This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Zero Hedge: What Should We Do?
Zero Hedge has the smartest readers of just about any site in the world ...
Most of us know that just about every government in the world is thoroughly corrupt, and that all of the economic indicators are wholly manipulated ...
And that the big insiders skew the playing field through high frequency trading, quote stuffing, insider dealing, central bank shenaningans, etc. ad nauseum ...
Most of us are just trying to protect our assets and our families ...
And we know that the big reset is coming, because the Matrix can only suppress reality for so long ...
So what's this about?
All of us together are smarter than any one of us individually. (I learn as much from reading your comments as I do from my own research and writing).
Here's the question: How do we build a sane, free world out of the ashes of the fallen system?
It's easy to point out the problems. But I want to hear from wiser souls as to SOLUTIONS.
How do we build local NETWORKS of mature, freedom-loving individuals so we can hit the ground running? After all, we can all go into our own caves to weather out the storm. But - at some point - we have to rebuild community and civilization.
Empires have collapsed one after another for thousands of years ... and then the people have seemingly started over at zero.
How do we build networks of trust, strenth and prosperity to weather the hurricane of change?
I'm not even pretending to have all of the answers. I'm just humbly trying to start the conversation ...
What do you think?
»
- advertisements -
" and with metal it is harder to manipulate THE SYSTEM OR PRINT YOU WAY OUT"
Actually a metals based system is extremely easy to manipulate , it's happening right now.
Please tell me how it's possible to audit every single physical metals storage on the entire planet in real-time ? Because to stop fraud and manipulation that is precicely what you would need to do.
Digital currencies pose a very elegent solution because they can genuinely be audited in realtime by monitoring reserves held on the open blockchain ledger.
I would like to remind people that a Carrington Event that occured in 1859 would be the end of electricity except for hardened systems and few now are hardened. We had a similar event in 2012 that missed us but it is only a matter of time. Two or three very high altitude nuclear bursts would do the same for the US, a couple for Europe and kiss your digital ass goodbye. Go long swords and shields when the ammo runs out.
Yawn.. If the power grid goes down bitcoin would be the last of your worries. Think about 400 nuclear plants spent fuel pools cooling systems shutting down and going up in flames. Extinction Level Event baby , no amount of PM's or Ammo would save you from 400 x Chernobyl and Fukishima's combined.
Power plants that require power to NOT run. Anybody else see anything wrong with this design?
Crazytech,
I agree with you that digital currency could truly be revolutionary, but if gold and silver is used as money, not gold and silver BACKED money, it is very hard to manipulate.
Think of the costs.... Transport , storage , auditing , theft , the list goes on .. Blockchain has zero costs , anybody with a laptop can do an audit , zero transportation costs , instant worldwide transfer , the list goes on and on with the positives ...
There's always currency debasement by putting less and less PMs in the coins.
Heh...what precious metals? We are already on paper and plastic (credit cards/debit cards)
0: remove the banksters from power.
cut every check
the government issues
by 50 %...
Easy - start with elementary schools. Create charter schools where kids compete to attend and prove that they are willing to dedicate themselves to the ideals of education - of life - that the school embodies. Schools where you - as a student - get fired if you're not serious about learning and growing. You don't get to attend by virture of filling out a form and paying tuition or having a loud-mouthed parent on the school board. A school so good that the home-school parents think, "Hey, now that's a school I want my kids to go to because it's BETTER than home-schooling."
Schools where kids are taught to teach themselves, think critically, learn practical skills and understand how to be happy and make other people happy - and not be burdened to memorize academic trivia for regurgitation on standardized multiple-choice tests or engage in clerical and bureaucratic exercises as a substitute for actual education. Schools where kids are taught practical skills which either motivate or demand that they learn and apply abstract reasoning and theory, not the other way around.
Schools where kids are taught how to swing an axe (and apply a tourniquet), clean toilets, cook a real meal, play a musical instrument, fix a lawnmower, wash their clothers, build a web page and program in Java. Schools where the kids are required to live in a dorm during the week and must learn to take care of nearly everything themselves and prove that they can as part of their curriculum. Not contrived discipline like in a military or religious school, but the very real discipline of personal responsibility.
