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Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Chapter One Of Three

Cognitive Dissonance's picture




 

Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Chapter One of Three

By

Cognitive Dissonance

 

Chapter Two may be found here

Chapter Three may be found here.

 

Why even question the obvious?

When contemplating a complex subject, especially one in which I hold a strong emotional investment, I find it extremely valuable to seriously and consistently challenge my own thinking, to play devil’s advocate with my oftentimes emotional mind. A ‘truth’ untested, particularly one I’m emotionally bound to, is little more than a belief, a comforting factoid that confirms my biases rather than enlightening and informing my mind. If I am to progress in my personal development I must test the mettle of my beliefs up to, and if need be well past, their destruction. For only then can I truly be free to exercise, and honor, my personal sovereignty on an everyday basis.

So it is that I’ve been considering the concept of ‘collapse’ with regard to society and its socioeconomic system(s), both on a personal and collective emotional and psychological basis. While it is always dangerous to paint detailed pictures with broad brushes, to some degree or another we are all emotional human beings. So while the cognitive details may vary (greatly) from person to person, our tendencies and triggers are very similar (partly because of a shared and distorted worldview) and relatively easy to discern if we have the courage to first look deeply within and then apply what we have found to the world around us. A word of warning here because this article is not a technical or fundamental economic analysis, at least not based upon the traditional financial definition of those terms.

Among the contrary crowd, of which I proudly count myself a member in good standing, it is widely accepted that an economic collapse that quickly leads to violent social upheaval is not only very possible, but inevitable, a ‘given’ fact so to speak. For the most part we accept that a collapse is not a question of if, but of when and in what form and of what severity. The consensus is that this rapid socioeconomic decline, when it comes, will be sudden and complete, thus the popular use of the term ‘collapse’. This ‘a priori’ position, which truth be told is simply a strongly held belief, is in serious need of examination if we are to follow our inner Golden Rule, that of questioning everything beginning with ourselves and our most cherished and firmly held beliefs and opinions.

Before going any further I wish to emphasize that the following is simply a thought experiment, a mental dalliance and a delicate dance with what if, how about and why not. Just because I argue a position doesn’t necessarily mean I’m wed to it or even that I support it. The ultimate purpose of my internal interrogatory is not necessarily to replace my current thinking, but to test it again and again and again, particularly if I consider my thinking solid and essentially beyond reproach. In my opinion this is where true personal courage is born and nurtured, for if I am willing to honestly face myself, particularly those deep dark places even I wish to hide from, then anything I might face externally pales in comparison.

Many more times than I care to admit I have found that what I previously thought was a solid conclusion was actually based not upon facts and reasoning, but upon preconceived notions (aka my conditioned worldview) as well as group think and/or consensus seeking. And just as often the real reason for my blind acceptance of certain facts and conclusions was to push my confirmation bias endorphin triggers again and again, as all severely addicted drug addicts are compelled to do. And boy oh boy do I love triggering my confirmation bias. There is no other drug induced high quite like knowing that I’m right and you’re wrong………except knowing that I’m right and everyone else is wrong.

Running with the (contrary) herd

Rather than denying or rejecting the notion that we are deeply influenced by the herd, a typical egoic response even if the herd is considered contrary (and don’t forget that the herd, contrary or not, might simply be a construct of my mind and populated solely by me, myself and I) if we wish to consider ourselves to be sentient sovereign beings then we must remain constantly alert to, and aware of, the herd’s influence on our emotional and spiritual centering. In addition, we need to be ever vigilant of its corrosive effects on our thought process and the conclusions we draw from within that distortion.

This is the big lie that influences us all, that while we might be part of a herd (if we can even manage to admit that much) we are thoughtful, intelligent and educated adults and thus not really affected by the herd to any significant degree. But common sense and life experience tells us otherwise, that this just isn’t true, that we are very much herding humans (whether by nature, nurture or both, ultimately it really doesn’t matter) and that we are most certainly influenced by others. In fact I would go so far as to say that for the most part we do not enjoy freedom from the herd, just freedom to choose the herd we run and think with.

The soothing self deception that we are stoic free thinking individuals, our psychological Achilles Heel if you will, is repeatedly and successfully leveraged against us by those who wish to manipulate and control. Very often it is not an outside force that blinds us, but rather an outside force that leverages our own blindness. This is why we must always question everything, beginning with ourselves. It is our own (mis)perception and worldview that is being manipulated, which often leads to our own blind and unquestioning support of policies, positions and laws that are entirely contrary to our own self interest or the collective (herds) good.

We often blame the herding rat race for our own lot in life (either on a micro or macro level) confidently declaring that ‘they’ are the problem so we are exempt from blame and responsibility. Then we do next to nothing to change our own circumstances, claiming it’s futile to even try because ‘they’ block the way forward towards significant and lasting personal and social change.

After successfully doing nothing we proudly take the softer easier highway to hell, a path that is conveniently laid out and paved by our controllers. Then we sit back smug as a bug in our self righteous indignation when anyone dares to place the blame back at the source of our own servitude. Our controllers love that we don’t even try to pick up the cognitive tools that lie scattered at our feet, let alone use them to defend and empower us. Hands down the most powerful weapon in the world used repeatedly against us is ourselves. Blunt force trauma by self (and group) is extremely effective when self (and group) corralling.

Certainty breeds contempt of our self

At times I struggle to remind myself that the more certain I am of something the greater the likelihood that I’m wrong, if for no other reason than that my absolute certainty most definitely closes my mind to alternative possibilities no matter how obvious they may appear to others. Not recognizing or even considering the possibility that I might be wrong feeds my confirmation bias and rewards my circular thinking with another shot of delicious cognitive dissonance soothing endorphins. Do not underestimate the power of this positive feedback loop for it claims all of us at one time or another, particularly when we confidently claim that it is not now doing so. Our critical thinking is often the weakest precisely when we believe it to be the strongest.

For the vast majority of us a new thought trail is blazed one cautious step at a time despite our egotistic self delusions that we bravely and willingly go where we’ve never cognitively gone before. And for the most part we all color well within the socially correct lines with very rare and short lived deviations beyond the border and into the cognitive badlands. Thus the reason for my venturing outside conventional contrary thinking and into what at first blush might appear to be the mainstream meme. Rigid beliefs and preordained conclusions must never dictate the (self) discovery process or the intent of that process.

