will affect the whole population, while the affluent 1% will continue to thrive....
In a nutshell, our entire analysis aimed to prove to you that our leaders are aware of a way out of this crisis but are preferring to take a different turn. They're not interested in fixing the problem, just band-aiding it for the time being and leaving this massive debt for the future generations to deal with. The economic collapse won't be a phasis or a chapter in US history. It will be a constant because that's how the system works. That's how money is made. Prepare to see taxes raising, prices soaring, little to no effort in governmental policies to keep people from starving, or living in the streets. Millions of jobs won't ever come back and several companies will never open their doors ever again. It is nauseating but is true. America is doomed, but you're not. We are not slaves to the system as they want us to believe we are. Choose to know. Choose to act. What are you waiting for?"
"Our System Is Crumbling Right In Front Of Our Eyes"
"Our System Is Crumbling Right In Front Of Our Eyes"
by Daisy Luther
"Back in January, when the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to catch globe attention, Selco wrote an article stating, “It’s not the virus you need to worry about. It’s the system.” Virus or illness on itself might not be a problem in its essence, but the impact that it brings to the system and people might be so huge through the media that it causes the system to stop working in the normal way. So you could find yourself in a collapse not necessarily because of a huge pandemic, but because of the reaction to it. Another case might be the simple unwillingness from the system to admit how bad the situation is in order to stop the panic when folks realized the truth.
So, what might bring the system to collapse might be a real pandemic or a reaction to the pandemic (which might or might not be controllable) or simply the government’s poor or late response to the pandemic. (source) As things were just beginning to unfold, the article took a lot of heat on social media, with people saying Selco didn’t understand how things would go because he is not American and doesn’t know how things work here. Whoops. I guess that’s rather embarrassing in retrospect. Because here we are, seven months after Selco wrote his warning, and our system is indeed falling apart.
Our system is failing in many ways. It’s indisputable that our system is now failing in numerous ways. Some of these things directly relate to the virus and the subsequent lockdown, while others are tied to the nonstop riots that have been going on in some areas for more than 100 days. The riots began after the death of George Floyd when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck until he suffocated.
From the economy to the justice system to the infrastructure, our system is grinding to a halt in a variety of manners that stand to completely change the American way of life. Let’s take a look.
The economy: As predicted, our economy took a massive hit when government-mandated lockdowns closed the doors to many businesses. Despite billions of dollars in relief (much of which went to large businesses in an act of crony capitalism), the new economy has been nothing short of disastrous.
Millions of jobs are gone and are never coming back. Millions of small businesses have fallen. Corporate landlords aren’t getting paid rent and mom and pop landlords are being forced by the CDC (that’s right – the Center for Disease Control) to house people who can’t pay their rent, while still maintaining their mortgages.
Obviously, this trickles down to the average American who just wants to go to work and pay his or her bills. If you’ve lost your job, you are now in a heated competition for the few jobs remaining. The effect on the economy was “swift and severe” according to a paper published by the Brookings Institute. Now that the CARES Act financial assistance has run out, more and more families are being pushed into desperate levels of poverty. (If this is happening to you, please check out this article for essential advice on surviving this situation.)
But it goes even further than that – in a puzzling turn of events, our country is running out of coins. Many stores no longer give out change that is less than a dollar. You can choose to donate your change digitally to the charity of the store’s choice or get it back on a store loyalty card. Many people are concerned that this is a push toward a cashless society, something that would cause even more day to day financial problems for people who are already struggling. (And this is not as far-fetched as it might seem – it’s happened in Venezuela, too.)
Consumer inventory: And what about the folks who do have money? Well, spending it might be harder than it used to be. Remember when the first hints of a looming lockdown occurred and store shelves across the country were emptied? And remember when all the shortages were blamed on those selfish hoarder preppers? And remember when they said if you would just buy for the next few days or for the week all the inventory would quickly be replenished because the supply chain was A-OK?
Yeah. I remember that too. And guess what? Store shelves are still pretty spotty in many parts of the country. Some places still have limits on how much meat or toilet paper you can buy. If you go to your local Target, it’s difficult to find things like bedding and certain cleaning supplies.
Food plants continue to close due to outbreaks. Canned goods are still in high demand. (source) And what is affecting us even more is that we still aren’t getting the shipments from China that we used to receive. When all of this began, I posted a list of essentials that we were getting from China which might affect our supplies, and unsurprisingly, many of these items remain difficult to find.
When you can find supplies in your local stores, you may find that the selection of options is far more limited than before. This is pretty startling, but something that I noticed when I spent several months abroad was that most other countries don’t have chicken cut in 12 different ways or 47 different brands of laundry detergent. What feels like a “shortage” to us is somewhat normal elsewhere and this is something you can adapt to fairly well.
At the same time, limits on purchases make it incredibly difficult to stock up for the future, and you can also expect to see fewer and fewer choices in the months ahead unless something happens to change the situation dramatically.
Education: One of the first casualties of the lockdown was the education system. Most schools simply gave up and didn’t continue the school year after the March lockdown. Colleges and universities turned to distance learning. Graduations were held virtually, if at all.
The new school year looks a lot different too. The schools that have reopened for in-person learning have stringent – and somewhat unsettling – social distancing policies. Many schools are only open for distance learning via Zoom or other online portals. (And don’t even get my started on the privacy issues this has unlocked – not to mention the overreaction of at least one school so shocked at the sight of a Nerf gun in a boy’s room that they called the cops and suspended him.)
