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Fourth Turning: Crisis Of Trust, Part 3
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I pondered possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy. In Part 3 I will focus on the economic channel of distress which is likely to be the primary driving force in the next phase of this Crisis.
There are very few people left on this earth who lived through the last Fourth Turning (1929 – 1946). The passing of older generations is a key component in the recurring cycles which propel the world through the seemingly chaotic episodes that paint portraits on the canvas of history. The current alignment of generations is driving this Crisis and will continue to give impetus to the future direction of this Fourth Turning. The alignment during a Fourth Turning is always the same: Old Artists (Silent) die, Prophets (Boomers) enter elderhood, Nomads (Gen X) enter midlife, Heroes (Millennials) enter young adulthood—and a new generation of child Artists (Gen Y) is born. This is an era in which America’s institutional life is torn down and rebuilt from the ground up—always in response to a perceived threat to the nation’s very survival.
For those who understand the theory, there is the potential for impatience and anticipating dire circumstances before the mood of the country turns in response to the 2nd or 3rd perilous incident after the initial catalyst. Neil Howe anticipates the climax of this Crisis arriving in the 2022 to 2025 time frame, with the final resolution happening between 2026 and 2029. Any acceleration in these time frames would likely be catastrophic, bloody, and possibly tragic for mankind. As presented by Strauss and Howe, this Crisis will continue to be driven by the core elements of debt, civic decay, and global disorder, with the volcanic eruption traveling along channels of distress and aggravating problems ignored, neglected, or denied for the last thirty years. Let’s examine the channels of distress which will surely sway the direction of this Crisis.
Channels of Distress

“In retrospect, the spark might seem as ominous as a financial crash, as ordinary as a national election, or as trivial as a Tea Party. The catalyst will unfold according to a basic Crisis dynamic that underlies all of these scenarios: An initial spark will trigger a chain reaction of unyielding responses and further emergencies. The core elements of these scenarios (debt, civic decay, global disorder) will matter more than the details, which the catalyst will juxtapose and connect in some unknowable way. If foreign societies are also entering a Fourth Turning, this could accelerate the chain reaction. At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe
Economic distress
Despite incessant corporate fascist propaganda, disguised as positive government economic data, the economic distress for the majority of Americans and majority of the world is soul crushing. The nine charts in the visual below demolish any happy talk about a recovering economy and return to normalcy. They portray a crisis level economic condition. The financial stress on average American families is at punishing levels, masked by the prodigious amount of debt doled out by the government and their Wall Street co-conspirators.

Millennials are buried under $1.3 trillion of student loan debt, with $500 billion of it doled out by the Federal government since 2009 as a ploy to reduce the reported unemployment rate and artificially stimulate spending, to provide the appearance of economic recovery. The falsity of the supposed recovery is borne out in a labor participation rate that is the lowest since 1977, with participation amongst 25 to 54 year olds the lowest in history. With real median household incomes stuck at 1989 levels and far below 2007 peak levels, the stress on middle class families to just pay their monthly bills is intense.
The 2008 Wall Street created fraudulent subprime mortgage debacle which led to millions of foreclosures, non-existent wage growth, young families enslaved in student loan debt, and the Wall Street hedge fund engineered 30% increase in home prices, has resulted in home ownership falling to historic lows and still falling. This is the result of ownership policies, programs and schemes pushed by Democrat and Republican politicians and executed by greedy Wall Street institutions, generating hundreds of billions in fees, interest and profits.
Clearly there is no distress among the .1%, as they summer at their Hamptons beach estates gorging on caviar and toasting their financial brilliance (free Fed money) with $1,000 bottles of Dom Perignone, and bid NYC penthouse real estate prices to astronomical levels. But, as the government apparatchiks at the BLS, BEA, and Census Bureau have reported positive economic data month after month since 2009, the number of people on food stamps has grown from 34 million to 46 million over this same time frame. As the middle class and poor have gotten poorer, the .1% and particularly the .01% have accelerated their capture of the national wealth.
The distress of the lower classes is self-evident and confirmed by a poverty rate of 14.8%, up from 12.5% in 2007, while the middle class has borne the brunt of an Obamacare plan written by paid lobbyists for the health insurance industry, Big Pharma, and hospital corporations. The promised $2,500 per family savings have not materialized, as health insurance premiums have increased by double digits for the last five years and small businesses have stopped covering employees. In reality, since 2008, average family premiums have climbed a total of $4,865. Even the few million Americans added to the health insurance roles are stuck with limited choices and deductibles of $5,000. More people were kicked out of existing employer healthcare plans than were newly added.

