This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Part Two of Three
Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Part Two of Three
By
Cognitive Dissonance
When discussing new ideas or concepts, or when bringing new understanding to older ideas, it is difficult to be brief because not only must the new be carefully explained, but the old must be dissected to understand what it is we think we know, but do not. So with apologies to those who are weary of my verbose renderings I present the second chapter of this cognitive journey.
Chapter One may be found here.
Chapter Three may be found here.
Abandonment and collapse
For 25 minutes twice a day I travel back and forth to my office, a labor of love if I must confess. I enjoy the pleasure of traveling a scenic blue highway consisting mostly of wooded forest and rolling (former tobacco) farm land. All in all a very relaxing commute conductive to solitude and reflection with very little traffic to contend with and a heavy trooper presence to keep the speed down to a more sane and leisurely pace. One can find inspiration wherever one looks, but I find some places more inspiring than others.
None of the farms I pass continues to grow tobacco, an expected outcome of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement which precipitated various ‘tobacco state’ buyout programs. But a very visible remnant of this once thriving economic activity are scores of abandoned tobacco barns, most previously used to air cure harvested tobacco leaves before bringing them to market.
While I imagine the locals pay little attention to these hulking sentinels of a past life until suddenly they disappear from the travelers’ line of sight, crumpled into a haphazard pile of rotting debris, for several years now I’ve been witnessing the relentless and ongoing disintegration of these structures. And I see their inevitable destruction as just one small part of a long and convoluted process that is very similar to the coming end of the developed world’s global fiat empire.
Even the eventual (some might say inevitable) failure of both the decaying barns and the global fiat empire do not represent the end, but rather the beginning of the end of this cycle, to be closely followed by the rebirth and renewal (but not necessarily the duplication) of the next. This has led me to think about the widely used term ‘collapse’ when discussing the future of the present day socioeconomic system. Collapse infers that there is an end point, a firm and definite finality, a full stop which in my opinion doesn’t properly sync with the fact that life will carry on, even though the music and dance steps have (radically) changed. Thus the word ‘crumble’ seems more representative of the actual process underway.
To the casual eye very little appears to be happening to these decaying barns for years at a stretch. But if one watches closely and looks for incremental change, very soon one notices some newly deformed or detached wall boards here, additional missing roof shakes there, a barn door ajar and swinging in the breeze or maybe a window sill sagging, the window glazing gone and the panes of glass long since fallen from their sash. Depending upon the pace of the decay and possibly a sense of wasted investment or unrealized potential, the absentee owner might feel compelled to perform some rudimentary repairs in order to stave off what appears to the casual observer to be a case of imminent collapse.
But once the roof and sides are punctured in several places and fundamental structures are exposed to the elements, the decay accelerates exponentially. More and more roof shakes go missing, rafters fall away and the ridge begins to sag while entire walls bulge and ripple. If you’re lucky to be passing by at the particular moment of rescue you might catch a glimpse of the owner, pickup truck backed up to the long unsecured opening, removing any salvageable property that remains within the structure.
This is the sign, the ‘tell’ if you will, that the end is truly near……at least in the mind of the owner. And yet the barn still stands for months, years even; leaning precariously to one side or another, large sections of the roof long since fallen in, half its wall boards missing, heavily overgrown with vines and brush and inhabited by wildlife who’ve taken refuge from the elements.
Then one day you notice something missing from your routine passage. Not sure at first exactly what it is that you sense is wrong, suddenly you realize that what was once there is now gone. Or at least what appears to be missing is actually still there, only no longer in the shape and form you remember. Overnight it has been reduced in size and shape to a far smaller, more compact pile of wood and assorted detritus. Was it a gust of wind, a breaking timber or a landing bird? One can only guess in what form the straw came that broke the barn’s back.
Actually, it would be far more accurate to say that where once a severely degraded shell of a formerly vibrant and productive asset existed (its supporting structures and various subsystems degraded far beyond any semblance of productive utility or structural integrity) now there is a weathered skeleton no longer able to support what little remained of itself and quickly subsided. Not exactly a collapse in my book, but most people would disagree and over simplify it by calling it one.
The anatomy of an economic crumble by the removal of structural faith and belief
Of course the reader might also accuse me of an oversimplification as well and s/he would also be correct. In my defense though I just wish to examine collapse in its simplest physical form and work from there. In reality, unlike the old unused tobacco barns our economic system is not abandoned, at least not yet.
Rather, while ruthlessly used and severely abused by the elite, the present socioeconomic consensus reality contains one active ingredient the abandoned barns do not……in spite of what is clearly a rapidly decomposing financial and political system, you and I (and increasingly the general public) still maintain a somewhat desperate faith and belief in its past success and future functionality if only the rot could be exorcized and the structure rebuilt.