Some schools reopened only to close again within a week when a new outbreak erupted. Huge outbreaks are occurring at universities as (big surprise) students party without a lot of regard for social distancing. Many colleges are fighting this by offering as many classes as possible in an online format. This is causing many families to question why they’re still paying the same exceptionally high prices for the education as they did when everyone spent time in the classroom, used campus facilities, and had the benefit of an active social life.
The postal service: The US Postal Service has been losing money hand over fist for years. After the COVID pandemic, it lost a whopping 2.2 billion dollars in the second quarter. In a recent Senate hearing, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified that they could not guarantee the ability to deliver mail-in ballots for the November election in a timely manner.
And it isn’t just the mail-in ballots that are a problem. There have recently been massive delays with the mail. These delays have led to mailed prescription drugs arriving late to patients who depend on them, thousands of dead baby chicks, and shipping delays that are causing unprecedented issues for small businesses that mail products to customers – and 70% of small businesses use the USPS regularly.
Many have blamed changes made by Postmaster General DeJoy, who donated to President Trump’s campaign, for the crisis. The new leadership of the U.S. postal service has come under fire from lawmakers and advocates who worry that a slower mail system will affect the presidential election in November. But the impacts could disrupt everyday life for Americans in many other ways.
The U.S. postal service, which has suffered from financial troubles for years, has lost billions of dollars amid the coronavirus pandemic. But last month, new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy issued a number of orders aimed at cutting costs within the agency. Those changes include eliminating employees’ ability to log overtime and barring workers from making extra trips to deliver late-arriving mail. DeJoy’s changes have been blamed for reported widespread mail delays.
“Let me be clear about the reasons behind our restructuring and the need for our plan. Our financial condition is dire,” DeJoy said in a memo sent to USPS staff on Thursday, NBC reported. “Our critics are quick to point to our finances, yet they offer no solution.” (source) Regardless of the specific cause, it appears a reliable postal service has been yet another systemic casualty. One recent video even came to light of massive bags of mail simply being dumped in a parking lot.
The legal and criminal justice system: After the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, the country erupted. Protests were widespread. The organization Black Lives Matter reached peak popularity. The movement was quickly co-opted and groups like Antifa and the Occupy movement took over. Protests soon turned into violent riots that saw cities across the country turn into battle zones. The unrest has lasted for more than three months and shows no signs of slowing down soon. Armed conflict has broken out in numerous cities. In fact, a demonstration promising to “lay siege” to the White House is planned for later this month through the election.
This goes hand in hand with calls to defund the police in many of the cities where the protests/riots are taking place. Massive budget cuts have already occurred in Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Oakland, Portland, Philadelphia, Hartford, Salt Lake City, and Seattle, just to name a few cities. (source) It’s important to note that some of these cities have been the sites of extreme upticks in violence, looting, destruction, and arson.
And it isn’t just the criminal justice system breaking down. The court system in general has been on hiatus. Family court closures have halted divorce and custody hearings. Civil suits are at a standstill. Once the courts reopen, the massive backlog will mean even further delays. The wheels have simply stopped turning.
The election: The upcoming election is the next broken element of the system. This year hardly feels like an election year in the first place. Many people are hesitant to vote in person due to the virus. The postal service has said they may not be able to get ballots to people on time. Big rallies are a thing of elections past. We have yet to see a presidential debate between the candidates. We probably won’t know who won on election night. In fact, it could be weeks before a winner is announced, and even then, it looks as though Biden and Trump are both intent on questioning the outcome if it isn’t in their favor.
In short, it’s going to be a huge bone of contention that is likely to escalate the violence discussed above for weeks, if not months. We could have the fifth contested presidential election in American history. (And I’d say that isn’t just a possibility, but a likelihood.) If an already divided country can’t agree on who won the election, would that be the final nail in the coffin of our system?
What can we do? A lot of these are “big circle” things that are out of our personal realm of control. We can’t do anything about imports from China, we can’t stop the riots in Seattle, we can’t fix the postal service. But we can focus our energy on getting as prepared as possible for what promises to be a bumpy road ahead. And we must also stop focusing on a system that is broken to solve our problems.
Selco wrote: "Do not forget one basic fact: you as a prepper/survivalist, at your core, most probably do not trust the system. I am not saying you hate it, but you just do not trust it completely.
So, watch the news and announcements. Help if possible, obey if possible (and if it makes sense) but always keep in mind that the system at its core has a very basic obligation: to keep that system running. If that means the system has to lie to you or let’s say, bend the truth, it will do it, because to the system you are an individual, and the system is machinery that needs to run. So, keep some common sense, and trust your gut instinct." (source)
Pieces of the system are tumbling over like one domino after another. Every stressor added is knocking out more of the system as time goes on."
Must Watch! “Economic Day Of Reckoning; Escape From New York; Economy Has Collapsed; Greatest Depression”
Jeremiah Babe,
“Economic Day Of Reckoning; Escape From New York;
Economy Has Collapsed; Greatest Depression”
Musical Interlude: "Binaural Beats 528Hz Positive Energy, Healing Music"
Please view in beautiful full screen mode.
Spirit Tribe Awakening,
"Binaural Beats 528Hz Positive Energy, Healing Music"
"Music is tuned to 528Hz and contains the 417Hz Solfeggio frequency. These frequencies have a specific healing effect on your subconscious mind. Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your mind, body, and soul on your life journey."
