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Yanis Varoufakis: The Straw That Breaks the Ponzi’s Back?
Yanis Varoufakis: The Straw That Breaks the Ponzi’s Back?
By
Cognitive Dissonance
What do you do when your opponent won’t play by the rules? Worse, what do you do when your loan ‘partner’ (aka ‘debtor’) declares Calvinball, where the only rule is there are no rules, and proceeds to go off the deep end? The result, to put it mildly, is utter chaos, at least for those who expect the (self serving) rules to be adhered to. After all, the central bankers’ henchmen admonish, we’re all civilized here. So come back to the table and play nice. “Do it for the kids,” they plead - the epitome of hypocrisy since their stacked deck and tilted playing field does precisely the opposite.
There is an old and familiar saying in the financial world, no doubt a product of game theory brinkmanship, which speaks to the role reversal of power and leverage once the monster debtor owes such an astronomical amount they can no longer pay to service the note, let alone chip away at the principal. The supposedly weak suddenly inherit the Earth, or at least they wield a very long lever along with a fulcrum with which to move the central banker’s world.
It is most likely a safe bet to say those reading this article clearly see the unsustainability of the present day economic system. The vicious cycle of debt requiring ever more debt just to tread water leads nowhere else but into the abyss of inexorable socioeconomic crumble, if not all out chaos and collapse. At the very least we are facing war; the only real question is will it be worldwide and involve a nuclear exchange.
As individual pawns cavalierly exchanged back and forth, one for one, in the same manner high ground is taken, only to be conceded, then taken again in a bloody game of war only those at the top could possibly win, you and I must step back and ask ourselves the only two sane questions left. How did we get here and where do we go from here?
I can’t count the number of times I have heard, read or seen one commenter after another declare with the highest piety their belief that capitalism has been tragically subverted, perverted and co-opted into what it is today. Often the unspoken, but clearly implied, thought is that aside from a few bad apples stinking up the joint, capitalism would be humming along just fine thank you, providing full employment, the proper allocation of capital and apple pie justice for all.
While clearly the above description is an exaggeration, though not by much, when will “We the People” begin to question the basis for our most fundamental and indoctrinated premise, one that declares ‘Capitalism’ is the greatest thing since sliced bread and clearly superior to any other socioeconomic system out there?
When the ideological blinders are removed, or at least cleaned up enough to allow a modicum of peripheral vision, it becomes increasingly clear the present day socioeconomic disaster is not ‘just’ an aberrant case of food poisoning, but rather a fundamentally organic and intimately integrated deliberate flaw ranging all the way from garden to gut. When the body politic grows weaker by the day and various interventions only hasten the degradation, everything must be called into question and preferably not from the grave.
Similar to any team sport, the credibility and sustainability of capitalism depends upon a fair playing field governed by rules applicable to all, policed and enforced by independent referees that rewards the most innovative and talented without exploiting the weak and defenseless. While many will pine on and on about how things used to be so much better during the Golden Age of capitalism, an honest reading of the history of America, ‘Capitalism’ and the monetary system will disabuse most of this notion. Capitalism didn’t just go bad like some two week old fish mistakenly left out of the freezer. Capitalism has been, and always will be, corrupted and co-opted by the rich and powerful in order to form a more perfect union of slave plantations.
When End of Empire comes calling, only the illusion of invincibility, one perpetuated both by those desperately dependent upon the Empire for sustenance and power along with those whose bones the Empire grinds to make its bread, stands between “We the Trampled” and the last of the Empire’s ideological guards. Reduced to the lowest common denominator and groveling at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid begging for handouts and scraps, both prison guards and prisoners find they are sharing the same living quarters while blindly following their assigned roles in the nearly exhausted controlling narrative.
Sadly, tragically, by the time End of Empire is at death’s door, those best positioned to seize the day and thrust their swords into the belly of the beast have lost all hope and any remaining desire to walk point and be the first to confront the decomposing remains of the self savaged beast. The final agonizing death throes and delirium tremens of Empire consume friend and foe alike long before the remains are scattered in the gutter to be picked over by the hovering vultures and newly arrived squatters.