Despite egoic protestations to the contrary it is downright frightening to venture outside the comfortable confines and safety of the consensus herd’s artificial reality, thus one of the reasons we keep tripping over our own (and other’s) cognitive dissonance. Once off the reservation we tend to huddle with other similarly off-the-beaten-track explorers, a perfect example being our affinity for Zero Hedge and its own equally artificial reality. The only thing better than being right when we know everyone else is wrong is cahooting with others who validate our beliefs. You scratch my confirmation bias and I’ll scratch yours.

If we are unwilling to travel in new perceptual directions, even if we can conceive of no readily apparent benefit and especially if we feel emotional pain while doing so and quickly back off, then all we ever manage to do is endlessly cover the same well marked territory regardless of its perceived (validating) distance from the majority consensus. Just because our intellectual hunting grounds may lie outside the mainstream meme doesn’t mean we are immune to our own brand of rutted rigid thinking and herd mentality. In fact we often justify our own rote thinking by pointing to our contrary stance as proof we are flexible and thorough in our self examination.

 

Mind Control

 

Self inflicted mind control

One man’s collapse is another man’s crumble, two seemingly divergent points of view formed in large part by very different perspectives as to the meaning of both terms as well as the active ingredients propelling the use of those terms within our respective (mostly false) world views. While on the surface this may seem painfully obvious, very often we do not practice what we perceive and even less often do we perceive without self deceiving, without externally and internally self inflicted distortions and blurring.

This is the art of mind control and false realty creation, to induce you and me to willingly create an alternatively perceived reality, often entirely within our own minds, thereby eliminating the need for messy ‘reality’ based rules, independent verification and basic fact checking. And for the most part we do this in response to manipulated external stimuli which is often in direct conflict with our true inner knowing.

The key to this manipulation is to convince all of us that it is in our best interest to ignore our better judgment, our inner voice of caution and prudence, and willingly surrender our personal sovereignty to a false external authority while rejecting our genuine inner sovereign authority. I say all of us because to some degree or another and at one time or another we have all done so, usually with plenty of excuses, rationalizations and justifications for doing so safely tucked away in our back pockets.

We surrendered our personal sovereignty long before we were ever threatened with concocted external ‘terrorist’ threats when we consciously decided to ignore the obvious early warning signs of an increasingly out of control and hijacked government and instead pursued our own ideology, financial self interest and assorted pleasures. Unfortunately very few of us will admit this, thereby keeping us locked in our own vicious circle of denial and dependence.

We rationalize(d) it all away by saying that at least we aren’t as bad as ‘those guys over there’, when ‘they’ are saying the exact same thing about us. Or worse, we utter the entirely self absorbed and narcissistic declaration that “It’s not my problem” or “I didn’t vote for that guy so…..” The litany of excuses given for our inaction, both for internal and external issues, is endless.

Within this skewed alternative reality state of mind, where we stand depends entirely upon where we sit, and where we sit nearly always depends upon our financial, emotional and psychological self deceptions as well as our strategically selected denials and raging co-dependencies. Essentially we achieve a perpetual infantile state of mind in return for transient material comforts and a false sense of security, security that could quickly and easily be achieved if only we were to (re)connect with our own personal sovereignty.

Like a dog endlessly chasing its tail, we can never practice true freedom of thought and being while deeply dependent upon and fully immersed within someone else’s version of reality, particularly when it is self induced. Yet after a sufficiently long enough period of time of sustained conditioning within our mentally confined cognitive box (achieved for the most part during our state sponsored education and in concert with the willing assistance of our loving parents who passed on their own cognitive conditioning) we find it nearly impossible to conceive of a life of true freedom (that of a practicing personal sovereign) without our deeply embedded co-dependencies and ingrained notions of how the world works, thereby completing the circular co-opting of our inner spiritual and sovereign being.

Freedom to choose………slavery

The brilliance behind our so-called (illusionary) freedom (of choice) is that we almost always consciously choose our own enslavement. The genius lay in never forcing us to make one large and final decision in favor of enslavement. “Sure, I’ll be a slave for life. Are there any fringe benefits?” The socioeconomic control system helpfully breaks the decision making process down into tiny little bite sized bits of slippery slope while sweetening the gruel with flashing lights and artificial colors, tastes and textures. “OMG, it’s the iPad mini in white and silver with a ruby red cover. Can I charge it?”

And when we do willingly choose enslavement we almost always make the choice based upon our own personally customized reasons that helpfully mesh with our mostly programmed pursuits and interests (reasons that just happen to be wonderfully aligned with the control systems’ own agenda) in the same way a cattle shoot funnels the willing cattle to their own personal date with slaughterhouse destiny. I don’t need to list them because there are hundreds of millions of them, several hundred of which I have personally used myself.

Regardless of whether these thousands of tiny little micro decisions appeal to our ego, vanity, sense of self worth, hidden inner fears or unsated (mostly externally manufactured) hopes and dreams (just review Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for a more complete list) and even if the decision is made by default, meaning we make no decision other than to stay with the status quo, the deed is still done. The ultimate Catch 22 is the cognitive catch you never fully recognize, but still willingly embrace. Where is John Yossarian when you need him?

Our ‘willing’ participation within the present paradigm only serves to strengthen the cognitive binds that tie us to our internal and external dependencies. It matters not if it is an agnostic, mindless, resentful or even hostile participation, just that we all march to the same narrow range of emotional and spiritual frequencies. And it really doesn’t matter if we are fully or partially aware of our dependencies nor that we might strenuously object to them, only that we participate in order to enable this powerful form of consent. Our slavery is always hidden in plain sight under layer after layer of willing consent, regardless if most of it is coerced with threats of state violence.

 

Catch 22

 

Socioeconomically addicted

To directly oppose this addictive material compulsion (whether by force of mind or body) only serves to nourish and strengthen it simply because it is cognitively and spiritually designed to absorb our misdirected emotional and physical energy by using it to feed other parts of the whole in the same manner someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol fails to secure his or her release from the addiction by way of denial or brute opposing mental force.

Ask any long term recovering drug addict or alcoholic (to name just two examples of deeply embedded co-dependencies) if they were able to free themselves from their addiction by just saying NO (and really meaning it this time) and their responses will be overwhelmingly negative. The consumed active addict simply refuses to acknowledge that they can no longer participate in their obsessive activity. Their battle is always to limit the addiction and never to admit defeat in their ability to control their addiction. Always they wish to bargain and always they lose more ground to the addiction. If asked, the intelligence services might call this socioeconomic addict a ‘compromised person’.