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Where do land and sky converge? On every horizon - but in this case the path on the ground leads to St Michael's Mount (Cornish: Karrek Loos yn Koos), a small historic island in Cornwall, England. The Mount is usually surrounded by shallow water, but at low tide is spanned by a human-constructed causeway.
Click image for larger size.
The path on the sky, actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, also appears to lead to St Michael's Mount, but really lies far in the distance. The red nebula in the Milky Way, just above the castle, is the Lagoon Nebula, while bright Jupiter shines to the left, and a luminous meteor flashes to the right. The foreground and background images of this featured composite were taken on the same July night and from the same location. Although meteors are fleeting and the Milky Way disk shifts in the night as the Earth turns, Jupiter will remain prominent in the sunset sky into December."
Chet Raymo, “The Ring of Truth”
“The Ring of Truth”
by Chet Raymo
“In Salley Vickers’ novel, “Where Three Roads Meet,” the shade of Tiresias, the blind seer of the Oedipus myth, visits Sigmund Freud in London during the psychoanalyst’s final terrible illness. In a series of conversations, Tiresias retells the story of Oedipus- he who was fated to kill his father and sleep with his mother – a story at the heart of Freud’s own theory of the human psyche. At one point in the conversations, as Tiresias and Freud discuss the extent to which our lives are fated, the question of immortality arises. Freud says of Oedipus that “he made his story into an immortal one, so far as any story is.” And Tiresias replies, “But, Dr. Freud, stories are all we humans have to make us immortal.”
Oedipus lives on, whether he lived or not in actuality. Sophocles lives in our consciousness as vigorously as ever he did in life. They live because their stories touch something resonant and unchanging in human nature. Vickers suggests that what makes the Oedipal story immortal is not any necessary tendency of humans to act out the Oedipal myth, a la Freud, but rather Oedipus’s rage to know the truth- or become conscious of a truth he has known all along and suppressed – even though the truth will be his undoing.
The poet Muriel Rukesyser got it exactly right when she said: “The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” Even atoms are stories we tell about the world, having first paid close attention to how the world works. The plays of Sophocles and the other Greek dramatists live on not because their authors were immortal, but because nature endures and their stories tell us something that rings true about enduring nature. And, like Oedipus, we have a rage to know, even if knowledge will unseat some of our more comfortable illusions.”
"It Would Be So Much Easier..."
“It would be so much easier just to fold our hands and not make this fight… to say, I, one man, I can do nothing. I grow afraid only when I see people thinking and acting like this. We all know the story about the man who sat beside the trail too long, and then it grew over and he could never find his way again. We can never forget what has happened, but we cannot go back nor can we just sit beside the trail”.
- Poundmaker,
Plains Cree Chief, 1842-1886.
Plains Cree Chief, 1842-1886.
His dying words.
"Goodbye, Baltimore"
"Goodbye, Baltimore"
by Brian Maher
"Jim Rickards writes of the desperate hordes fleeing America’s virus-haunted, riot-haunted and crime-haunted cities: "The combination of a pandemic lockdown, mass unemployment and riots in the streets is the last straw for many urban residents. They are getting out as fast as they can…
Professionals, young families and retirees are all fleeing the major cities and moving to suburbs or even further out in the country. They are finding good schools, lower taxes and good internet connections where they can keep their jobs without dealing with the riots and murders that are the new norm in many major urban areas."
Your editor has joined the exodus, the mass migration… and largely for the reasons listed. He has quit the clamorous city of Baltimore - seven years his home - and winged off to the tranquil municipality of Annapolis. It is perhaps 30 miles distant. Thus our byline will henceforth read Annapolis, Maryland.
A Change of Pace: We are near enough to Baltimore in the unfortunate event that our office reels us in - yet distant enough to escape Baltimore’s appalling gravity. No longer are we menaced by violence downtown, midtown, uptown, east or west... No longer are we harangued for quarters on Charles Street. No longer are we battered by the 24-hour shrieks of sirens - and the need of earplugs to sleep.
We are instead mellowed, soothed, tranquilized by the gull’s lullaby cries… the chimes of bobbing buoys… the sound of easy bay breezes sighing through rigging. The only routine dins are the toot-tooting of boat horns and the ding-ding-dinging of bells from the rising and falling drawbridge nearby.
Yet this we must report: An alarming feature of Baltimore has followed us to this mid-Atlantic idyll - the sound of gunfire. The Annapolis Yacht Club blasts a cannon each evening at sunset. It puts out a mighty roar… and we have jumped feet in the air each evening since our arrival. But this jolt yields immediately to the regal if pre-programmed music of fine brass instruments... The club bugles taps as the colors are lowered… in the honored sundown tradition.
The Maritime Republic of Eastport: We have planted our flag among a jackleg crew of disloyalists, insurrectionists and secessionists... For we now call home a sector of Annapolis called Eastport - that is, the Maritime Republic of Eastport.
Eastport had been largely independent for 100 years until Annapolis annexed it in 1951. Then on January 25, 1998, Eastporters rose in thunderous rebellion, trained their cannons on Annapolis… and announced their defiant independence. Raged the republic’s freshly appointed prime minister - quoting from the Eastport Declaration of Independence: "Two score and seven years ago, we, the people of Eastport, were annexed against our will into the city of Annapolis, and ever since have suffered second-class status at the snobbish hand of Annapolis Proper."