The two charts which reveal the true level of economic distress are the Federal Debt and Money Printing charts. We’ve accumulated more debt as a nation in the last seven years ($8 trillion) than we did in the first 219 years of this once proud Republic. We continue to add $1.6 billion per day to our $18.3 trillion national debt. This doesn’t even take into consideration the $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities being left to future generations.
The Fed has printed $3.5 trillion out of thin air in the last six years while keeping interest rates anchored at 0% for their Wall Street owners, with the net impact of punishing senior citizens and other risk averse savers while further enriching their gambling casino owners who dictate the monetary policy for the world. As widowed grandmothers across the land have seen their life sustaining interest income evaporate, even the downwardly manipulated CPI has risen 14% since 2008. Using a real inflation measure, most Americans have seen their daily living expenses rise by more than 30% since 2008, but Yellen and her cronies yammer about deflationary fears.
Economic distress intensifies by the day for average American household as their real income has been falling for 15 years, while the cost of food, energy, healthcare, education, rent, housing, and vehicles have soared. Government imposed property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, fees, and tolls have risen exponentially over this time frame as the parasite sucks the host dry. Millions of households have been lured into debt by the Wall Street debt machine and their corporate media mouthpieces as consumer debt has grown from $1.5 trillion to $3.4 trillion since 2000, and mortgage debt has grown from $6.5 trillion to $13.5 trillion.
The extreme distress felt by households has been caused by their foolish choice to try and maintain their lifestyles by replacing declining income with debt. They are now enslaved by the chains of $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, $1.1 trillion of auto loan debt, $1 trillion of credit card debt, and $13.5 trillion of mortgage loan debt. Has keeping up with the Joneses been worth it? The stress of meeting the monthly obligations with declining income has become unbearable for many.

The continued decline in real household income reveals the falsity of the unemployment propaganda disguised as legitimate data. The decline in unemployment from 10% in 2009 to 5.1% today is a complete and utter lie. Since 2008 there are 4 million more Americans employed, while 15 million working age Americans have supposedly left the workforce, but the government expects us to believe the unemployment rate is lower today than it was in 2008. Using a consistent labor force participation rate of 66% (where it stayed from 2003 through 2008), the unemployment rate would be over 10%. Using the BLS methodology used prior to 1994, real unemployment exceeds 20%. Those figures support the declining household income story.
Everyone has heard the president boast about the 10 million jobs added since 2009. The politicians like to talk about quantity, but aren’t so keen on discussing quality. The chart below provides the facts regarding jobs added since the recession lows. The top four categories pay less than $10 per hour. This so called economic recovery is being driven by low paying, no benefits, services jobs. These facts also support the declining household income state of affairs.
With a true unemployment rate above 10% and most new jobs paying $10 an hour, it is understandable to an awake, non-delusional citizen why retail sales remain pathetic and national retailers have stopped expanding and begun closing outlets. This is just what the corporate fascist Deep State wants. They want the proletariat, reliant upon debt to sustain their materialistic driven lifestyles and the lower class peasants dependent upon the scraps handed to them by a government, reliant on central bankers to keep the house of cards from collapsing.

The American economy has been gutted. The financialization of our economy began around 1980 and accelerated after the passage of NAFTA in 1994 and the repeal of Glass Steagall in 1999. There has been a giant sucking sound of manufacturing jobs leaving the U.S., replaced by purveyors of paper, derivatives gamblers, and high frequency traders on Wall Street. Producing goods has been replaced by scamming muppets and peddling debt to the masses so they can consume.
We’ve been eating our seed corn for the last 35 years and there is nothing left to sow. We allowed American jobs and production to be replaced by cheap foreign labor and cheap foreign produced products, financed by consumer debt. We allowed mega-corporations and Wall Street banks to capture the economic system, financial markets, judicial, legislative, and executive branches, along with the mainstream media, thereby subjugating the best interests of the country to maximizing profits for the .1%.

The distress of the working middle class has been growing since the early 1970s after Nixon closed the gold window and allowed central bankers and politicians the freedom to print fiat and make unfunded promises to voters. From the end of World War II until 1971 the working class reaped the income gains as their standard of living steadily increased. Since 1971 the income growth of the working class has declined, while the income growth of the top 1% has soared. This was mainly driven by the .1% in the financial class who produced nothing but misery for the bottom 90%.
Unbridled greed and an unquenchable thirst for more and more are the hallmarks of the sociopathic oligarchs who are like blood sucking leeches on the dying carcass of a once great nation. Once the dollar was no longer backed by gold, the ultimate death of the American empire became a forgone conclusion. The weight of lies is wearing on the oligarchs. The Federal Reserve Chairwoman physically falters while spreading monetary falsehoods and the speaker of the house suddenly resigns as he knows the end is drawing near.