However, unlike a complicated mechanical device where breakdowns can and will occur with increasing frequency as complexity and age increases, hope, faith and belief are powerful emotional engines not constrained by physical limitations. And equally important they are fueled by a seemingly unlimited energy source, thus they can and will continue to operate long past their seemingly obvious fail date.
Or to put it another way, unlike the abandoned tobacco barns, our socioeconomic culture (into which all of us are seamlessly embedded) embodies tremendous momentum of prior belief which in turn propels, energizes and validates (oftentimes false) hope, faith and belief in the present and future of our obviously failed economic structure. We want to believe, even if we claim we don’t presently believe, and this emotional energy alone is enough to support the structure, if only for a while longer and despite (seemingly) vital components and subsystems falling off or rotting away.
This helps explain why we exuberantly overshoot to the irrational upside, then quickly chase it all back down with an emotional hangover. Modern day markets, currencies and economies may be manipulated and moved by external forces, but they also appear to be moved by (among other things) the rise and fall of the herd’s faith and belief. The question appears to be a chicken or egg query, though it really isn’t. Does social mood move the economy or does the economy move social mood? It seems to me that it is neither, but rather both. There is an ebb and flow back and forth in a positive feedback loop. One cannot exist without the other, with both dependent upon one another.
This interrelated dynamic is constantly dismissed or simply ignored as not relevant or immaterial by the mainstream propagandizing economists and by much of the contrary crew primarily because our socioeconomic culture is considered an ‘economechanical’ (economy mechanical) machine rather than a ‘living’ organism. The economechanical economists claim that our socioeconomic system is a mathematically driven financial machine that influences (some say controls) we humans rather than seeing it as complex organisms in a symbiotic but extremely dysfunctional relationship.
The tobacco barns are physical structures and thus subject to the physical ‘laws’ of the present day consensus reality universe. (Many of the natural ‘laws’ of our current worldview are actually well established and widely believed assumptions and beliefs, a subject I will expand upon in a future article.) Presently those physical laws as we know and believe them do not require faith and belief as structural components in order for the physical barns to remain standing, at least not within the scope of this article’s discussion. The same cannot be said of our culture and its economy.
Reality creators rather than reality consumers
Interestingly while the mainstream economists view the socioeconomic system as mostly economechanical, they do publicly acknowledge the critical hope and belief component of the structure. Thus they dare not say with their out loud voices that the emperor has no clothes, for then the evident will truly become patently obvious and the plausible lie will no longer appear functionally believable.
Still, while they recognize the power of our faith and belief, they say that this emotional force is created by the system and not the reverse. We are seen as just one of several mechanical components of their economic engine, subject to incentives and stimulus, herded and corralled by interest rates and taxes, as reality consumers rather than the all powerful reality creators we truly are.
But make no mistake about one irrefutable fact. The top of the elite, the true puppet masters, know full well who and what we are and how dangerous we are to them if we were to recognize our full potential and take our leave. This is why we are manipulated and enslaved, bottled up like a nuclear reactor. While safely contained we produce consistent and manageable power to run their machines of commerce and consumerism. But released from our restraints and freed to create reality unhindered by our self limitations we are all powerful and no longer controllable.
The manipulating force that distorts our socioeconomic system and its ultimate binding force, the super glue that holds it all together and enables our collective self enslavement, is self evident and entirely esoteric. I am, of course, speaking of the fear based mind control system of the contrived scarcity money meme, the central vehicle used to compel our ‘willing’ participation within the socioeconomic system.
Ultimately currency, widely seen as ‘money’ by the herd and vice versa (thus both words will be used interchangeably in this discussion though there is a distinct difference) is entirely esoteric in nature, without true form or physical structure other than those fancy colored paper symbols in our wallets and electronic one’s and zero’s on our statements that are used to represent a non physical psychological and emotional construct.
The same can also be said about Gold and Silver which are commanding and enduring symbols of the money meme. While Gold and Silver may present in physical form as opposed to un-backed fiat, which is mostly accounted for by numerical journal entries with only a small percentage of the total actually represented as paper currency, Gold and Silver are still just symbols. However, unlike fiat, which comes and goes every few generations, for thousands of years the precious metals have consistently been powerful attractors upon which we focus our energizing faith and belief.
Their physical form, their luster and glow, their primeval allure can for many people be absolutely mesmerizing and speaks to an unknown energy, power and even spiritual magic that the economechanical magicians have trouble publicly acknowledging, let alone modeling. But they do recognize this primeval power and they are desperate to capture it by redirecting that power towards their flaccid fiat.