Schools where kids are not indoctrinated into some 'proper' Stepford-wive's version of academic 'civics' regarding freedom and democracy, but where they are naturally inclined to favor such a system because it makes sense to rational, healthy human beings.
Schools where kids are taught to respect, value and support one another, and not to be psychopaths. In fact, a school where kids are taught to recognize the fundamental nature of evil itself: psychopathy and all it's forms (with specific examples) that infect society. They have to learn what kind of tricks have been used to usurp democracy, their freedom and mostly their inalianable rights. Most of all, how they must be taught that they, themselves, are vulnerable and they must be vigilant against slipping into psychopathy themselves because modern society will intentionally steer them in that direction by it's very nature.
You can't teach someone to be honorable, kind, motivated or intelligent, but you can put them in an environment that constantly reinforces those traits and actively discourages the opposite and - at the extreme - tosses kids out that can't learn to respect and live life as a healthy human being. Budding psychopaths can be tossed back out to the current public education system - they seem to do well there.
It needs to start with elementary schools, but there should also be middle and high schools along the same lines. The schools shouldn't produce a person prepared for any one career, but prepare a person for life in a free society no matter what path they choose after high school.
This whole idea of wasting a child's life by delaying the point when they actually need to start to be responsible for themselves and others until AFTER high-school is the hight of insanity. Being a child and learning life skills are not incompatible objectives. There would be plenty of time for both if you cut out the five or six hours of their confinement in education warehouses being subject to mind-numbing treadmill education in an environment that not only tolerates, but encourages and rewards psychopathy (as long as you don't get caught).
If I had to point out the most horrible problem that needed 'fixing' - it would hands-down be the current educational system that produces legions of adult children serving as nothing but mountains of fodder for cubicle jobs or the service industry and a lifetime of student debt. I'm not slamming millenials. In fact, it's easy to find plenty that agree with this 100% and wish they had this kind of option - they're not oblivious to what happened to them and a lot of them are pissed and feel cheated by the whole system. There are some that would have taken a much different path if they had the opportunity - they would have gladly worked their asses off for it.
The U.S. threw out the notion of a fair, representative government a long time ago. They've been throwing out the taxpaying middle-class workers as fast as possible. Now we're throwing away regular students coming out of a useless educational system to a dismal wood-chipper-worthy future of debt servitude, psychopathy and unhappiness.
I would never endorse a wholesale revamping of the educational system - just offer a path for kids that WANT to be healthy human beings and are willing to work for it. That's maybe a fraction of one percent now, but THOSE kids are worth saving. You want to save society, then start with the few kids that WANT saving rather than trying to cure the other nine-tenths of apathetic, text-messaging zombies. We'll get to them later.
@Paveway IV
Charter skools are the very thing that takes away any local control. See communist core curriculum.
That's their plan and then a great goose to your ad valorum taxes to seize property.
Charlotte Iserbyt has been fighting this for decades.
Highly recommend listening to her lectures & her website.
She absolutely knows as her father was a bonesman & on his death bed told her he'd help if he could.
So good I saved it and will repost it everywhere I can find an opening. Thank you.
Just kidding about the Java programming - it would really need to be mandatory x86 assembler for the little bastards. The world needs more hard-core low-level hackers - we all ready have plenty of useless script kiddies.
Python to start. "Script kiddies" are not a result of the language, it comes from a lack of vision and confidence. Go to Java when they're ready for thread management. I think you were kidding, but x86 assembler is soul sucking.
My kids go to a Montessori school, and they do some of this - strong positive culture, life skills, self-directed learning. But I'll also be the first to say that they're not the solution, at least entirely. Because too many teachers have a government mindset (schools, including charter schools, are after all government institutions) and you won't see true civics being taught or true independence being encouraged. We need something more, and it's not going to come via a government-funded institution. Good thoughts though.
,,,then, take away the governments check book.
George, unless we as a people recognize who the enemy is — http://www.barefootsworld.net/nockoets0.html — we will only perpetuate the insanity. And so we will perpetuate the insanity until our species follows the previous 99.9% — http://paleobiology.si.edu/geotime/main/foundation_life4.html — to its final resting place, "our" only hope being that we create superhuman intelligence before we do ourselves in — http://marshallbrain.com/second-intelligent-species.htm
Plus 1 for the Nock.