The End of Empire clean up crew on standby.
To battle the beast from within, particularly when the Empire is at death’s door, is utterly futile for the beast is all consuming and totally corrupt. One must be an insider, thus corrupt to the bone, in order to reach the guarded halls of power. Once within the outer gates of hell, the disruptor is thoroughly co-opted and corrupted, thus they have become the problem and no longer the solution. To be anything else means entry is never gained and at best they remain impotent, at worst thoroughly spent.
Similarly, the emboldened and inspired revolutionary faces Hobson’s Choice if s/he is to overthrow the still-mighty-in-the-minds-of-the-native-population Empire. Damned if they adopt the most effective and expedient tactics of resistance, thus seen as indistinguishable from the Empire itself, and damned if they follow the rules of fair play and compassion in the face of a savage and cruel Empire desperate to cling to power, thereby ready and still able to shatter the native population in order to suckle the teat one last time.
But now there appears to be a third path, potentially enabling the man walking point to avoid the road to perdition, a trail and technique that strikes terror directly into the heart of Empire for it assaults the cancer at the core. An ascendant assassin from within, unconstrained by the cloth of corruption, inflamed by revolutionary ideology and armed with the Empire’s own debt weapons reversed for maximum effect, the perfect blunt instrument to bludgeon with.
Held together with baling wire and chewing gum along with heaping helpings of hubris and avarice, the Empire is vulnerable to internal destabilization wrought by those suddenly parachuted in by a population no longer believing or benefiting from the lies and deceit of Empire. A migraine headache repeatedly suppressed by opiates is eventually experienced as an agonizing wakeup call to those ready to do anything to relieve the pain of suffocating debt. The fiat party is eventually recognized as over either by consent or death. The Greeks have opted for consent over death.
For some, nothing settles the mind more thoroughly than the knowledge of certain death. Yanis is blessed (or cursed depending upon your point of view) with the certain knowledge of capitalism’s death. In fact, based upon the little I have learned about this man, he knows capitalism is already dead and the problem we now face is how to keep the decomposing corpse from violently exploding after the buildup of catastrophic internal forces is released.
Essentially Yanis Varoufakis sees himself as saving capitalism from itself with a Greek pinprick to a rapidly thinning cow hide. Wait too long and the cow hide becomes thin latex, then nothing will restrain the controlled demolition. She’s gonna blow, of this Yanis and many others are certain. If true, better now than later.
For decades he labored in relative obscurity doggedly speaking his conviction, credible because of his credentials, condemned as delusional because of his dissertation. Tempered by the impact of countless arrows and continuous stoning, hardened by years of self examination as he fought to understand his flaws and failure to communicate, Yanis is now the right man at the right time in the right place. His only true vulnerability, his Achilles Heel if you will, is the seaworthiness of the ship that ushered in his ascension. No man is an island, entire of itself when surrounded by those weaker of flesh, mind and spirit. Will his newly elected political party hold the red line or will it fold under intense international pressure?
Can the teetering fiat Jenga stack be carefully deconstructed? No, absolutely not, for The Powers That Be (TPTB) are fully prepared to go to the mats and practice a scorched Earth policy if only to deny the victor the means to rebuild in their own likeness. I suspect Yanis understands that holding firm will upset the Ponzi apple cart just enough to force TPTB to madly scramble in an effort to hold the decay at bay and the pieces from flying apart. This in turn will give Yanis and his posse additional time to pivot and attack the firmly entrenched Greek oligarchy, those who are obscenely profiting from the rape and misery of their fellow citizens.
Ultimately the Ponzi continues because those who hold the power all agree to play by the rules in order to collectively benefit from the confidence game. Yanis and company are the wild cards slipped into a stacked deck the powers that be were all but assured was clear of any jokers. With Varoufakis now firmly seated at the table and unwilling to play by the rules or constrained by the common goals of greed and self dealing, TPTB are now locked in a cage match to the death they thought they could contain and thereby never truly saw coming.