At first glance this appears to be a huge contradiction since how can you ‘control’ something by admitting defeat. The key is not to (even try to) control, but simply to disarm and disempower that which is controlling us. This allows the addicted to move beyond this seemingly impenetrable roadblock rather than meeting it head-on. The fight is always with us and within us, not externally where the illusion makes it appear to be, and the way to personal and spiritual release is not to fight, not even to try to ‘win’.

Our ego simply refuses to recognize that we are physically and mentally consumed and spiritually broken. The longer the battle for control rages the more consumed the ego becomes in winning a battle that only exists within and can never be won and only be lost. The solution is to accept completely and unquestioningly that the battle can never be won, then turn in an entirely different direction and begin to do those things we never would have done before because we were consumed with pounding on the closed door of addiction directly in front of us and oblivious to the dozens of open doors all around.

By opposing the addictive force directly the addicted is hopelessly consumed by himself, by his mental, emotional and spiritual defects. His directed energy, the force he applies when trying to break the addictive binds that tie, is mirrored and deflected back towards him, creating a situation where he is literally fighting with himself. Imagine a split personality pushing on both sides of an open door at the same time, one trying to force it closed while the other tries to push it open. Any increase in force from either side is immediately met with an equal and opposite force from the other. The only way to ‘win’ is not to play at all, to circumvent any notion what-so-ever of winning or losing and just walk away. Clearly this is easier said than done and thus exactly why the socioeconomic addict remains consumed and compromised.

This process describes very well the convoluted and conflicted mind of the severely socioeconomically co-dependent addict and it applies both externally in the ‘real’ world as well as internally, within our controlled and manipulated minds. To ignore this dynamic is to be totally controlled by it, the ultimate fulcrum that is leveraged against us by external mind control forces.

The Trojan horse money meme

The all consuming fear based economic mind control money meme of (among other things) contrived scarcity is the Trojan horse that gains entry to our mind and spirit and it is something we for the most part willingly embrace even while denouncing certain select portions of it as ‘the’ problem. We are simply unwilling to look critically at the entire money meme, at the artificial and contrived scarcity of many resources which is designed to demand of us that we ‘pay’ (our masters) just so that we may continue to exist.

We do not wish to look too deeply into the fundamental flaws of this system, of our willing and complicit bondage, because that might entail leaving it all behind once we recognize its true nature. This is our root addiction and one we are loath to abandon because that would entail embracing true freedom, not just freedom of choice. We have allowed ourselves to become institutionalized, sated fat rats that are more than willing to run the maze each day for our daily keep. We are a slave nation and rapidly becoming a slave Earth.

Like the (completely) consumed drug addict or alcoholic, we are desperate to control the money meme’s hold on us so that we can still partake of certain select (believed) ‘good’ components rather than to admit total defeat and begin to do those things we really don’t wish to do, to first look within and recognize who and what we are, and then to act upon those discoveries. We convince ourselves that if only this component was removed or that participant was properly controlled or regulated that the socioeconomic system would function properly.

This is the big lie. The money meme itself is designed to mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically enslave you and me while enriching and empowering a select few regardless of how well we think it can work if only we ousted the rogue elements, an excuse which is itself a colossal self deception. Explain to me again why we wish to salvage this? But of course logic and reason fall on deaf ears with the consumed compromised addict.

This concept can be difficult to comprehend for a mind thoroughly immersed within the right-wrong, good-bad, left-right present day paradigm. Or worse, it is impossible to accept for a mind that perceives itself as not afflicted by the money meme mind virus at all, as above the sordid fray and immune to the collective madness. To some degree or another we are all specialists in our own psychological damage control. We are experts in blame, involvement and personal responsibility avoidance at all cost because……well, it’s the other guy who’s to blame, not me. Tell him to get his house in order, and then maybe I’ll take a look at mine.

The amount of energy we expend to rationalize away our own direct and indirect involvement, of our actual willing participation, would be truly staggering to measure if it weren’t so sad to behold. I am constantly amazed how quickly we shed any personal blame whatsoever once we begin to gain some insight into the ugly underbelly of the mind control machine of the money meme. It seems as if once a portion of the manipulation is unearthed we become desperate to believe that now that the infection is somewhat visible to the naked eye, the virus is no longer infectious to us, as if our (limited) awareness somehow sterilizes the madness.

It’s the best of both worlds. At first we aren’t affected when we are clueless because ignorance is bliss, then we become magically immune once we are (somewhat) aware of the illusion. Sadly these are the first, second and third orders of our addiction; the denial, then the denial of the denial, and finally the denial that there ever was any denial in the first place. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can clearly see what the issue is and it sure as hell ain’t me. It’s you and those idiots over there that’s the problem, not me.”

Our distorted worldview

Once we begin to peak beneath the surface layer we become so certain of our understanding of how the ‘real’ world works now (as opposed to how certain we were about how it worked before our revelation) that we rarely give it a second look, let alone devote any time to examine it critically. And why should we? Why venture too far down the rabbit hole when the next conveniently presented answer is right in front of us? The fact is that nowadays we are so completely bombarded with absurdity after absurdity on an exponentially increasing scale that we begin to lose all touch with common sense and reality…………including our own.

Stay high or drunk on the money meme long enough and reality becomes so strange that it is to be avoided at all costs. Soon enough our warped sense of perception comes measured by our dependencies rather than despite them. This all too common state of emotional and intellectual paralysis might help to explain certain vows of poverty and abstinence practiced by tens of thousands of history’s thinkers, philosophers and holy/spiritual men. One cannot see clearly while in the midst of the madness using only the cognitive tools and worldview assumptions supported and promoted by the madness.

Simply put if we allow ourselves the conceit of believing that we are thinking outside the box without actually (destructively) testing our predispositions, all we’re ever really doing is confirming for ourselves not only our imagined outlaw status, but our more perfectly conditioned and captured mental state. It is highly likely, absent a rigorous and continuous self examination, that we are blindly trapped within another smaller, though still thoroughly confined, psychological thought control box a la those fascinating little Russian nesting dolls.