Absolutely the most important book one will ever read, right up there next to C. S. Lewis' "Abolition Of Man".
Hate to be negative but once grass roots movements start they get infiltrated by the psychopaths and they take over.
Agree 100% with that. Both the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movements were started by people genuinely interested in reforming the system in a positive way. In fact, some of the planks in the platforms of both organiations were similar. For example, both wanted the government out of private industry. It wasn't until the lunatic fringe of the Red Party infiltrated the Tea Party and the lunatic fringe of the Bue Party inflitrated Occupy that the old, stale rhetoric started and you had the two sides caling each other names.
That's the way that TPTB handle these kinds of things. They make sure we fight each other instead of fighting them, and the majority of the people fall for it every time.
I agree with a lot of the posters here. The key to reforming the current system is to go back to the ideals and the language of the Constitution. TPTB proudly proclaim every chance they get (at least when sticking it to the middle class) that we are a nation of laws. And I agree with that. We are a nation of too many laws and it's shocking how many of them are simply ignored for political expediency. I'll give you three examples in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Immigration laws are simply ignored. Everyone knows this one. SF is a sanctuary city and simply ignores federal immigration law and nobody does jack shit about it.
Something as mundane as riding a bike in San Francisco is the second example. Bike riders are demanding, and one idiot member of the Board of Supervisors is proposing, that the police not cite bike riders who do not obey the California Motor Vehicle Code, which the Code clearly states they must do. Bike riders are a big constituency in SF, so the legislators cave in to them every time, to the point where bike riders have been given a pass on obeying even the most basic laws, like not riding on the sidewalk if you're over 18 years old. And many people have been injured and a few killed by reckless riders.
The third example is advertising for (gasp) sugary drinks. The City has banned advertising for sugary drinks, buuuuuuut they don't enforce that ban when it comes to advertising on City-owned property.
So, yeah, we're a nation of laws. We're just a nation of selectively enforced laws. Go back to the basics of the Constitution and follow that strictly and see where that takes us.
In one of those new amendments, need to include a little blurb about nepotism in gov't
Do what the liberals do. Infiltrate all educational institutions and enlightened the young to civic duties, constitution, money matters, true capitalism and all the vitues for a just society. Yes it takes years but....
Turn over society to the productive people and exclude those who do not contribute or steal from everyone else. This would of course be the banksters, politicians, FSA and corporate cronies.
Government is the means of the unproductive. As long as there is government, unproductive individuals will exist. No guns (and a monopoly on the initiation of force) and safety nets, encourages productivity. This is not to say that moochers will disappear without government. The unproductive, will simply attempt to convince the rest of the planet, of the need for government.
The next version of society will arise afer the millenials have cleared up the mess we boomers have left for them.
They will be ruthless and unforgiving to anyone over the age of fifty. So GW there is no point for anyone born in the sixties or before to prepare because we will all be exterminated.
Praemonitus Praemunitus
Not for nothing but you guys kinda have it coming.
Rule of Law, not a rule of men.
If Banksters feared the Law, things could be different when it collapses again.
But that's a fantasy, it is so far-fetched.
Here's a first step toward sound money that would not upset the fiat apple cart.
And of course follow the constitution as was already suggested.
The fiat applecart NEEDS to be upset, it's one of the biggest problems we have.
Honest exchange and personal responsibility are 2 things that are absoulutely neccessary for humanity to move forward.
Symmetrical application of a system of law would be handy, too.
The problem now is that, while it needs to be upset, upsetting it will move us backward.
depends how you define 'forward'
The right to vote only goes to those who are net tax payers..., not net tax users. If you worked all your life and are now receiving SS and/or Medicare, that's fine. You paid into it. That's how it's supposed to work. If you're here illegally, living on government aid and Medicaid..., your vote isn't counting..., and we all know why!
@ND. Spot on assuming you includeThe Bill of Rights within the definition of The Constitution. The only other items I would add first, in addition to banning The Fed, the whole "Debt money" system with ALL Banks should be replaced by a "Positive money" system which would again encourage aving and capital formation. That could also be achieved by following The Constitution, wherein Gold is money, Second, Term limits might not be enough because the corruption could become more concentrated into shorter terms so public election financing (Cheaper in the ong run) and controls on "Revolving Doors" would need adding.