After gaining a seat at the table who in their right mind would not bluff, parry, and finally settle for the chance to thrust their beaks into the feast of fiat pie. Even worse for the powerful, the joker never picks up his cards to gauge his hand. Instead, incredibly, he lays them all out on the table as soon as they are dealt for everyone to see, especially by the ignorant and unwashed. The illusion of power and invincibility is slowly being exposed by the upstart Greeks led by Varoufakis.
While for now the fiat fire is contained to the nation of Greek islands, the embers that will ignite a raging inferno are rapidly drifting towards Italy, Spain and France. The arrogant European Union has seriously overplayed its hand and now is no longer certain exactly who is the fool still seated at the table. The only thing Greece has to fear is fear itself for the Emperor has no clothes and this is rapidly becoming apparent to those who wish to see.
The only way to defeat the insanity is to be perfectly and utterly sane, then sit back as the insane spontaneously burst into the flames of a cleansing self immolation.
02-17-2015
Cognitive Dissonance
Yanis Varoufakis

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As you said, you stopped because you could not get past "the 'evil Caitalism' screed". Maybe if you continued you would find further clarification of my point of view.
It sounds like you are saying the present form of 'capitalism' is not responsible for all the Greek debt. So only the debt produced by the USA is linked to capitalism? And the debt linked to Greece is that nasty socialism?
Or are you saying capitalism, pure capitalism, would never produce this debt, thus capitalism isn't at fault? So what form of 'ism' doing we presently practice?
All 'isms' are ideological prisons and are used to leverage and entrap the slaves of the system. There will never be a pure capitalism, just as there can never be a pure socialism or communism etc since the 'ism' is just the sugar to make the slavery go down. Many fully accept this point of view while simultaneously ignoring it through rationalizing it all away, the very definition of insanity from my point my view.
Perhaps, but I think this is for the most part a staged rebellion on Greece's part. To what purpose I am not sure yet. The name of the game in banking though is bailout, and at some point Greece will lose by winning and continuing to take the money from the IMF/FRB in some form or another, just as almost all nations have including China and Russia. Money is a powerfully addictive drug and the junkies may really want to kick the habit, but it ain't that easy.
"Money is a powerfully addictive drug and the junkies may really want to kick the habit, but it ain't that easy."
I fully agree. The Money Meme is THE controlling mantra.
I was careful in the piece to declare the potential of Yanis Varoufakis. The reality is that even when breaking from the debt system most will wade right back in to more debt. Money is the ultimate seductive mistress.
I think the 'turtles' have nearly completed their agenda, just Russia and China to be integrated. I really don't know where things will go from there. We are all global socialists now it seems. We may be approaching a momentous time in history. May also be a bloody and violent time.
- "Capitalism has been, and always will be, corrupted and co-opted by the rich and powerful in order to form a more perfect union of slave plantations." -
which is why Yanis' Radical Leftist Revolutionary Marxism/Socialism is the bestest-est! Viva la Greek Commie Revival! That'll save Greece, Europe & the Wordl! Free Market Capitalism is just the proletariat being exploited by those big bad evil corporations, bankers, pharmas, etc, etc that of course, are ALWAYS trying to find slaves. Commies never enslave. NEVER! We need a Vanguard dammit. And Yanis is the man! Yes he is. Yanis is the man to tear down the EU prison and replace it with the tried and true RED system of freedom, life, property, liberty & happiness - the beloved GULAG.
ALL 'isms' are ideological prisons. 'Capital'-ism just stinks the worst at the moment.
Therefore you must be a rotten communist!!!!!
I always suspected as much, but now you've admitted it!!!!
And so on. :D
Yes sir
To give CD a little slack here - even the founders said that capitalism was only fit for a moral and honest people. We clearly are not a moral and honest people anymore, so........