In my opinion this is why the fiat fakers will often use Gold and Silver to initially back their latest fiat creation, and then strip it away in order to extort the greatest amount of leverage from their wage slaves. Only when they have no choice will they reinstitute a precious metal backing to their worthless fiat, and then only to reset the meme and start it up all over again. One may not be able to totally control the wild (human) beast, but one most certainly can cage it.

Real or not, it is still just a symbol
The length and degree to which the fiat mongers attempt to demean and dishonor Gold during the latter stages of their currency debasement says all that needs to be said about Gold’s base power, meaning our base power. That said, and regardless of whether or not we believe Gold and Silver to be honest money and the basis for sound money policy (remember in Chapter One my discussion about ‘good’ money meme components many wish to resurrect or maintain while ignoring the overall debilitating effects of the money meme itself?) the monetary precious metals are still just (significant) symbols of the overall money meme. They are not washed clean of their money meme mind control function simply because they are considered beneficial to humanity overall and to us as individuals. They remain symbols, powerful though they may be, of the money meme.
Without fully realizing it we are all guilty of conflating money and/or currency, the primary symbols of the mind control money meme, with what money is used to create, enable or activate, meaning residential and commercial buildings, road and bridges, couches and cameras, intellectual property and all the other ‘real’ things that are formed from mind and matter.
The total and seamless integration of the money meme into our culture is designed to confirm and leverage the faith and belief we bestow upon the esoteric concept of ‘money’ by conflating it with the ‘real’ solid reality we use money to create. This is very deliberately done through propaganda and conditioning via education, beginning with our parents and extending through all levels of primary, secondary and graduate school, as well as through predictive programming and meme affirmation by way of movies, television and advertising and so on.
By extension, we are also conditioned to bestow our faith and belief upon the high priests and puppet masters of the money meme through adulation, worship and subservience to authority and power, which in turn is conflated with money and wealth in an endless positive feedback loop of alchemical abomination creation.
In effect we are all turning mental lead into fiat Gold; only the fiat is Fool’s Gold for those who are left holding it when the bottom begins to fall out of the Fed’s misdirected faith and belief confidence racket. This speaks again to the ultimate power of physical Gold and Silver as vessels of our faith and belief and why those who wish to control us so desperately want to siphon off or redirect some of that power to energize their own controlling fiat.
If we are to be totally honest with ourselves we must accept that Gold and Silver are simply more perfect vessels into which we direct our faith and belief compared to the un-backed fiat currencies. It is still a fear based mind control contrived scarcity money meme even when precious metals are used to ground our faith within the meme. Using Gold and Silver simply means the meme cannot be as easily hijacked or leveraged by others (as opposed to fiat currencies) precisely because our faith and belief is so strong when using the precious metals.
By extension, a precious metal backed currency is an extremely powerful controlling meme in its own right. It is not ‘pure’ just because its backing is a highly pure and refined element. Recognizing and acknowledging this does not diminish our power. What it actually does is it disarms and delegitimizes the predators that prey upon us if we embody this knowledge and understanding.
Perception is reality, so manage the perception and the reality follows
Is it money/currency that makes all those real things ‘real’ or is it those real things that make money/currency appear to be real? Since we perceive currency for what it can be used for and not for what it really is, which in reality is just a concept, a mental construct, a meme, then its ultimate value (which is shorthand for form and function) is based entirely upon our faith and belief in ‘it’.
We intuitively know this to be the truth when we speak about the various central banks debasing their currency, which ultimately means that the central banks are destroying any of our remaining residual faith and belief in these particular money meme symbols (the dollar, euro etc.) which they have utilized to enslave us. Our innate and naturally occurring power energizes and activates their dead fiat currencies, and not the other way around. But the powers that be and their central bankers are loath to admit this to us because this true fact, if widely known and understood, would instantly delegitimize them in the eyes of nearly all but the most subservient.
We contrarians argue that the monetary system cannot last much longer in its present form because the numbers just don’t add up, that it is being artificially propped up, otherwise it would have collapsed long ago. Over and over again we present charts, graphs, statistics and historical testimony to ‘prove’ that the economic system’s days are numbered and that the end is near. And yet the system continues to persevere, to prosper even…..at least for some participants.
We declare that if only the slumbering minions would wake and recognize that they and their fellow codependent economic slaves are in deep doodoo, that the financial system would be exposed for what it really is……a corrupt system of extortion and slavery. (On a side note we must ask ourselves why anyone would possibly want to wake to the above described nightmare.) We understand that the status quo is maintained by the ignorance or apathy of those we claim to be asleep; otherwise we would not say this.