With this entirely self imposed cognitive impediment blocking our way forward (meaning our unwillingness to destructively test our own thinking) our only claim to fame might actually be that we are still somewhat closer to the core issues of our own self enslavement. Tragically, this slightly higher state of self awareness in no way mitigates the fact that we are still hopelessly mired within the muddy waters of the present day false reality paradigm.

Chapter Two to follow shortly.

 

01-27-2013 

Cognitive Dissonance

 

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Mon, 01/28/2013 - 05:33 | 3190728 steveo77
steveo77's picture

Philosophy by itself, no matter how "good it sounds", should get to the effen point   And you don't have to be a trashy entertainer to do so.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 12:24 | 3191545 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

Just like romance for my love making takes the same approach. Two minutes and it's over. Classic 

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 12:51 | 3191655 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Two minutes? What's your secret for lasting so long? :>)

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 10:47 | 3191183 Vlad Tepid
Vlad Tepid's picture

A tragically modern perspective.  Adam Smith would disagree.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 02:09 | 3190570 KTV Escort
KTV Escort's picture

IMO the U.S. justice system has already collapsed, along with the proper functioning of the SEC and CFTC. And what of the integrity of such media outlets as CNN with their fraudulent and staged Sandy Hook interviews/propaganda? 9-11, Iraq & Afghanistan, TARP, bailouts, the Patriot Act, NDAA, all resulted from a collapsing of morality. Yet the garbage will be collected in my neighborhood on Tuesday... but for how much longer can I count on that? Corruption Inertia seems to have gathered momentum. Time to hit the sack.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 02:52 | 3190630 Seer
Seer's picture

"And what of the integrity of such media outlets as CNN"

This kind of history goes WAY back, back to the days when only newspapers existed.  Go read some history and see how the major media folks drummed up war.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 02:24 | 3190549 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Lots to agree with in the article above, except some semantics regarding a definition of "personal sovereignty."

I regard "sovereignty" as defined through the history of militarism, which established surviving states, which were based on the power to rob, (with the power to kill as the ultimate power to rob), able to be exerted by a group in their place. My definition of "personal sovereignty" has almost nothing to do with what most other people seem to be implying by that, which makes no historical sense. The history of the word "sovereignty" was about the power of states to survive as entities which could use the power to rob, and the power to kill, to maintain their social systems, where they were.

To me, real "personal sovereignty" rests on the ways that power is distributed, in the sense that everyone has some power to rob, and some power to kill. Of course, I recognize that has almost nothing to do with the idealized views of what "personal sovereignty" means to people who somehow have taken the idealized versions of what sovereignty should be (i.e., done with justice, like with the "mandate of heaven" in the Ancient Chinese view, and similarly in the philosophical rationalizations for how a "good king" should behave in a sovereign state, according to Western philosophers, etc..)

Of course, those ideas were only things that mattered to the degree that they actually assisted with the militarism that was needed to keep the sovereign state in existence. They were otherwise lies and hypocrisies. Warfare is the oldest and best developed social science. It requires organizing people. Some of that organization, in order to work, has to include other people, in ways that enable them to be motivated to want to be part of that organization, and keep it going. The state is simply an organized system of lies, operating organized robberies. However, it has to develop an elaborate code of rationalizations and justifications for itself, which more or less work to get people to cooperate inside their group, so that they can prevail in conflicts over other groups.

Groups which did not do that adequately would end up conquered, and either wiped out or assimilated into the conquering systems. Therefore, the REALITY of "sovereignty" was surrounded by the biggest bullies' bullshit stories about what they were doing and why, and those stories had to be good enough to enable their social organization to function according to the tests of militaristic imperatives. There were extremely strong selection pressures working upon groups to select for militarism since Neolithic civilizations began. Those social pyramid systems that survived and grew are the ones that surround us now.

Most of what most people seem to mean by "personal sovereignty" is based on the bullshit ideals about what "sovereignty" should be, which then are transported to become how the individual should be. Since the ideals about what "sovereignty" should be were almost totally bullshit (other than how they functioned within militarism) the ideals about what "personal sovereignty" should be were similarly almost totally bullshit.

Understanding the basic nature of the social systems we are living in is extremely relevant to attempts to predict its future, and therefore, shall it collapse or crumble?

The expression that I most I agreed with in the article above was:

"The fact is that nowadays we are so completely bombarded with absurdity after absurdity on an exponentially increasing scale that we begin to lose all touch with common sense and reality…………including our own."

My view is that the fundamental nature of human reality is that it is ALWAYS organized systems of lies, operating organized robbery. Each individual has some individual power to rob, and to kill. Those powers can be assembled and channelled into social systems. The history militarism drove an intense self-selection for the best organized systems of lies, backed by violence, to prevail. We are now living inside of those systems. The fundamental nature of our problems is that they reflect the double-bind paradox of possible final failure from too much success through force backed frauds.

How does a runaway social system of triumphant frauds, backed by force, end ... collapse or crumble?

My opinion is that it goes through a process which is analogous to psychotic breakdowns. The "success" of the system is based on triumphant frauds, which must be backed by force. However, the force can never make the frauds become true. As organized systems of lies, operating organized robberies, those force backed frauds work, within that context ... until too much success of promoting huge lies, backed by violence, drives that system as a whole to become too insane, and thus, by going thereby mad, destroys itself.

That process was explained above as "bombarded with absurdity after absurdity on an exponentially increasing scale that we begin to lose all touch with common sense." A relatively current example where that happened was the events on 9/11/2001. In order to believe the official story about 9/11, one has to agree to ignore common sense and basic physics! If one does not do that, then there is a shocking psychological process to go through to understand that our entire civilization is dominated by huge lies, backed by lots of violence, which is driving it to go mad, and become insanely self-destructive. No proper investigations into 9/11 events were ever allowed to be done by the authorities, but rather, they summarily did the opposite, by destroying the evidence, and cleaning up the crime scene before it was properly investigated, in ways that were extremely hazardous to those who were allowed to do that clean up. After a mass murder, the clean up crews were sent in first, to clean up the crime scene! Those who had the official power to order proper investigations made sure that none ever happened. The mass media went along with that travesty. After lots of independent researchers have pieced together the evidence that was available, the conclusions have driven extreme social polarization, regarding whether one continues to believe the official story about 9/11, or regards those events as an inside job, false flag attack.