No more. Thus was born the Maritime Republic of Eastport. The new nation even featured its own constitution, its own anthem… and its own flag:
The Baltimore Sun: Eastport coffee shop owners threw tea into the creek, three decorated Eastport planes flew reconnaissance overhead and dozens of residents held flags with the Maritime Republic of Eastport's recently created yellow and black crest... More than 400 of the community's residents dressed in homemade battle gear… "Eastport is revolting," read the banner of an overhead airplane.
Why Not Secession? This revolting we applaud. That is because we are heart and soul for the American spirit of independence. We are with Jefferson: "Liberty’s tree must be occasionally refreshed with the crimson of patriot and tyrant alike." If tyrants reside in Annapolis proper, let liberty’s tree grow high in Eastport.
What is more... we recognize the rights of states, cities, counties and villages to secede from whichever higher polity that menaces their happiness. Was not the United States erected upon this decentralizing and liberating doctrine? King George did not sign a peace treaty with the United States in 1783. He signed a peace treaty with the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina - and Georgia. These were recognized as “free, sovereign, and independent states.” The pre-civil war United States, meantime, was not an “it” but a “them,” a “they.”
Were Washington and Jefferson Traitors? Do you reject the idea of secession? Then what about the American Revolution? You must agree that Washington should have dangled dead from the tallest tree, hung. And Jefferson should have dangled with him - with each Declaration signer joining them aloft.
Is this your belief? And so… if an American colony could go its own way in 1776... Why not a South Carolina or Virginia in 1861… or even an Eastport in 1998? Because Mr. Lincoln said so? Upon what constitutional bedrock did he stand? The constitution neither allows nor disallows secession. Legal scholars to this day wage their own uncivil war over its legality. But no more head-in-the-clouds abstractions. Let us come home…
A Mock Secession: Eastport’s secession was in fact a spoof, a knee-slapper, a marketing caper devised to draw business. The bridge joining Eastport and Annapolis required repairs. Annapolis would close it for three weeks to effect them. Eastport sobbed about the reduction of commerce that would ensue. Thus the false sedition was hatched. The Sun: "Eastport, the small Annapolis neighborhood comprised largely of transient sailors, hermit artists and poets, pulled off one of the quirkiest events and cleverest marketing ploys…
The secession was largely an effort to promote Eastport bars and shops, letting visitors and Annapolitans know the businesses will be open while state workers replace worn pieces of the two-lane, metal-frame bridge. It will just take longer to get there...
In a manner decidedly normal to the small peninsula… conspirators declared their independence the only way they knew how: with pints of beer, a marching band and four cannons. "This is one of the most fascinating marketing concepts we've come up with," acknowledged (one secession organizer)."It really grew into a way to encourage people to come to Eastport while the bridge is closed." The Maritime Republic’s prime minister - a barber when off duty - brought the farce into high relief when he said: "We declare we have full power to levy war, conclude peace, establish commerce and do all the other neat stuff which independent states may of right do, especially throw really big parties."
Eastport rejoined the Union on Feb. 25, 1998… one month after “seceding.” All was peace. All remains peace 22 years later. And so here we are in this indivisible union, after our own personal secession from Baltimore, participating in the great exodus from American cities. We have not glanced backward. Nor do we intend to..."
"The Endless Pursuit of Truth"
"The Endless Pursuit of Truth"
by Mark Manson
"Each week, I send you three potentially life-changing ideas to help you be a slightly less awful human being. This week, we’re talking about: 1) why we need philosophy today more than ever, 2) the civilizational struggle of fact versus fiction, and 3) setting thresholds of certainty. Let’s get into it.
1. Why we all need philosophy – My dear intrepid reader, I have a confession to make. Last week… I got triggered by something I read on the internet. I know, I know… it’s shocking. You would think the opinions of strangers on the internet would be delightful to read. But alas, I was accosted by stupidity and malice on a scale previously unimagined by my virgin mind.
What did this hideous brute say? What did I find so upsetting that I now find it necessary to seek solace and comfort in you, my dear reader? Some nitwit wrote a thing saying that philosophy is stupid and a complete waste of time. HOW DARE HE?!?!
I threw my headphones off in a rage. This lout! This brute! I will have my vengeance… I began to pace in my room, stroking my neckbeard. This wrong must be righted, I thought, and not just for me and my precious sensibilities, but for the good of the downtrodden and vulnerable, for the benefit of humanity - for the world! Yes, this malignant force shall be excised from the minds of feeble men. I alone shall be the stalwart savior. I alone shall be the beacon of all that is good. And I will do it… by posting a comment on Facebook.
Well, you and I know both how Facebook comments go. They reside somewhere between the eighth and ninth circles of hell - a form of masochism reserved for only the truly loathsome. As I wrote, my arguments bled into more points, and then more points. Soon, I found myself spending hours reviewing books I hadn’t read in years, looking for quotes, passages, and citations - any evidence of this pernicious being’s moral failings.
Eventually, the Comments to End All Comments grew to such a staggering size, it began to teeter under its own weight (that and Facebook has a character limit). I quickly decided to move my treatise to a Word document and continued my crusade. Days passed. Sources piled up. Inappropriate jokes about birthday cakes and sticks of butter magically appeared. And when the dust settled, I was staring down more than 35 pages of linguistic thicket and bramble. “Nobody’s going to read all of this sh*t,” I said to myself. Yes, friends, I had gone overboard.