Doesn’t that declaration alone make the case that it is the (sometimes blind) faith and belief of the herd that perpetuates the present paradigm and not the desperate economechanical machinations of the controllers? That the economic numbers are manipulated in order to maintain the faith and belief of the herd in the system and not to maintain the actual system?
In our material culture complexity infers credibility and belief.
Maybe we need to see this from another point of view. We consistently fail to recognize that math and science are simply intricate (and at times deeply flawed) descriptions of our perceived realty, and not the actual reality itself. And that our perceived reality as described by math, physics and science forms the bedrock basis of our overall worldview and of our economic system.
Because we tend to confuse or conflate math and science with reality itself, or at least we believe that the sciences accurately describe reality, thus reality appears to reinforce the validity of the description in a self reinforcing perpetual motion meme, when an esoteric ‘reality’ (such as economics) is described, presented or explained in mathematical and/or scientific language, we tend to believe that the esoteric reality is real as well. We have been indoctrinated and conditioned for decades, for centuries really, to trust the offered descriptions as real, as a genuine reality, as a truth, rather than to trust our own experience, common sense and inner knowing.
In effect the economechanical magicians have convinced us (all of us to some degree or another) to alter our perception to match their description. This is how we are manipulated, by convincing us to disbelieve our lying eyes. This easily explains how the present day leveraged fiat socioeconomic system has been able to endure so much longer than many people thought possible based solely upon the obvious unsustainability of the present day financial reality.
The modern day financial system is entirely dependent upon our manipulated and deeply compromised faith and belief in order to function. By distorting our perception of (economic) reality, by pushing the boundary between believability and unbelievability further and further out, the socioeconomic system can endure long past its math and science based projected failure date. Add in our intense desire to believe, in part due to our raging co-dependency, and we can see how Wile E. Coyote can travel well past the cliff edge in flagrant violation of gravity.
Economic gravity doesn’t matter…….until it is consciously recognized and emotionally accepted as detrimental, then suddenly it matters a whole lot and comes roaring back with a vengeance. Ignorance truly is bliss, regardless of whether it comes in the form of a true lack of knowledge and understanding or as a part of our denial or as part of a manipulated and distorted perception.
The elite economechanical magicians (aka the top tier economists and central bank barons) use incomprehensible-to-the-layman (and to each other) math and science to describe why the system has indeed survived (aka the new normal) thus closing the faith and belief positive feedback loop. When only a few dozen individuals can successfully claim that they understand how a (faith and belief) socioeconomic system functions, and more importantly how to ‘fix’ the system, while the remaining 99.99% are told that all is well, that the system will be just fine if only we would do this or that, to just trust them, then we have fully crossed over from examining and describing a complex economic entity and into a religious socioeconomic cult based solely upon faith and belief.
I am constantly amazed, but not really surprised, by the degree of back peddling, amending, correcting and restating that occurs in all of the sciences, with economics leading the way these days. “Yes I know we once said that this (fill in the blank) was bad, but in the new normal this is now good. The proof that this change is good is that the system continues to operate and even prosper, so you should believe this now and not that.” I just love circular logic that feeds my confirmation bias and triggers those soothing endorphins.
Yet amazingly we as a society continue to believe in these seriously flawed descriptions primarily because they are promoted by so called experts and authorities and because we as a group and as individuals are so deeply compromised by our addictions and dependencies that we have become infantile pawns. Either we believe what we are told, regardless of how preposterous or ridiculous it may be, or we reject it and suddenly we are on our own, totally responsible for ourselves and, if we have family or close friends, several others.
This applies to all of us, particularly the educated professional class who are even more dependent upon the present day socioeconomic system to function so that their elevated status among the other wage slaves can be maintained. The house slaves are usually better fed and clothed if nothing else.
If the high priests of the various science and financial cults were to suddenly declare that they know not what they do, who is going to tell me what to think, say and most importantly do. In a culture that gloriously worships conformity of the individual and craves affirmation from our masters above, we shouldn’t be too surprised to discover the ugly underbelly of our hive mind.
Essentially we practice the abandonment of the self in pursuit of confirmation that ‘we’ are O-bee K-bee from authorities who author blatant fiction before changing their water into wine. Who really wants to walk waist deep into the cesspool our society has become and accept responsibility? Isn’t it so much easier to let those who (‘who’ else but the sociopaths?) say they can fix it to do so rather than to face it ourselves? Well………what a fine mess we have on our hands now that ‘they’ screwed things up so badly.