What is the SCALE of the lies, backed by violence, which we are looking at in America today? Clearly, it is a social pyramid system which has been amplified to astronomical size. In that context, I recommend watching this video, in light of the view that 9/11 was an inside job, false flag attack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ECi6WJpbzE

Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis

This article by Cognitive Dissonance referred to the novel Catch 22. The most relevant passage in that novel mentions the idea that "they have the power to do anything that we can not stop them from doing" and then laments that that might does not make it right. I.e., there is the debate between the reality of sovereignty, and the bullshit ideals about what sovereignty should be, which is disconnected from what it is, as much as is possible, in order to promote the impossible ideals of what sovereignty should be.

Governments were always territorial gangsters. With the development of technologies that made global systems possible, that resulted in international bankers becoming the biggest gangsters, that were able to take control over those governments. Governments were selected by militaristic history to become sovereign states, that were able to assert a relative monopoly over the powers to rob and to kill in their territories. After those states were taken over by the banksters, the effective control of those powers to rob and to kill were transferred to the private banksters, in the forms of being able to make "money" out of nothing, as debts, while the governments continued to force everyone else to accept that fraud, because everyone else was forced to pay their taxes with that fiat money, and to accept that fiat money as legal tender.

The privatized fiat money system became our state religion: faith based money, that is force backed fraud.

That is the social system that exists today, and which dominates the whole world, and that is the social system that we are speculating about when we discuss whether it will "collapse or crumble?" The answers are paradoxical, because it is TOO MUCH SUCCESS that drives it mad, and then it is that excessive madness which results in its own self-destruction, which becomes a process like psychotic breakdown, where it crumbles, and crumbles, until it finally reaches some points of more serious and sudden collapses.

However, I believe it is important to not go back to false fundamental dichotomies in order to understand that process. It is NOT simply being lies and robbery that are the problems. It is the paradox of too much "success" from doing that which causes the final failures. Indeed, there IS a Catch 22 at play here, which drives the crumbling into collapse.

The REAL world system today is global electronic fiat money frauds, in the quadrillions of units, backed up by threats of weapons of mass destruction, that are trillions of times more powerful than anything ever before in human history. The REAL world is run by a state religion, based on organized lies, backed by organized violence, on an astronomically amplified scale. IT IS THE SHEER SIZE OF THAT WHICH MAKES SPECULATING ABOUT HOW IT WILL COLLAPSE OR CRUMBLE BE A DISCUSSION OF SOMETHING TOTALLY UNPRECEDENTED IN HUMAN HISTORY.

In my opinion, the most important thing needed to understand that is to stop using false fundamental dichotomies, and their related impossible ideals. Human realities were ALWAYS organized lies, operating organized robberies, and they are ALWAYS going to be. The problems we face are due to too much "success" through our established systems becoming such HUGE LIES, that are so absurd that we can not imagine any way for those to continue to be sustained by MORE VIOLENCE, but rather, are madness, driving us towards psychotic breakdowns.

However, whatever might be on the other side MUST still be some new systems of organized lies, operating organized robberies. Whatever might be on the other side of those psychotic breakdowns, after the crumbling and collapsing of the current systems, WILL be some new way that organized lies have to organize robberies.

The question is not whether the established systems can continue growing indefinitely. That is obviously impossible! The essential question is whether our basic political science could ever catch up to the paradigm shifts that have made it possible to have global electronic frauds, backed by the force of atomic bombs. To put it another way, the essential questions are about whether we could catalyze the crumbling and collapsing, in order to transition through the breakdowns of the current systems, into a better balanced system of organized lies, operating organized robberies. The degree to which we could actually achieve doing that is the degree to which we could mitigate the crises of crumbling and collapsing.

Basically, each individual has to go through a paradigm shift, which is their own personal psychotic breakdown, and all of those contribute to the collective paradigm shift, of the social psychotic breakdown. Each individual will find their own world view crumbling and collapsing, and that will be multiplied by billions. The task will be to build some new world view, on the other side of that process. ...

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 14:49 | 3192094 Ctrl P
Ctrl P's picture

hey, Cognitive Dissonance, is that you? ........ (just thinking) on "Human realities were ALWAYS organized lies, operating organized robberies, and they are ALWAYS going to be"

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 14:59 | 3192135 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

English please. And speak slowly while you're at it. I'm deaf, dumb and blind. :)

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 05:39 | 3190734 steveo77
steveo77's picture

Soveriegnity simply means that you are your own man, you don't owe a debt to any person or thing simply because you were born somewhere.    Adding all the other crap in about power to make war, to kill, if way the fuck out in left field dude.  

Your shit is silly, not profound...

I will not have to go through a personal pyschotic breakdown to get to the other side, will simply have to camoflauge, hide, outwit, and ultimately shoot the unprepared who are tyring to steal my shit that I have properly prepared.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 11:42 | 3191364 tip e. canoe
tip e. canoe's picture

i respect your right to define sovereignty as however you wish (as long as it does not infringe on anyone elses).

however i have to ask:  doesn't it suck to always have to be looking over your shoulder constantly on the lookout for someone stealing your shit?    is that exactly how the "Annointed Ones" who claim to have Dominion over the rest of us must feel as well?   why would you want to define your life how they do?

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 23:30 | 3193733 Seer
Seer's picture

Yeah, to each their own, no?

I think that life is about engaging in life, not in playing pack-rat waiting for the dust clouds to settle.  For when the clouds do settle, and how long might that be the above poster should ask, is a big question- does he/she have "enough" stuff?

I will defend my right to feed myself and as many people as will participate in same alongside me.  If it should come to pass that one who failed to plan accordingly (ran out of "stuff" to "defend") should seek to externalize his/her failure and extinguish my life so that they can "steal" my production?  Well... there's an end to everything; but, while eventually I shall not be able to stay awake, stay vigilant, the time before this comes to pass others whom feel brave enough to test will find their test.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 11:12 | 3191267 new game
new game's picture

agreed- but i have to say "i don't need a defination" for what is liberty and the pursuit of just that...

pusue the root meaning and keep it simple, when one uses words...

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 02:50 | 3190627 Seer
Seer's picture

Thank you for taking the time to post this excellent analysis.

"In my opinion, the most important thing needed to understand that is to stop using false fundamental dichotomies, and their related impossible ideals. Human realities were ALWAYS organized lies, operating organized robberies, and they are ALWAYS going to be."