Over more days of effort, I chopped about 10 pages and consolidated my ideas into a more easily digestible, multi-part article. And today I proudly present to you the fruit of my labors, the result of my epic struggle against Some Guy On Facebook Who Is Really Wrong But Doesn’t Know It Yet—a most complete summation of all the reasons philosophy is awesome and you should totally read it and stuff… Behold, I give you… "Read: Why We All Need Philosophy"
The main thrust of the article is that the goal of philosophy is to develop tools that can help discern truth and reality. In many ways it has become more difficult to decipher fact from fiction today than ever before. Which brings me to a theory/idea I’ve been playing around with in my head for a while…
2. The new polarization of fact and fiction – In 1789, at the onset of the French Revolution, the National Constituent Assembly was called where leaders from all across France would meet with King Louis XVI to determine the fate of the country.
As the assemblymen streamed in, the monarchists who supported the king congregated on the right side of the chamber, where the nobility had traditionally sat in previous eras, to signal their loyalty to the king. Those who desired revolution, wanting to separate themselves as much as possible and make their dissent known, all sat on the left side of the chamber. The two sides soon began referring to each other simply as “the right” and “the left.” The names stuck.
It’s shifted over the centuries, but typically people “on the right” value structure, order, and tradition, while people “on the left” value equality, personal expression, and change. Most people see this political spectrum as linear and one-dimensional - you’re either on one side or the other (e.g., “you’re with us or against us.”)
But there is a lesser-known “horseshoe theory” in political science, where the political spectrum actually curves so that the extreme-right and extreme-left end up closer to each other than they do to moderates or centrists in the middle.
The argument goes that the extremes of each side of the political spectrum generally support more authoritarian states if it means accomplishing their goals. They are both willing to suppress civil liberties, especially of their enemies. They’re both likely to see the world in stark (and often similar) us/them dichotomies. And historically, the extreme right and left have found themselves cooperating for short periods of time to overthrow the status quo.
In the 1970s, the psychologist Hans Eysenck proposed a similar theory that the political spectrum is not uni-dimensional, but rather two dimensional. People exist on the typical right vs left spectrum, but also an authoritarian vs libertarian spectrum. (You can take a version of this test online to see where you are.)
Historically, the difference between extremism and centrism has been people’s openness to compromise. Radical Bob and Moderate Jane would both watch the same news channel and get the same information, but Radical Bob refuses to consider other viewpoints whereas Moderate Jane understands that she is biased by her own interests and other people have legitimate views as well.
But today, something else is going on, this second polarity seems to have shifted… I attended a talk (on Zoom) a few months ago given by a former official from the US State Department and he said something that kind of blew my mind and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since: “The strategic challenge for every nation in the 21st century is the ability of its people to determine fact from fiction.”
He went on to explain that much of the “cold war” style tactics used by the US, Russia, China, and others, is not about overt displays of military power. It’s more about introducing information that disrupts the cultural status quo in each others’ societies. This is done to generate internal instability and political parties within each country have begun to do this as a means for power as well.
As a result, I think the 21st-century version of the horseshoe theory could become slightly different from previous eras. Whereas in generations past, the difference between extremists and moderates was the willingness to compromise, today there is a new polarization between those who doggedly pursue facts over fiction regardless of the political implications of those facts and those who only adhere to narratives that fit their political interests, regardless of whether they are true or not.
To put it another way, in the 20th century, Radical Bob and Moderate Jane were exposed to the same information - they watched the same news channels, read the same articles, and believed the same facts. Radical Bob was simply unwilling to compromise on his interpretation of the facts whereas Moderate Jane was.
Today, Radical Bob and Moderate Jane don’t even consume the same information. Radical Bob has limited himself to a steady diet of narratives that reinforce his prior convictions and bolster his political aims. Moderate Jane spends most of her time wading through piles of bullshit to hopefully find something that seems reliable and true.
Each exists in their own world, oblivious to the narratives that define the others’ world. Compromise becomes impossible not just because of Radical Bob’s entrenchment, but because there is no common ground on which to disagree on in the first place.
3. Thresholds of certainty – If I had to nominate one historical figure who would absolutely dominate Twitter, it would be Nietzsche. In researching the philosophy article, I got to revisit a lot of his work and it’s always a joy. That dude could pack more meaning into fewer words than almost anyone else I’ve ever come across. For example, check this one out:
“It is not doubt but certainty that drives you mad.”
Goddamn. You could just sit and let that one marinate in your head for hours. Anyway, given the article and email and crazy times we live in, I have been doing a lot of thinking about doubt and certainty and truth the past week.
We traditionally see truth as a binary thing. Either it is or it isn’t. True or false. But given the flood of epistemic uncertainty introduced by the information age, I think that maybe we should think about truth in terms of thresholds of certainty. It’s like a spectrum of how likely a thing is to be true and the further an idea gets up the spectrum the more committed you become to it. The further it slides down the spectrum, the more willing you are to let go and allow it to be wrong.
For example, my little theory about politics above, I’d file that under “theoretically plausible” - it’s a fun thing to think about and loosely reflects reality but you probably wouldn’t want to bet your life on it.
Other ideas that have a lot of research behind them but remain theories, you’d move them up to “probably true,” and things that have been around for generations and have a lot of rock-solid evidence, you’d categorize as, “almost certainly true.”
Then, at the tippy top of the spectrum, you get stuff like gravity and the laws of thermodynamics, the fact that your mom had sex with your dad at some point, and all the other stuff that it’s inconceivable as to how they could not be true.