Well said. No disrespect to Cog intended. Love reading his stuff - and responding. But let's not be delusional: Yanis Varoufakis and his band / party of Radical Leftist Revolutionaries are not moral and honest either. He and Syriza are notorious for their corruption and heavy handedness (mainly on the INSIDE of their movement to "enforce" compliance) and while they may be the stick that breaks the EU pinata, their hyper-leftist firebranding will turn the same way all failed radical MARXIST movements go - further CENTRALIZATION, elimination of private property and the replacement of the current corrupt regime with one even more corrupt and destructive, especially to the Greek poor and disadvantaged. We all know that the EU is run by the NEO-CON/Western Fabian Socialist centralists. The EU Octopus and all its life choking arms are not free market capitalism. The EU is just this generation's non-revolutionary flavor of NEO-CON SOCIALISM. Yanis is no hero, he's an idiot like all who are blinded red by their Trotskyite/Marxist/Eco-Socialist ideologies. And the Greeks have not helped themselves by electing what will turn out to be a more deadly cure than the disease from which they are suffering. At the end of this most recent charade, Syriza will disappoint and cave. The Dear Leader of this ridiculous hodge-podge called Syriza put it this way: "We do not support any sort of Euroscepticism" (http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=593303)
ALL 'isms' are ideological prisons. When we adopt any 'ism' we have effectively imprisoned ourselves.
At that point the only thing that remains in question is the quality and size of our prison accommodations.
It is obvious that they are not listening to you.
LOL
Please don't listen to me. Rather step back, take a long hard look at our 'self', then go quiet and listen carefully for a real long time. Once the egoic voice quiets it is amazing the wealth of knowledge and understanding we already possess once we get over ourselves and our externally applied conditioning and programing.
I did not include myself with they.
My apologies. I did not intend to lump you in.
I tend to speak to a wider audience when I respond to comments and often forget the person I am actually responding too might think my comment is directed towards them. It was not and I should have mentioned that fact when I responded.
Mrs. Cog admonishes me all the time when I answer her question with, in her view, a non answer because I am speaking to the larger picture about the sleeping masses and she just wants to know when I'm coming to bed. :-)
seriously-were we ever? for brief periods of time-yes. read my above comments.
balance is only achievable for brief periods of time. try standing on one leg, ha...
Element is Australian, so his humor is as dry as the Outback. :-) Element was also our very first guest author to be published on TwoIceFloes one year ago.
If anyone, member or not, has something they would like to submit to TwoIceFloes for publication, here is the link to click for more information.
Ding ding... we have a winner! LOL
Note to Cog: See baby - it only took 17 hours and 45 minutes for someone to jump in and imply you are supportive of one of them there commies. :-)
Let me throw "pinko" in there for shits and giggles. It never ceases to amaze me how so many believe that using the same thinking process that lead us to this exact moment, with its accompanying problems, is going to lead us to a solution. There is so little recognition that every preceding thought/action, no matter how far back you want to look, has lead to NOW. There was never a general and complete GOOD OLE DAYS. Someone and something was always getting fucked over. You cannot use the same " logic" that created the problem to solve the problem. That is what " think outside of the box" means. A fundamental solution to our problems will require a fundamental shift in human consciousness.
Exactly, which is why this modern retread of communism is pathetic.
Look at all the Turd heads and ZH goldbug fools trip all over themselves for a commie like Yanis.
Communism is communism
#AIACC
wow
I prefer wowie!!!!!!!!
Thank you for taking the time to write this piece. Reading it was a great way to start my day. Cheers.
stimulating read mate. Interesting times where a working knowledge of game theory can shed illumination.
Specious financial engineering - now there's the real bugger.....
a summation reaching new heights. clear articulate and paves new road to the option(s) we can have. unfortunatly these option(s) go through another human that we must first put in a position to sit at the table, and he or she must not be corruptable. indeed a rare find...
cog - awesome:)
"....and he or she must not be corruptible. indeed a rare find..."