You can’t make this stuff up because it just wouldn’t be believable. But if the economechanical authority figures author up another alternative reality fiction and then present it as proven fact we blindly, begrudgingly or blissfully accept it until another palatable ‘proof’ proves otherwise. Especially if we wish to believe that our well being and safety depends upon believing their fiction is fact, a wonderful escape clause for those of us who outsourced our personal sovereignty long ago.
When we do not actively and continuously seek our inner knowing to vet externally perceived reality we are easily manipulated into accepting all sorts of nonsense that is passed off as ‘real’ reality. While as individuals we can at times be somewhat sane, as groups we are almost always maddeningly insane. The thing is that the madness of crowds always springs from within. It is our madness exponentially amplified, reflected and directed by the crowd that is the ‘madness of crowds’ we actually see.
We must stop pointing to the unsustainability of the math as proof of imminent collapse and recognize that our collective faith and belief, and the resilience of that faith and belief, is the true measure of the socioeconomic systems strength or weakness.
Chapter Three to follow soon.
02-03-2013
Cognitive Dissonance
- advertisements -


The tech and housing bubbles are constructive examples re: collapse v crumble.
Both popped visibly and relatively quickly not so much from an end to a shared perception (or lost faith or sudden disbelief), but rather by the "elites" arbitrarily deciding to bring the party to an end. The Mad Crowd is in reality a very small Mad Coterie. (Although I don't deny that madness is everywhere.)
I remember thinking in 1998 that valuations were getting ridiculous, and yet it continued till it didn't.
I remember thinking in 2005 that housing was getting ridiculous, and yet it continued till it didn't.
I'm thinking in 2013 that central planning is getting ridiculous, and yet it will probably continue till the "people" decide it ends. This is what will be different this time, if indeed people would wake the hell up.
Your hard asset conclusion should be correct, but most zhers already believe that.
Still, not a bad read CD.
You write: Does social mood move the economy or does the economy move social mood? It seems to me that it is neither, but rather both. There is an ebb and flow back and forth in a positive feedback loop. One cannot exist without the other, with both dependent upon one another.
So that's who you are! George Soros. I never would have guessed, but this passage is pure "reflexivity".
Just kidding, but what can be learned from this is that even (those thought) the devils have something to teach us.
One point that seems on the face of it confusing. At once you appear to make the case that trying to put a complex system atop a set of equations is the error and the hubris of the economists. The reason they are wrong is because the system is simply too complex to ever explain via theory or equation. All well and good. After that, however, it seems you come back to the old saw that the masters and the elite are controlling the masses (via all sorts of means). As you write: But make no mistake about one irrefutable fact. The top of the elite, the true puppet masters, know full well who and what we are and how dangerous we are to them if we were to recognize our full potential and take our leave. This is why we are manipulated and enslaved, bottled up like a nuclear reactor.
Here's where I get confused by your argument. The economy, which is made up of the combined mass of producers and consumers (aka human beings), is far too complex to fully understand and reduce to an equation, the inputs of which can be controlled and thus leading to an guided economy. The society, however, is also the sum total of all the individuals, that is, the same ones who drive the inscrutable economy. I cannot figure how these same elite, who cannot control or understand all the variables that drive a economy, can somehow control all the variables that shape public mood, opinion and belief. Either they are fallible (as you believe in the economic sphere) or nearly omnipotent (as you aver in the social sphere). This seems....inconsistent.
No argument whatsoever about "money" being faith. It's an intermediary between production and consumption agreed upon by the two parties involved in a transaction. In fact, it only requires one party to have faith in it, provided the heretical party has some of "it" in his possession in order to trade (Peter Minuit took advantage of that). Personally, I'm an agnostic with regard to just about everything, but I'll raise a finger (not THAT finger!) and see which way blows the wind. I believe gold is somewhat attractive, silver is butt ugly and confusing to most who cannot tell it from pewter or pyrite, and some fiat is rather lovely. I'll go with the majority faith and keep my heretical thoughts out of the transaction. I'd rather not hand anyone power over me by being enamored of the shiny or intricately designed objects they offer me; it is just the means to an end while I go about trying to enjoy my time above ground.
Looking forward to Part III and the summation.
Good to see you back! Seems you feel an obligation that should be answered, chindit.
Now CD posts an article. What's goin' on around here?
I was out for Intermission. I've come back for the last act. Departure music is Londonderry Aire (which ORI would call a Brit's fat arse...takes a second).
And who better to write the epitaph than ZH's own wordsmith, CogDis.
Funny! I'm looking forward to the final act of this play including CD's score.
Living in those interesting times . . . and oh! how I've come to rue the offense I visited upon the passing Master in the road that day.