Generally, we’re good at moving up the scale of certainty, we’re good at taking something we think might be true and then accepting that it’s probably true. But we’re really bad at coming down the scale of certainty. We suck at taking things that we’re sure are true and admitting that they might not be. In fact, we often do the opposite: we double down on them as if to prove to ourselves we were right all along. And that’s when the trouble starts.
Nietzsche is right that it’s not flexibility of thought but rigidity of thought that causes irrationality and stupidity. Therefore, changing your mind should be something admirable, not embarrassing. It should be seen as a success and not a failure. It should be celebrated, not ridiculed.
This is something I’d like to institute into the newsletter at some point soon: once or twice a year, I share things that I’ve recently changed my mind about, and why. Maybe I’ll crowdsource things that you guys have changed your minds about and share those as well. Then we’ll all drink some cheap tequila and eat birthday cake and celebrate the necessary-yet-impossible pursuit of truth. It’ll be fun. Until next week..."
The Poet: Robinson Jeffers, "We Are Those People"
"We Are Those People"
"I have abhorred the wars and despised the liars,
laughed at the frightened
And forecast victory; never one moment's doubt.
But now not far, over the backs of some crawling years, the next
Great war's column of dust and fire writhes
Up the sides of the sky: it becomes clear that we too may suffer
What others have, the brutal horror of defeat -
Or if not in the next, then in the next - therefore watch Germany
And read the future. We wish, of course, that our women
Would die like biting rats in the cellars,
our men like wolves on the mountain:
It will not be so. Our men will curse, cringe, obey;
Our women uncover themselves to the grinning victors
for bits of chocolate."
- Robinson Jeffers
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Hat tip to Michael J McNall for this material!
“Americans Are Rapidly Descending Into Madness”
“Americans Are Rapidly Descending Into Madness”
by Mike Krieger
“I don’t live in an echo chamber, partly because there aren’t enough people out there who think like me, but also because I constantly and intentionally attempt to challenge my worldview by reading stuff from all over the political map. I ingest as much as I can from a wide variety of intelligent sources, picking and choosing what makes sense to me, and then synthesizing it the best I can.
Though I’m certainly grounded in certain key principles, my perspective on specific issues remains malleable as I take in additional information and perspectives. I try to accept and acknowledge my own ignorance and view life as a journey of constant mental, emotionally and spiritual growth. If I’m not growing my capacity in all of those realms until the day I die, I’m doing it wrong. Life should be seen as a battle against one’s own ignorance, as opposed to an obsession with the ignorance of others. You can’t legislate morality, nor can you legislate wisdom. The only way the world will improve on a long-term sustainable basis is if more of us get wise. That’s a personal journey and it’s our individual duty to accept it.
While I’m only in control of my own behavior, this doesn’t mean that the behavior of others is irrelevant to my life. Unfortunately, what I see happening to the population of America right now seems very troublesome and foreboding. What I’m witnessing across the board is hordes of people increasingly separating themselves into weird, unthinking cults. Something appears to have snapped in our collective consciousness, and many individuals I used to respect (on both sides of the political spectrum) are becoming disturbingly polarized and hysterical. People are rapidly morphing into radicalized mental patients.
What’s worse, this environment is providing a backdrop for the most destructive people of my lifetime to preen around on corporate media as “the voices of reason.” This is one of the most perverse and dangerous side-effects of the current political and social climate. If we really want to deal with our very real and very systemic problems, the last thing we need is a population-level mental breakdown that leads to a longing for the now-disintegrating criminally destructive societal status quo, yet that’s exactly what seems to be happening.
Ok fine, so everything seems to be rapidly collapsing, but what are we supposed to do? First of all, don’t lose your minds.
As I suggested in the post, “Why Increased Consciousness is the Only Path Forward“: “As noted earlier, Wilber thinks 10% is a key tipping point. In other words, if we can get 10% of the population to center around a yellow second-tier level of thought, which consists of a momentous leap in consciousness, the entire world will change for the better. I agree. I’m not here trying to sell you a seminar on how to expand your consciousness; rather, I think these articles can help spark some sort of revelation in the minds of many of you who are already at yellow, or at least at the cusp of such a transformation. Since consciousness can and does regress under conditions of stress and fear, it’s extremely important to be conscious of your consciousness so that you don’t fall back into lower states.
Unfortunately, I see many people regressing at the moment, and I see the media as an intentional force in trying to get people to lower their consciousness. A perfect way to tell if someone is operating at a low level of consciousness is if they’re constantly placing tens of millions of their fellow citizens into an outside group they subsequently demonize. It’s perfectly fine and healthy to harshly criticize the system itself and the many powerful individuals doing awful things within it, but once you start dehumanizing large swaths of the population as a matter of your worldview, you are most certainly on a very counterproductive path that will lead to merely a blackhole of nothingness for society.”
Beyond maintaining one’s sanity, it’s imperative that conscious humans create systems and communities that have as little connection as possible to the existing and rapidly disintegrating paradigm. This will create “anti-fragile” units of strength within the collapsing Potemkin village socio-economic structure that dominates our culture right now. Some of these projects need to be local, while others can be global. Community farming/food production is a great example of a local initiative, while Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general), represent global initiatives to replace the hopelessly corrupt and archaic entrenched financial system. While crazy, power-obsessed tribes focus on taking over the hopelessly corrupt centralized government in Washington D.C., we need to continue to build separate, decentralized paradigms – and there isn’t much time to waste.