Is it a testament to my cynicism or just a recognition of the present day reality that I wanted to get this piece published quickly in order to beat the inevitable caving of Greece to fear mongering? I do not think they have lost enough to reach the point where they have nothing left to lose.
They have already lost 26% of GDP. Most of the pain has already been experienced. One or two more steps and they can quickly push through compared to eternal debt slavery. Unfortunately the conditioned mind of the slave mentality only wants to the pain to stop.
Once we begin to lose what we posses (and therefor what possess us) we cling even harder to what remains.
He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections.
Samuel Adams“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”
? Samuel Adams
“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”
? Samuel Adams
95% or more of our population is more interested in football and the Kardashians. Our people are "Universally Ignorant" and "Debauched in their Manners". It is ONLY the vain and aspiring that seek office. It is obvious that our leaders are without their own moral compass to guide them and depend on public opinion polls to forment policy. War is peace, Ignorance is strength, Freedom is slavery. Envy and apathy have brought us here.
"Envy and apathy have brought us here."
No peaking within my friend. Please return to your regular programming.
Greece faces a certain level of risk by jousting the beast. But how much is it really a risk when compared to a guarantee of eternal debt slavery? At some point it is truly just the lesser of two evils to choose from. Which will ultimately be viewed as the least? Time will tell but I'm thinking the EU has recieved a mortal wound. Hopefully Greece will stick to its position.
Debt-Free Money, Interest Free Credit or DEBT-MONEY----which will mankind choose for our next monetary system (after this current system crashes)?
Mako always said mankind would choose the latter, DEBT-MONEY and the whole charade would play itself over again.....
You are misusing the word Capitalism. You have bought into the con. Debt is no more capital than slavery is freedom.
What is capital? It is the tools you use to work. You use yourself, you use ideas, you use machines and supplies.
The stealing of something does not make the thing bad. It is only the stealing that is bad.
Did you actually read the piece to the end? Sorry, but it appears not.
Capitalism, either in its never achieved 'pure' form, or the aberration which was/is actually practiced in the West, has been dead for many decades and I state this very clearly in the piece. Anyone who thinks government spending equal to 25% of total GDP is even close to capitalism is drinking the Kool-Aid.
Democracy, capitalism, freedom etc are all just feel good advertising slogans for the "We the Buggered". You already bought the damn truck and found out it is a piece of shit. Unfortunately you own 40% more than it is worth so you can't find a greater fool stupid enough to take it off your hands. However, we still want you to feel good about the belief you bought so swallow this apple pie, pretty girl, flag waving, beer swilling, football propaganda while fixing that piece of shit once again.
Lol - true, I read about half. My objection to your language use is still valid,
You reject all isms as being confining. It's just words. Ideas are never confining. The more well-defined the word, the more freely it can be used.
The globbing together, or layering, or mashing of meanings is the problem. It's ruiining discussions.
I enjoy reading your writing. Particularly your comments which are very clear and concise . Thank you;)
I also agree we all need to talk more. Thank you again for furthering that goal.
"Did you actually read the piece to the end?"
I notice you have to ask that a lot. Seems I am not the only one who stops reading tripe.
Capitalism is the way of the world from the time social man saved and reinvested the fruits of excess production. It requires savings and productive reinvestment to kick start the virtuous cycle that is economic growth. It then evolves division of labour that spawns economic classes and heirarcichal adminstrative structures. Savings, i.e. capital flows up the structures along with political and economic power. Eventually malinvestment of capital into planned obselesence, wars, ponzi schemes, "security" structures which self perpetuate and the cycle turns vicious... more malinvestment, more capital losses, more monetization of debt, more inequality until the system implodes in an Austrian credit collapse.