The only explanation that I can come up with to define our behaviors, which, I believe, are intrinsic, and are, as you note relating to government behavior, are compounded by collectiveness, is that it is totally our nature to be deceptive.  I always turn to nature to help understand the world around me.  Everwhere in nature one can spot the practices of deception.  Given that it's based on survival it's hardly to be seen as a negative.  What is different with humans is that we can game things out FAR longer, often to the point that it's nearly impossible for anyone else to detect the ultimate check-mate.  We can call this lies etc, but it's really all based in deception to garner survival status.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 09:23 | 3190939 blindman
blindman's picture

well said, this thread.
i would like to bring into this discussion,
from near and far, the concept of gender as
somehow i think this is a parochial physical
and otherwise manifestation, when contemplated,
could reveal a thing or two about both deception
and collective cooperation, not to mention imperatives
and strategies in time , sovereignty and reproductive
survival. after all, cog is a "free" man yet openly
admits the mrs. has collared him ! my guess is she taught
him the meaning of a word or two.
.
separately but related when you say you look to nature
and realize the ubiquitous nature of deception it makes
me think "peacocks" and their beautiful plumage! i don't
know. perhaps we need to expand our appreciation of
what we call lies and deception a little bit? but in no way
is any of this an apology for state sponsored murder
or stealing. although the gender analogy does translate
to larger social "realities", the principle plays out there
but the "allowances" are not scalable?
.
one thing concerning gender you might notice, the male
has the leverage so long as he has not fulfilled his
biological function, then, the power is transferred. sounds
crass and horrible but i think it is a fact and true.
we have to be sure not to fall into the mental framework
that the culture subscribes to the adolescent male,
there be dragons there and a deadly trap?
like wise the buyer has the power which is lost at the
point of purchase if we were to make that analogy. anyway ...

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 23:22 | 3193711 Seer
Seer's picture

Ah, it's good to see you flex that great mind of yours!

BRAVO!

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 12:04 | 3191462 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

well said this thread

like a good wine and bread

less for the stomach

more for the head

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 05:08 | 3190708 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Yes, Seer, as you say:

"Everwhere in nature one can spot the practices of deception.  ... deception to garner survival status. ...  

What is different with humans is that we can game things out FAR longer ..."

As stated in the recent article by Gordon T. Long:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-27/guest-post-monetary-malpractice... 

"... the delusion becomes greater until it disconnects from reality ..."

That is the definition of becoming psychotic, which then tends towards driving psychotic breakdowns.

The thing that is NEW about this is the ways human beings can now game things out FAR longer!

 


Mon, 01/28/2013 - 07:50 | 3190811 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I tend to define personal sovereignty as springing from deep within, to be personally accountable for everything I do, think or say......even if I am forced to do so at the point of the state's gun.

In fact the concept of being 'forced' to do something against my will should be seriously questioned. Isn't that the ultimate leverage used against us, the threat of the state taking our life if we do not comply? There actually is a choice to be made there, though most would instantly dismiss it as insanity not to choose life.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 23:02 | 3193638 Seer
Seer's picture

I think that I'm beginning to catch the crux of things...

I believe that it's really about trusting one's own judgement to carry one's actions, that one should not feel coerced into NOT doing so.

"In fact the concept of being 'forced' to do something against my will should be seriously questioned."

Further analyzing the notion of force as seen as being against one's internal will, I think that at some point standing pat on one's will might not be in the best interest of one's self.  Yes, generally I tell folks that one ought not do something if one cannot get behind what one is doing: usually if you go through the motions you tend to blame others and to not take responsibility- this is bad management of oneself.  I have always liked this quote from Bertrand Russell:

"I would not die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."

At some point it is worth reevaluating your position and perhaps changing your mind.  Getting the chance to make another decision is always a good position to leave oneself in, even if that decision is to change your views or position radically.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 11:50 | 3191381 Jugdish
Jugdish's picture

The thing about this sovereignty thing is me and you cannot both exist as sovereigns, sharing sovereignty, because I know you aren't going to share and leave me alone. You will naturally/biologically want some of my sovereignty and if you find a way to get it you will. It's better that I have a little more sovereignty because I know you all too well. Thus the state.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 12:01 | 3191446 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I do not equate sovereignty with dominance. However the state and many others do.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 12:10 | 3191473 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

It's a sexual thing really - Nigel Tufnel 

Who knew Spinal Tap and Strangelove had so much in common.

They are two of my favorite films

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 11:30 | 3191288 tip e. canoe
tip e. canoe's picture

cog, until reading dr. ganja's latest screed, i defined personal sovereignty in much the same way.   yet, look at the etymology of the word:

late 13c., from Old French soverain, from Vulgar Latin *superanus "chief, principal," from Latin super "over" (see super-). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. Milton spelled it sovran, as though from Italian sovrano. Meaning "gold coin worth 22s 6d" first recorded late 15c.; value changed 1817 to 1 pound. As an adjective, attested from early 14c.; of remedies or medicines, "potent in a high degree," from late 14c

http://www.etymonline.com/?term=sovereign

it seems this concept of sovereignty dates back even further than that : to way back into Genesis which Declared Man as having Dominion over the Earth (and perhaps even further than that depending on what you choose to believe).    of course, over necessitates an under and thus introduces a constant struggle between the two ends of the dichotomy over who is over who at any given point in time.

perhaps this is one of those words/concepts that one must rethink one's relationship to?   if so, how can one let go of the concept of sovereignty (as defined by language) without letting go of the idea of one's sovereignty (as you and i would define it).   must we be willing to summon the courage to let go of the entire idea in order to find something deeper?   how can we do so without the risk of becoming a victim to someone else who believes they have Dominion over us?

 

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 23:20 | 3193699 Seer
Seer's picture

First I'd like to say that I feel at home with all of you that are carrying on this conversation.  Most (all?) are folks that I look forward to seeing post on ZH.

"how can we do so without the risk of becoming a victim to someone else who believes they have Dominion over us?"

I'd have to state that no one can have dominion over another, not as long as one care not to be dominionee.  No one really has any control over anything.  Yes, one can have influence, but one cannot become another in order to command that other.

I suppose that the ultimate act of dominance would be the ability to extinguish life.  But by this act one is no longer dominant over that which no longer exists.