Fortunately, there are plenty of very decent, very conscious people out there. I want this piece to provide encouragement to those of you already engaged in this invaluable work, as well as inspiration for those of you looking for an outlet for your creative and intellectual energies. It’s never been more important to keep our heads steady and not permit ourselves to be sucked into the mental sickness infecting so many of our fellow humans. It’s imperative that we vigilantly guard our wisdom and consciousness, because the best solutions will only come from a place of spiritual and mental health. If you descend into the gutter with everyone else, your output will also end up looking like trash. That’s the last thing we need.”
“Stay strong and stay conscious.”
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Looking around, it seems the gods are doing a really good job of it, too…
Some have obviously already lost the battle...
“If Truth Is Taken Away From Us..."
“If Truth is taken away from us, then Right and Wrong are taken from us as well. If we don’t know Right and Wrong, then we can’t, we won’t control ourselves, but will look to someone else to bring order through brute force and raw power. We will be controlled by a tyrant, and we will no longer be free…”
- Frank Peretti
"21st Century Bummer"
"21st Century Bummer"
By Bill Bonner
"In this bright future, you can’t forget your past."
– Bob Marley
SAN MARTIN, ARGENTINA – "What a colossal flop! We’re talking about the 21st century. A failure in almost every way. We now have 30 million people on unemployment – nearly 20% of the labor force. (No offense to Mr. Bonner, but these are official figures, totally inaccurate. View reality here.) We have a budget deficit of nearly 20% of GDP. And, despite already spending $2 for every $1 they collect in taxes, the feds are planning to spend more. We have phony “conservatives” waving the flag… and real radicals trying to tear it down. On both sides are more and more loonies, locked and loaded…
Even many of our own dear readers are ready to go to war with each other. This is from yesterday’s mailbag:
"Hey Dude, we are at WAR! Trump leads the Win-the-War Party! The Neo Repubs are the “What? Me, worry?” Party. And you are like the pet dog nipping at the heels of the soldiers marching past! No matter the cost, we must win the war against socialism and the Ds. There is time enough to purify ourselves after we win! If we lose, it will be a “thousand years” before our experiment is tried again… Meanwhile it is your obligation to support those who are fighting, regardless of technique and strategy… TRUMP!"
Nasty Themes: It is hard to figure out how an administration that declares a moratorium on rent collection, stifles free trade, and runs a deficit of 20% of GDP could save us from socialism… But in this great 21st-century future, wonders never cease. This week, in this “new normal,” we’ve been trying to remember what the “old normal” was like. And was it really better? Or is it just us?
We recalled what it must have been like when we were born. Of course, it was a very different world back then. But don’t the same principles… the same gravity… and the same Constitution still apply? Grace, charm, wit, and civility… or boorishness, blockheadedness, and cruelty – aren’t the choices still the same?
By our reckoning, life in America seemed more or less civilized until the end of the 20th century. Then, several nasty themes took center stage: The hubris of people who thought they were “exceptional,” beyond good and evil… and not subject to the same rules as others… the degeneration of an empire – spending too much… throwing its weight around… depending too much on its military… the disappearance of true “conservatives”… the inevitable failure of a fake (paper) money system; none ever survived a full credit cycle… the disappointment of technology. Back in the 1960s, we imagined the 21st century as a marvel of freedom, flying cars, and Jetson-like machines. Instead, we are cowed by a virus… and held prisoners by iPhones and Zoom calls… with falling GDP growth rates to boot… and the corruption of democracy into demagoguery, with its bread and circuses… its mobs and messiahs… its clowns and carnival barkers…
The 21st century? What a bummer!
Good Old Days: But let’s try to remember what it was like in the late 1990s, before the new century began. The economy was strong… so strong that the government’s tax receipts more than kept up with the Clinton team’s boondoggles. The national debt was actually going down. This was partly because the Tea Party Republicans were still conservative… and able to block spending. The U.S. had troops all over the world. But there was only one important and shameful engagement that we recall – in Kosovo. There were impeachment proceedings against Mr. Clinton and bitter partisan battles in Washington. But we don’t remember the public with knives at each other’s throats.
Downhill: Then came the year 2000… and everything seemed to head down. First, the dot-com bubble blew up… and the Nasdaq collapsed. There was nothing particularly unusual or sinister about it. That’s the way markets work. They correct mistakes. But the future was casting a long shadow… the new technology would disappoint us… and the feds would make a bad situation worse. The Federal Reserve had already gotten into the bad habit of backstopping Wall Street. It cut its key rate from 6.5% down to 1%. This led to the next bubble in mortgage finance/real estate… which blew up eight years later.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration made one of the biggest blunders in U.S. history. Outraged over 9/11, it declared war against a military tactic – terror. (Why not? The feds were already “at war” with poverty, drugs, and cancer.) And then, it attacked a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 – Iraq. The bills from that disaster are still coming in. Brown University released the latest figures last week. Business Insider reports:
"At least 37 million people have been displaced by America’s “global war on terror,” according to a new report from Brown University’s Cost of War project. The number of displaced people could be as high as 59 million, the report states. Displacement has caused “incalculable harm to individuals, families, towns, cities, regions, and entire countries physically, socially, emotionally, and economically,” the report states. The federal government’s price tag for the war on terror is over $6.4 trillion, and it killed over 800,000 people in direct war violence."
Growing Divide: Then, in the financial crisis of 2008/2009, the feds went into panic mode again. This time, they mounted the most expensive Wall Street rescue ever – with $3.6 trillion created by the Federal Reserve and pumped into asset prices. Stock prices rebounded, and soon went back into bubble territory. But the economy limped along through the weakest recovery ever.