Telling moment for me was when milliions around the world marched in opposition to the Iraq war and the response by governments - full steam ahead. Even Wikipedia (with its known issues in editorial policies) posted:
According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war
Democracy is a farce as is the notion of free markets but I have no idea of where we go from here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uc3ZrmhDN4
Like a tired watchman atop the crumbling remains of the Wall Which Hadrian Had Built, CD is peering out into the fogbound night trying to make out what shadowy shapes form and dissipate amongst those dangerous mists...
and like most in the Post Pax and tired West, still hesitates to credit the evidence of his senses...unwilling to break with the habit of stopping up the necessary co-relation of what he knows is out there with what his senses tell him.
But the tingling is getting stronger, much stronger now. The emphasis on 'mathematics' in today's tutorial is the giveaway...CD now knows, without quite acknowledging it, that his coded description(as quoted above)is evidence of the cabbalist talmudist at work...they who revel in arcane arithmetic and metaphysical formulae with which to bedazzle and daze their prey....
generation upon generation of scheming sabbatean millenialist madmen whose mission is to dissolve the western peoples into nothingness...using the majical arts and science combined in a toxic brew of chemtrailed smoke n mirrors, behind which hide their columns of golems readying out there in the pedophilic Grampian mists to wend their way through the many gaping holes that have been made for them in the decaying structure of the West's defensive lines.
Almost willing to shout full out the alarm, at last, he be, our CD, but still hesitates, lest some complicit commander of the compromised auxilary troop of warriors to which he belongs decides to call him out, with the usual lies of the ZOGist thought police....
almost too late, CD remembers that it is up to him, the fate of all those sleeping civilians, the children, wives n mothers, millions of others, all a risk of being smothered in the advance of the barbaric hordes of Obama's orc-like legions of DHS brownshirts and the mind-controlled military he plots to unleash upon sleeping, post-pax Merika.
Helms' Deep is falling. To Arms, Riders of Rohan!
Baby steps my friend, baby steps.
I too need others' faith and belief in order to be considered credible. For the vast majority of us, that means taking it slow and steady. One simply does not change paradigms overnight. The psyche simply will not tolerate such rapid and disorientating movement and the ego will rush in to protect its host.
Baby steps.
I was right there with you, all the time I spent living in the fallen lands...more than anything else, what prevented me from seeing what was right in front of me was the fear of losing credibility...one of the small, harmless lies we learn to tell ourselves in order to avoid stepping too close to the things we'd rather leave hazy, in order to save ourselves from having to finally choose.
And, I told myself, there's so few of them, and so many of "us" -how could we possibly be disinherited from our own place in the world? Just keep talking, spreading the truth, and we can pull this thing out! But watching Obama take over was like walking out of a showing of The Killing Fields, and suddenly realizing you've left the theater but the movie hasn't stopped...and it isn't going to until a whole lot of blood get splattered. Too much...yours n mine, and that of those we hold dear.
Baby steps. Ten, maybe even five years ago, I would have agreed with you. But I would have been wrong. You've not got enough time left. I love your eloquence, and could write volumes stimulated by the thoughts it engenders...but each of us must be true to their own road.
There's no "us" left anymore...just the cowering crowds of cattle being streamed towards a shrinking perimeter, and a few ragged bands of resistors forming in the hinterlands of empire...having chosen to compromise no more with monsters. They'll call us brigands and outlaws, we'll call ourselves survivors.
Stay safe n strong.
"...but each of us must be true to their own road."
I cannot, and would not, argue with that sentiment at all. There are all kinds of personnel in the truth brigade. I am comfortable here. At one point I was pretty close to where you are now.
Thank you for your thoughts.
I think your best comments yet C/D. A vwry dagger to some of the missing thoughts and heart many of us understand yet can't put into words. Milestones
Apprpos Super Bowl Sunday, there are predictions that Pro Football is eventually going to go DoDo as well owing to the recent revelations concerning brain injury.
The great American spectacle died suddenly of serious trauma to the brain.
News at 10.
Post seems to have a little bit "throwing out baby with bathwater" syndrome.
"We consistently fail to recognize that math and science are simply intricate (and at times deeply flawed) descriptions of our perceived realty"
That goes back to the ancient Greeks if I'm not misinformed. The perception might very well be wrong, but the logical descriptions are in the overwhelming majority correct, when looking at systems where entities do not have an own consciousness and/or the feedback loops are very limited in number.
"...recognize that our collective faith and belief, and the resilience of that faith and belief, is the true measure of the socioeconomic systems strength or weakness."
That means the current system can only end by replacing it with another faith and belief system, which absolutely needn't adhere more to logic and fact than the current one.
That's a very sobering view.