The point is that capitalism is not static but undergoes cyclical changes from free enterprise, to the natural appearance of cartels and monopoloies who use their economic and political power in monopolistic practises to crush competitors, labour unions and to fix prices. All political "reform" comes at the expense of the lower classes and the benefit of the top percenters - monopoly capitalism which increasingly fails to recycle capital to the bottom of the economic pyramid and relies on increasing force to keep the bottom classes in line and at work....fascism.
wolf guarding forest of deer=capitalism. ha. checks and balances corrupted by the very systems they watch over. it is hopeless, truely, as a rare individual is not corruptable. seems almost everybody has a price, ha. just the pendulum swinging and our place in the swing. hey, it's not the dark ages yet:)
Nice read but it's our system of democracy in almost all western developed economies that needs complete overhauling. We have to change the way we elect politicians, how we expect them to govern, how we pay them, how we hold them to account when they lie, abuse their positions etc. Political Parties should be abolished IMO. We should go back to electing individuals based solely on our collective view as to their suitability to perform a particular administrative task.
Free market economies with proper regulation perform perfectly well. Our system of democracy has been completely abused and from both sides, politicians and electorate. You only have to look at the role Central Bankers play in our economies to see how bad things have become. We have allowed politicians to abdicate almost all responsibility for dealing with post-crisis economies..and to entrust it to the very group of individuals who were at least partly responsible for creating the mess in the first place.
The history books of the future will take a very dim retrospective view of our actions.
The Powers That Be want you to think and act as if we are supposed to be governed by a magnificent Democracy. You aren't supposed to discover that the "US of A without the corporation" was set up as a REPUBLIC!!!! The false mantra that if only we got enough people to vote for the right things and the right politicians our Democracy would be fixed for the betterment of all.
Wake up and understand that a corporation with thousands of subsidiaries is masquerading as legitimate government. That corporation is not acting within the confines set in the American Constitution. This is accomplished though mind control, intimidation and fraud.
History re-writing is standard practice and done to order already. The future will think we were heroes, or villains ... whatever ... count on it.
All 'true' Cog, problem is no plan and no way for what comes then, and then, and then.
Let it all hang out.
The audacity of hope in action.
The preparation can be in questioning if you need all this materialistic trash. the preparation could be to question the very motivation and basis for your life. Time to go deep and see the lies we have built arround us to protect ourself but got trapped in it instead.
Either we create our own Kool-Aid or we drink the prepackaged shit.
Mrs. Cog makes mine with all natural ingredients while telling me it's the best. :-)
But my koolaid is better than yours! If you've got a minute I'll tell you all about it, I'm sure you'll agree mine's waaay better! ;-) :D
ha ha, the article is about the danger of arrogance.
LOL - Living in a reality of my creation? You've been watching Inception again haven't you?
You two are going to have an extremely cold Friday night and Saturday by the look of things Mrs C, have fun digging out Monday.
ha, yuk yuk!
Weeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!
We are expecting to barely get above zero degrees for several days. Mrs. Cog keeps telling me we 'live in the south', but this sure feels like New England to me.
Radical stuff, CD!
Yet one would be blind to not see the wealthy controlling the world against the best interests of the "common" people. It's easy enough to see this as an inevitable consequence of capitalism over the long term, but the religion that embraces it won't take that assertion lightly--they'll scream that when the rich developed the means to buy out politicians who then wrote laws to assist their rape and plunder on an even greater scale, it became "crony" capitalism--no longer "real" capitalism--so the critique no longer holds. Lalalalalalalalalalalala to any argument about what got us all to that point to begin with.
The facile escape fantasy for many is a "pure" pristine capitalism that eliminates the evil State altogether. Ahhhh, back to an imagined Garden of Eden where a noble laisse faire capitalism reigns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire
But, again, in a system where wealth accumulates to the benefit of the few eventually--it matters not whether we term them deserving or not--the same result appears inevitable: neo-feudalism of the type we are now seeing put into place within the neo-liberal "globalized" financialization of the planet's economic system and debt subjugation of its people, who are faced with the choice of either paying up at the company store with company scrip or starving.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_scrip
Kudos on having the balls to open this can of virulently provocative worms, CD. You'll be instantly hated like a muslim or some sort of ideological Stalin for making an argument that so obviously echoes one of the claims of Marx, aka, the Devil.