This thread and practically all the others here show why ZH readers are likely to end up supporting some crypto-fascist oligarch like Trump. These answers are not political! Here you are, a bunch of small and medium investors whose game is the same as the billionaires - use money to make more money - but who can see that the system is collapsing and is going to crush you too. (Have I characterized ZH readers unfairly fairly?) The question before you is, as the economy slides into a final catastrophe and American polity divides into a huge and long overdue confrontation between the ruling class and the vast majority of the people, how do you use your knowledge and insights and your organizational skills to
a) defeat the billionaires
b) survive
c) claim a place in the reconstruction and the right to help define it.
Instead what we see here is answers of the "If I Ran the Zoo" variety. What I would do if I were Dictator. Which is what characterizes Trump's plan such as it is.
The first thing ZH readers should do is look deep inside your souls, what's left of them after years of having made a religion out of greed and wealth-building, and decide you are going to commit to the survival first of all of our species, our people and country, whether you end up rich or poor. Then find a one-hour speech by Bernie Sanders, listen to it and note your reactions. Some of it you'll like, some of it you'll hate. Some of it you'll be shouting to yourself No, No No! That's not right! Make some notes. And notice the crowd!
Then after you've had time to cool off, listen to that same Sanders speech again. This time don't listen so much to Sanders the man as to Sanders the voice of a great social movement, perhaps not unlike the British Chartist movement of the 1830's. A movement that can only win by building the broadest national unity against the billionaire globalists, across the broadest spectrum of people and classes including the patriotic capitalists.
And this time search for the answer to the question: "what part can we, the ZH-reading crowd, play in winning this victory, what do we have to offer the reconstruction process, how do we make sure that this doesn't swallow us like the Russian Revolution did, but keeps us on as part of the team?"
Actually, you don't want to beat anybody. The first step semantically is building an inclusionary platform for leaders and population to communicate with. I built one. It beta tested very well. Jeb Bush (leave voting on this election aside) endorsed it and referred me to Pete Peterson who would not provide a meeting because I wasn't part of the club. That was 2008. Things change.
Obama brought up such a system but it was lip service. Billionaires vote against status quo when they and politicians cant grow. We are now just reaching such a point. Any communications system that is not inclusionary wont get funded.
Reform has to include what is good for billionaires and plebs alike back to a Save & Invest economy.
LOL Bernie Sanders? Are you fucking serious?
This is how Bernie Sanders would handle everything:
First, he will resist. Then, he will threaten to take his toys and go home. Finally, he capitulates and gives the other side whatever they want, just don't hurt me.
Your version of "If I Ran the Zoo" simply decides on the zookeeper, rather than what animals will be in the zoo.
I am Chumbawamba.
we are most likely next on the list (ie extinction list).
The ruling class will sick their horde of idiots on us and we will be overrun. Unfortunately, we are not part of the final act; which will either see:
The ruling class, once having no further use of the remaining horde of sheep, wil get rid of them like so much old tupperware.
or
The idiot hordes will revolt and destroy both the ruling class, and everything they have built. Humanity, exit stage right.
That is so 19th/20th century. We need new ideas. I don't have a plan, but I strongly suspect a proper one will include a de-emphasis and weakening of political power, and its decentralization, sound money and free markets.
A mass "national unity" movement in search of a Communist/Fabian/Fascist syncretism, appearing as little more than another good government and pro-democracy campaign, would be a pitiful response to the historic opportunity that GW presented here.
Why is any plan needed at all. What this article presents is a pronoun problem. We is how we ended up here. The way out begins with "I"
There is not "I" in team, but there is a "U" in suck.
Declare that corporations are not people. Restore individual rights over group rights.
How can a corporation be a person if the 13th Amendment has disallowed owning people--Called slavery. STOCKHOLDERS usually are live people; so private ownership of a crpoation stops either the corp. from being owned or the Supremes are full of shit. Milestones
Sacrafice the Khardashians on the top of Mt. Olympus.
I could get behind this. It's all OJ's fault.
We should start a national conversation
Hosted by Geraldo Rivera on Fox News.
-Chumblez.