It really comes down to the ultimate challenge of life.  For me it comes down to this: I care not to engage at such a level; if, however, it comes to that, then I think that my opponent really ought to think seriously about his/her death- I have no plans on losing the battle of ultimate dominance (I don't care who you are).  In a way this is where gun rights are good, as they help equalize things, help suggest that attempts at extreme dominance may prove grievous to the person attempting to dominate another.  In a sick kind of way one has to love life enough that one is willing to kill for it.

Life isn't about being passive.  Walk with your head up and know that you have just as much right to life as anyone else, no more, no less.  This is where respect snubs dominance.

Tue, 01/29/2013 - 03:18 | 3194066 tip e. canoe
tip e. canoe's picture

likewise seer.

for me, key sentence of your most excellent answer:  No one really has any control over anything.

indeed.  sometimes i feel that the essence of what got us all into this pickle is this insane notion that we can control something which cannot be controlled.   and we are willing to pursue this insanity to the most fatal of consequences, over and over again, which as you say, is ultimately self-defeating, over and over again.  

oy vey

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 12:01 | 3191451 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

All excellant questions.

Let's talk further over coffee and crumbles crumpets.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 12:21 | 3191255 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

life and death and its threat to us or someone we love is the ultimate human mechanism. The "criminal" universe and the "government" operate on this fuel which makes them, in the end, the same. When the government and its tools are "working" it hides this true nature. As it breaks down, as it always does, the mask comes off.

These principles were destined to reach the global scale magnified only by the innevitable wall of a finite planet and with them, events like 911 and tools like modern "banking."

great comments everyone 

 

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 01:09 | 3190512 sleepingbeauty
sleepingbeauty's picture

The socioeconomic control system helpfully breaks the decision making process down into tiny little bite sized bits of slippery slope while sweetening the gruel with flashing lights and artificial colors, tastes and textures.

 

---> So wanting to replace my keurig is bad?? I need you to tell me so that I can decide.

 

/s (sort of -- the prison I am in is pretty darn comfortable ... whine)

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 07:44 | 3190807 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Mrs. Cog and I have a backup Keurig at our Plan B retreat. Who says we must suffer while wallowing in our misery. :)

<Pass the Grey Poupon K-Cup please.>

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 00:56 | 3190492 DaveyJones
DaveyJones's picture

"The brilliance behind our so-called (illusionary) freedom (of choice) is that we almost always consciously choose our own enslavement."

that that is is that that is not is not

well said as usual 

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 00:55 | 3190486 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

A FACE IN A CROWD

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 07:39 | 3190802 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Banzai7,

I was hoping you would stop by and deposit a gem (or two) for our viewing delight. Thank you. :)

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 00:36 | 3190447 Clever Name
Clever Name's picture

Wow, this is way too deep for me to read right now, bookmarked for later. Gotta go to bed after a few shots. Good on ya Cog!

What I've gotten from it so far, is actually a quote from ORI:

Dont believe everything you see, because you only see what you believe.

This mighta been you?

Crikey! I picked a bad time to quit...

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 00:15 | 3190403 Never One Roach
Never One Roach's picture

You have me thinking, now, Cog. Thanks.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 11:53 | 3191426 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Mission accomplished.

Now return the favor and get me thinking about what you are thinking about.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 00:06 | 3190385 Laser Shark
Laser Shark's picture

In my view, there's both a crumble and a collapse.

The Soviet Union crumbled for decades at an accelerating pace, and then one day it was officially dissolved.

The Roman Empire arguably took centuries to crumble or collapse, but I see those terms as identical in their non-electronic world.

In this electronic world of ours things can happen very quickly and information can travel around the world in seconds.  The world can fundamentally change within days, if not hours.

As I see it, the world-wide financial and banking system was collapsing in 2008 and would have collapsed the world-wide economy had it been allowed to fail.  Extraordinary measures were undertaken by governments and central banks to prop up the financial and banking system, but the underlying "real" system (things like infrastructure) is still crumbling.  There are band-aids on the social crumbling (like food stamps in the US) that prop up the real economy too, but they are dependent upon the continued functioning of the financial and banking system.

I see the next financial crisis as the point of collapse because there is nowhere to transfer the problems to now and governments and central banks will lose credibility, but I see the interim as the crumble.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 00:45 | 3190469 Notarocketscientist
Notarocketscientist's picture

I agree there will be a collapse - but I do not envision 'mad max'... rather I envision martial law which will then replaced by a totalitarian nighmare.

You can already see how the elites are planning to react - they are pepper spraying peaceful protestors.  Ratchet things up a bit and you they will they will really bare their teeth.

And the masses are gonna take it.  They are gonna live like dogs on the street fighting for scraps. 

Google - Orwell Boot Stomping on Neck -forever.

 

That is what is imminent

 

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 02:25 | 3190598 Seer
Seer's picture

It will be different things to different people at different locations and at different times.

There WILL be phases as the highly-energy-dependent system loses its steam.

Just like a marauding troop doesn't hang around, things will hit and then pass.  As is ALWAYS the case, it's an issue of surviving to see another day: no matter what happens this is just as it is now, only most of us do more thinking about it than they (require for the time being) have to actually expend substantial amounts of energy to keep the day going.

"They are gonna live like dogs on the street fighting for scraps."

"They" will also be nearer to thee.  I would caution thinking that people (such as us here) can think that they can fully buffer themselves from this: and, really, isn't that what the elites are doing? (can you say "gated communities?")

Severe disarray also means disarray in the ranks of the neck-pressers.

There's no playbook.  This isn't going to be like anything that's happened in the past.  This is MUCH BIGGER.

Life is about hedging.  Assuming a pigeon hole classification is bad hedging strategy.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 07:36 | 3190799 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Mrs. Cog reminds me often that it is a collapse when it runs head long into you via long term unemployment, serious illness that drains the savings etc. Otherwise it is just a crumble.

In fact this article is a direct result of our conversations on the subject. I tend to pull back and attempt to see the big picture. Mrs. Cog has the wonderful ability to quickly distill complex subjects and get down to the nitty gritty.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 22:50 | 3193589 Seer
Seer's picture

Mrs. Seer, the greatest therapist ever (personal bias!), knows how to be a trooper, knows how to put things in perspective as well; heck, she's from Manila!