This produced a huge gap between the financialized Wall Street fantasy and the real economy of Main Street. And it caused a growing divide – inequality – between the top 10% of the population, which owns nearly 90% of financial assets, and the bottom 90%, which depends on Main Street employment for its money. The Fed claimed this extraordinary exercise in money-printing and meddling was just temporary… and that it would bring things back to “normal” as soon as the crisis was over.
Never-Ending Crisis: But the crisis never ended. Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit this year, the Fed had the presses running hot in its “Repo Madness” program – in effect, it printed the money needed to fund the Trump administration’s deficits.
Which brings us up to this year – to two even bigger mistakes… bigger deficits… more money-printing… more meddling… more debt… and more disaster ahead. Stay tuned."
"This Is How It Ends: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air"
"This Is How It Ends: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air"
bu Charles Hugh Smith
"How will the status quo collapse? An open conflict - a civil war, an insurrection, a coup - appeals to our affection for drama, but the more likely reality is a decidedly undramatic dissolution in which all the elements of our way of life we reckoned were solid and permanent simply melt into air, to borrow Marx's trenchant phrase. In other words, Rome won't be sacked by Barbarians, or ignite in an insurrectionary conflagration - everything will simply stop working as those burdened with the impossible task of keeping a failed system glued together simply walk away.
If we examine the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Western Roman Empire, we can trace the eventual collapse to the sudden psychological shift from an assumption of permanence that found expression in denial (Rome can't fall, it's eternal...) or in the universal belief that life was unchanging and so everything was forever. This psychological state was replaced by a shocked awareness that what was unimaginable, "impossible" - systemic collapse - was not only entirely possible, it was happening in real time. This change in consciousness arose in individuals in differing ways and velocities, but eventually everyone accepted that some adaptation was now necessary.
Correspondent R.J. and I have been discussing the consequences of the sharp decline in the value of labor which is painfully obvious in the chart below and the many other charts depicting the declining purchasing power of wages and the skimming of the majority of the economic gains by the top 0.1%.
In effect, it no longer pays to work beyond the bare minimum needed to survive as all the value generated by labor above this minimum is either skimmed by the Bezos, Buffetts, Gates, Zuckerbergs et al. or it's paid in higher taxes to the government.
If collecting bread and circuses from the state is an option, then foregoing formal work entirely offers a better lifestyle than those afforded the working poor. While the working poor are crushed by the stresses of low wages, plummeting purchasing power, long commutes and poor working conditions, a consequential slice of the highly paid professional class is crushed by taxes and the stresses of limitless liability, bureaucracy and work.
When physicians, nurses, managers, et al. stop showing up for work, the system breaks down very quickly. Not showing up can take a number of forms: early retirement, sick leave, a demand to work halftime, a workers compensation stress leave, and of course, resignation/quitting.
As in take this job and shove it. Maybe you remember the old Johnny Paycheck tune?* Let me refresh your memory: take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more. I'm stepping off the rat race merry-go-round, thank you very much. You can find some other sucker to do your dirty work and BS work, all for the greater glory and wealth of your New Nobility shareholders. I'm outta here. So I won't get rich, that dream died a long time ago. What I'm interested in now is getting my life back and getting the heck out of Dodge as things fall apart.
The Aristocrats skimming all the gains are confident that the endless appeals of consumer-paradise consumption will keep the workforce chained to the wheel forever. This confidence reflects the disconnect of the skimming owners of debt/finance from the workforce toiling beneath them.
This is the systemic price of stripping the value of labor to the bone via globalization and financialization, the tireless engines of soaring inequality. The beasts of burden don't rebel, they just no longer show up. They slip noiselessly into the cracks and crevasses and once they're gone, there's nobody left to replace them.
As the Vital Few 4% realize the system no longer works for them and opt out, this will have an outsized effect on the 64%, most likely urban dwellers highly dependent on increasingly brittle, fragile services that depend on the Vital Few for their functionality. Ideology won't matter. Those dropping out may be Conservative or Progressive or they may have lost interest entirely in politics and all the other circuses that serve to distract the populace from the crises dissolving the glue that held the system together.
While the Federal Reserve and the Billionaire Class push the stock market to new highs to promote a false facade of prosperity, everyday life will fall apart. The New Nobility's primary characteristics are infinite greed and near-infinite hubris, and so they will wrongly assume that the professional and working classes they need to keep slaving away for wages that are losing purchasing power are as greedy and blind as themselves.
But those in the trenches aren't as blind as those out of touch at the top. They will see that their job is no longer tenable and their sacrifice won't be enough nor will be it be valued, so they will figure out how to leave. The police will stop showing up, the hospital will be half-staffed, the garbage collection crews thin out, gasoline deliveries won't be made and so on. Those at the top will claim it's still whole (look, stocks are soaring!) but functionality will have dissipated like mist in Death Valley.
The most competent will realize the impossibility of keeping it glued together and so they will exit first. The most noble will try to keep it going but they will burn out and drop away, leaving the incompetent to oversee the final collapse. All That Is Solid Melts Into Air and the lifestyle you ordered is permanently out of stock."
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Source books:
• "Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation" (recommended by Mark J.)
• "The Fall of the Roman Empire: A Reappraisal" (1976, Michael Grant)
• "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (shorter version, 1990, Michael Grant)
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* Johnny Paycheck, "Take This Job and Shove It"
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