It kind of implies as a rare species who understands (somewhat) what is happening behind the curtains, you have exactly 2 options:
- sit back and enjoy the show or
- strive to become a very good propagandist, to become part of what forms the replacement faith and belief system
Real eyes
Realise
Real lies.
Always love your writing and style, brings out the ponderousness i miss.
"I have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo circa 1960
Good article CD.
Second dup of the thread. One moar and I win. :)
Thank you for stopping by and leaving your mark.
i had these same thoughts as i drove to work on a wally world in a town 30 miles from my own, there are abandoned rundown barns and these once fabulous mansions some that go back to the pre civil war days, just empty and falling down along the rural rd there. and not just a few.
Go Cog; It comes down to our interpretation of what we see. Since so much rides upon what we call currency as a means for trade and order in what we call a society, we have to choose which of our rocks, totems and holeys(sic) matter. Can't wait for moar.
Moar coming same time same channel tomorrow.
You know the game is nearly over when the ideologues of bank debt state their case without sugar coating.
"The illusion of freedom [in America] will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."- Frank Zappa
Get out of the theatre before this scene!
Exit stage.
If I said right or left after "Exit stage" it would have seemed political.
That's the sign to PANIC.
<Damn, I think I just gave the game plan away.> :)
I was only alluding to articles about the USA being designed as a debtors' prison all along.
I see. Thanks for clarifying and for commenting.
One thought on the subject. The barn continues to stand for an extended period, but at some point, a tipping point, it suddenly collapses in just a few seconds. This happened during the Housing bubble collapse. By 2007 the bubble was popping, but continued to stand for over a year. First there was the collapse of Bear Sterns, Then when Lehman fell, it suddenly collapses in just a few weeks. I worry that the dollar will suffer the same fate. Its weakening but still standing. However at some point it too will reach its tipping point and suddenly collapse.
I agree that the point of final demise is sudden. But by then all that is left is an empty shell of what was. So while it might look dramatic and thus it is considered disastrous most of the damage and decay had occurred long before the final plunge.
The entire point of the article was to get me thinking about what was supporting the structure. It most certainty is/was not the powers that wanna be.
most of the damage and decay had occurred long before the final plunge.
yup, especially when there is no thought given to the effects that the fractally unpredictable movements of water & air, as well as the lifeforms that grow in the crevices, will have on the supposedly solid structure.
I would say that a "bank run" which has been observed in many places on the planet, is more like a fissionable mass going "critical". It is a "cascading event", whereby the herd reacts to the "news" and withdrawl funds in mass.
The powers that be, are well tuned into this type of event, as has been demonstrated over the past several years. So far they have been able to keep the game going. I think that the "final straw", may well be one which is delivered by "outsiders" .... such as the Chinese. What happens if they suddenly advise others, as well as those here in the States that they no longer accept dollars in trade? What if they get other trading partners to do the same? Just how does one mitigate the damage done when suddenly your trading partners decide that they don't want dollars?
Do the masses even have anything left in the banks?
I'm thinking that this is why $85 billion per month is being injected into the banks: balance sheets have to show Some "deposits."
I believe that you're correct in that it'll be outside pressures that ultimately crush the Ponzi. This is starting to form around the edges with trade wars starting to warm up. And when the game gets going it'll be a loss of imports, and for a country highly dependent on energy imports the wounds will be from more than just paper cuts...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtANIA9SEsI--try one hour and 48 minutes if you want it all summed up for you
give it a minute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEbHP-3EcLU&feature=player_detailpage
now give it another minute and add some music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS5JOAdZH18
Great article. Very few people in the world get it. CD is one of those few. I wish we could cut ourselves off this madness. I woke up to our manipulated reality about 4 years ago. Every day that has gone by since then has been tortuous because all hope for a better future is fading fast. Knowing the game and see them win day in and day out makes me want to just say to hell with it all. I work my ass off every day, night and weekend and for what? So that I can have a roof over my head and food to eat so that I can do it all over again the next day? When I look at the amount of money stolen from me every paycheck, it infuriates me. The problem is people are too stupid to be free. They just don't care. Most people don't know or care about the economy or their corrupt government works. But what do you do? You have no choice but to be a slave to the system. The only chance we have is to stock up on guns and ammo and when it all collapses, be prepared to take it back from those that cause the problem.
Hey CD, are you in NC by chance?
"Every day that has gone by since then has been tortuous because all hope for a better future is fading fast. Knowing the game and see them win day in and day out makes me want to just say to hell with it all."