There is, as you note, two different plains that we're talking about: 1) Wider-scale national level; 2) Personal level.  I see the wider-scale collapsing having to do with the disintegration of the existing (false) monetary system (which will remove the false moorings of energy- read "energy, and other key commodities, will spike").  The personal level is really what we make it- the wider-scale will pretty much be gone, leaving us to deal on the local level; it'll be a matter of how well set up to engage with the local community that will determine whether one is going to "crumble" or not: I figure on the personal "collapse" would = "death"*.

* Dr. Albert Bartlett puts is this way: a "problem" is something that is life threatening (that would be "collapse"- something not resolvable), whereas everything else is just an "issue" (usually resolvable)

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 07:43 | 3190806 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

+1 for Mrs. Cog. There are other words for crumble, btw. decline, or senescence, for example

The US used to represent 25% of the world's GDP and 50% of it's military expenditures

Long term - let's say 25 years -  those numbers are probably going to be around 10%

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 02:04 | 3190564 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Yeah, I agree that is does not take a rocket scientist to predict that is the most probable path we are on ...

However, it will not work.

MEANWHILE:

It is relatively easy to predict the destructive possiblities. However, there will be possible exponential creativity happening at the same time as the possible exponential destruction. BOTH the destruction and the creativity will work together to shape the future. The destruction is perhaps possible to imagine. The creativity much, much harder to imagine!

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 00:21 | 3190419 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I do not fundamentally disagree with your point of view.

I guess the question is, how far down does one need to fall for it to be considered a collapse rather than just a bit more crumble? Is it a collapse when there is no more distance left to fall and the only way to go further down is to travel back up first?

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 01:22 | 3190527 Laser Shark
Laser Shark's picture

There's still food on the shelves at Wal-Mart (the food stamp system still functions).  There's still gasoline at the gas stations.  The airplanes are still taking off and landing.  The restaurants are still open for business.  The US government is still able to fund massive fiscal deficits.  Texas remains in the Union, although somewhat begrudgingly.

When those things begin to change, I will consider that the transition from crumble to collapse.  If the US dollar is no longer accepted in international trade or is devalued to a point where it's no longer viable to fly or transport goods via oil-powered vehicles, I would expect that point to follow shortly thereafter.

In my view, we live during a unique time in human history.  There will be no traveling back up to anything we of the industrial age would call normal once this system breaks completely down.

Net Hubbert Curve

If it wasn't for that, I would have been the first to say let the banks fail and let GM fail. In fact, at the time I was saying that. But, once I understood oil and peak oil and the special role of the US dollar in international trade which enables the massive trade deficit, I changed my mind.

Energy Independence - The Big Lie

There's no tomorrow

COLLAPSE

I admit I'm a doomer.  As far as timing goes?  Could be next week or another ten years for the next financial crisis to arrive.  I agree with Marc Faber that the derivatives market will lead to a complete collapse of the financial system at some point, though.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 02:15 | 3190577 Seer
Seer's picture

"When those things begin to change, I will consider that the transition from crumble to collapse."

And at that point it'll be moot.

As one of the best questions ever, asked by one of Jarred Diamond's students: I wonder what they were thinking when they chopped down the last tree?  I suspect that collapse was all around, it was only a matter of declaration (and in the case of the last tree, ceremonial in a way).

And the band played on...

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 01:32 | 3190535 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

Much is said about the Great Depression and we've seen all the old pictures of bread lines and the unemployed.

What is not recalled (selective exclusion?) are the movies made during the GD.   Maybe it should have been called the Great Crumble.  Look at what it took in the way of personal losses of freedom, and increase in government influence, to effect a "recovery".   (Sidestepping the War.)   Using that as a guide, what will we have to relinquish this time to "recover"?   It's a scary scenario!

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 00:40 | 3190460 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

I see the markers as technological regression.  The so-called Founding Fathers would be amazed at our do-hickeys and iCrap, but they'd mourn the loss of personal liberties and the overreach of government.  When the arc of science and technology begins to turn down, we will be in the process of a true crumbling because the personal liberties will not be returned to us for fear of open revolt.  Loss of power is the politician's nightmare.  That power used to be derived from the populace, whereas, now it is wrung from the banks and industry.

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 02:11 | 3190574 Seer
Seer's picture

Folks out in rural areas tend to be less in the technological world and more in the "leave me alone" personal liberty camp.

Technology is what TPTB use to distract, thus control us.  Aldus Huxley stated pretty well how this was likely to unfold.

When you look back at the era of the industrialists I don't think that one would confuse who had the ears of power back then.

No, I don't think that anything's changed other than scale.  And, because of the size of populations it's highly unlikely that we can ever think about "freedom" being possible in any sense that it was in the past: kind of hard to be free to do what you want when there's so many people you are tripping over them, affecting Their freedoms.

If you haven't read The End of An Era (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-26/end-era) I encourage you to do so (better is to find the link that points to the full PDF paper).  We've got much bigger issues than abstracts such as "liberty" etc. (not that I don't feel the same sense, but if we really don't understand what the real threats are there ain't no way we're going to salvage anything, TPTB or no TPTB).

Mon, 01/28/2013 - 08:52 | 3190831 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

Seer, spot on re "Folks out in rural areas tend to be ... more in the ... personal liberty camp"

You might remember Thomas Jefferson's quote:

""When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe." "

While I do find his quip slightly offensive, he was right and just stating a fact: urban density and mass change people's political outlooks and preferences

In the Old World this is something we experience since 5'000 years

But guess what? Even though the "US Suburbia" is very difficult to categorize - and IMO generates a lot of ambivalence and cognitive dissonance, as such in it's whole the US is now more urban than Europe

"Greater New York"      has now 20m inhabitants, with a density of 4'500 persons per square mile

"Greater Los Angeles"  has now 14m inhabitants, with a density of 6'100 persons per square mile

"Greater Chicago"        has now   9m inhabitants, with a density of 3'400 persons per square mile

This just to name the top three - all in all the urbanization rate of the US is now 82% (compare to the world's 50%)

Nevertheless one caveat: stories about how people living in low densities area have great trouble to understand how the city's denizens think and act go back to the Greek legends

And yet cities tend to be very efficient and quite effective, foster cooperation of a different kind than in rural areas and don't fail that easily - at least not as easily as country folks imagine (another age-old meme)

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