My feeling to the T. I kind of saw all this coming starting in the early ninties when I was awakend. Triple wammyed in 2008 when I was outsourced, saw the market collapse coming, (got completely out of everything July 2008), And finally BO elected. I knew then and know know that shes all over...in the sence of what we were 'taught' to expect in life, (the old normal). Property taxes rising 10% a year unabated and realize that my retirement plans involve something akin to a van down by the river. Own my home but can't afford the rent. Great post Eahudimac.
All it took for me was to realize was that the planet was finite. Sounds simple, but in the greater context this isn't something that is readily allowed to be discussed.
About rising property taxes, I'd worry more about being able to afford paying them: they could be going down and you could be unemployed/without revenues and it would still be problematic.
I nixed "retirement" from my vocabulary circa 2001. My current "plan" is to do what most people in the history of this planet have done- work until I die; so, I'm trying to be a farmer- at least I can work myself to death on the land that I know.
A "van down by the river" is plush compared to what I've seen on the outskirts of Manila (where my wife was born).
"Hey CD, are you in NC by chance?"
A little closer to, but most certainly not over, the Mason Dixon line. :)
Mostly true but I wonder what " seriously flawed descriptions" you mean. If you mean mathematical economics and "democracy" then I agree, but this sometimes reads as if you are denying the existence of scarcity. Scarcity is a fundamental fact of reality that goes beyond economics.
The actions that humans take to deal with scarcity should be studied and understood, but the mainstream economists are more concerned with managing perceptions rather than understanding reality.
Gold and silver, or any commodity used as a medium of exchange, can be called "money" or something else, that does not change the underlying reality of scarcity and the need to do something about it if we are to live beyond subsistence.
The division of labor is the basic response to scarcity, and must be promoted and maintained in order to maintain our standard of living. The corporatist state fails to do this in the long run, which is why it is doomed to crumble or collapse.
"Mostly true but I wonder what " seriously flawed descriptions" you mean."
I was pulling back and looking at our basic assumptions about life, 'reality', consciousness and so on from the most basic level all the way up to our most complex mathematical descriptions. I wasn't referring to scarcity, at least in the way you seem to be discussing.
I hope to post a piece on this subject in the next few weeks. Thank you for leaving your thoughts.
Since it's your "book" then we just have to wait and read the final chapter :-) And books/stories can be told in a somewhat reverse chronology.
I tend to agree with Vidar though. Much of our problems have arisen because we weren't blunt enough with ourselves, that we tended to put the import things last in order to avoid the difficult nature of them (something I am not immune from!). Scarcity is all about consumption, and if there's anything our modern Western world (esp N. America) understands, it's how to consume. Sadly, most consume FOR someone else, to the larger benefit of the elites/rulers.
I like the introduction of something farm related. For proper perspective on collapse, however, one would only be able to view things from within the barn because when we talk about collapse we're talking about the entire structure of which we are operating within. And I think that the greatest advice is to get out of the structure before it collapses; and it WILL collapse because it no longer has the fuel for growth (or to repel entropy).
Oh, a neighbor down the way from me re-roofed a large barn structure this past year. I see no real use with it even post repair, BUT, I applaud him from protecting the existing embodied energy in that building; perhaps if he doesn't end up using it someone else will.
Well written CD
C/D I missed your first contribution. I'll go back and find it. You did a fantastic job on part 2. Keep up the excellent work. +1
Thank you for your kind words.
All my Zero Hedge contributions can always be found at this link here.
Thank You. Put in favorites/
I can't wait for Part Three CD.
Chapter Three is complete and ready to post Monday afternoon 02-04-2013......God willing and the crick don't rise. :)
This was a difficult series to write. There is so much subtlety to convey and nuance to express without being heavy handed or disrespectful. The concepts are somewhat self evident while reading the piece, but can easily be misinterpreted with just a few poorly chosen words on my part. Much time was spent refining, rewriting and refining once again.
Mrs. Cog's help was much appreciated. She was and is my sounding board and helped in several places when I was uncertain how something I wrote would be 'seen' by someone who was reading for the first time. Though she can't always see it in herself, Mrs. Cog is a very wise soul.
I'd love to own one of those old farms with about 40 acres; rehab the old barns to handle Cannabis, the new cash crop!
I was watching "The Lord of the Flies" with the wife last night. She had not read the book or seen he original movie. Her disgust at the behavior of these children segwayed into a discussion of the thin veneer that keeps society one step away from your "madness of crowds".
Oh well, time to watch the Super Bowl pregame commercials.
Reality can always be retrieved tomorrow (or not).
The Mrs & I watched "War of the Worlds" (Tom Cruise version) which was on in prime on the ABC affiliate in LA (highly unusual). Our biggest question was, "why are they airing this NOW?"
One of the best reads in a long time. It kept the reader wanting more. What a way with words CD! Thank you!