Every “solution” the ruling class has implemented since Wall Street blew up the global financial system in 2008 has been sold to the public as beneficial to the people on Main Street. It has slowly dawned on the inhabitants of Main Street that Bernanke, Yellen, Paulson, Geithner, Dodd, Frank, Obama and all D.C. politicians have screwed them. As Main Street’s distress has accelerated, the wealth of anyone associated with Wall Street has soared to obscene levels.
This distress is revealing itself in the poll numbers of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The flaunting of their immense wealth, political influence, and smug superiority has angered a vast swath of the citizenry. The economic distress perpetrated upon the people by the moneyed interests will be the driving force behind the next phase of this Fourth Turning. The current state of affairs has been seen before, during the previous Fourth Turning about 80 years ago.
“It has always seemed strange to me…The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” – John Steinbeck – Cannery Row
The solution is not to let politicians redistribute the wealth from the rich to the poor. Crony capitalism must be replaced by true free market capitalism, practiced with integrity, fairness, principled conduct, intelligence, and high moral standards. Profits generated by corporations are not evil, but seeking profits at any cost to society is reckless, shortsighted and immoral. Capitalism without capital is destined for failure. When corporate CEOs, Wall Street bankers, and shady billionaires exercise undue influence over the financial, political and judicial systems, their short-term quarterly profit mindset and voracious appetite for riches override the best interests of the people and create a sick, warped, repressive society. Today our system is in the grasp of psychopaths whose hubris and myopic focus on enriching themselves will ultimately be their downfall.

“This financial system is sick, and is unfortunately and at an increasing pace approaching terminal. I think the problem is due to a simple failure or ‘lack of character.’ It is an old story, and a perennial favorite of the madness of the dark powers of this world. Character provides stability and confidence. When character fails, there is uncertainty and fear. This passive-aggressive posture towards equities in general and risk in particular is because of the lack of reform to create a sustainable, stable recovery fueled by organic demand for growth based across a broader participation amongst the consumers. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot subject the great part of a people to fear, repression, and enforced deprivation on one hand, and expect them to flourish and consume freely on the other.” – Jesse

In Part 4 I will assess the other channels of distress (social, cultural, technological, ecological, political, military) that are likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and potential climaxes to this Winter of our discontent.
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"Crony capitalism must be replaced by true free market capitalism, practiced with integrity, fairness, principled conduct, intelligence, and high moral standards."
I generally like the author and his thesis, but the solution proposed is like saying "everyone just needs to get along." Crony capitalism is a symptom, not a disease. Sociopaths don't go away when you change the system, they just find another way to game it and ruin it for everyone else.
End the Fed. Gold. All you need to know.
Quinn:
Have you not read any other book, in the last two fucking decades? You just keep puking up the same obvious economic bullshit over and over again.
The 4th Turding written by Stress&How is a horrid intellectual mess, an narrow and biased ameri-centric mix, consisting of one part historical riffing, one part astrology, and one part flimsy correlation of questionable data patterns.
Your effort is little more than a condescending attempt at palm reading.
A few of the predictions might be true but ultimately the suggestions as to how to deal with the looming catastrophe has citizens all being good little docile unquestioning morons.
It's sad that people like you take this supposed academic tripe seriously.
Their writing is almost incoherent. Good theories can be stated clearly and easily followed in a logical way. Cycles in history have merit and, like the seasons, do have some consistency. But to assemble the writings in a potpourri and present it as credible history is beyond comprehension.
Few people even mention the absolutely atrocious writing of the authors. It has a lot of words... ( many of them made up )... so they called it a book.
You are a D student in an F Class!
This is just another lesson from your, SPECIAL CLASS 101, attended by 4th Turding Retards and 9/11Morons. Stress&How's book is only good for intellectual shits and giggles... not much else.
Quinn, why do you not play with other Nostradamic prophecies that have those same social ramifications listed? A few of them are bound to be right no matter what happens.
This is a kooky, neurotic theory of predictable future that strongly rings of some of the economic cycle prediction wonks of the 1970s. Millions of people have made prophecies...almost all of them have come out to be wrong. Definitely a very flaky, new-agey undercurrent to this whole thing. There are many other prophecies in the book that turn out dead wrong.
Try Tarot cards next time ...after all, out of the whole pack, there are bound to be a few cards that accurately correspond.
Neil Howe is as dense as you about the reality of 9/11.
Just what the hell is all your meaningless writing supposed to do for the over 3000 people murdered by ameriklan Nazis on 9/11?
Wake the fuck up!
The ZioNazis declared war on all free people of the world and the REAL TURNING is dated from Sept. 11, 2001!
9/11 was the opening salvo of WWIII!
You're 9/11MORON ... and a Traitor not only to truth and your nation but to yourself and your family.
Quinn, just another miserable FAIL for you.
9/11 is your Litmus Test !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6O4LE0eTYc
ps. (You'll just have to repeat 9/11 Special Class again this year.)
Blah balh blah... that which cannot be sustained, won't be, period.
There will be no "going forward" until retribution has been paid...
same as it ever was...
@ David Pierre
I see you failed and are repeating the "how to have class" class...go back under your rock you crass, classless, pud thumping, puddle jumper.
Are you being ironic?
He's trying, albeit unconsciously. Welcome to all fake right-wingers.
I have my problems, as well, with the thesis presented here, but I have enjoyed the series if for nothing more than as an opposed or unique view to my own. I wouldn't get too riled up about it. Just my 2 cents.
“9/11 was the opening salvo of WWIII”
ROFL… More like a very fortuitous event (/sarc, aka false flag) for “Just Us and their minions” to keep the corporate welfare flowing and drum up public support to roll through the Middle East.
If WW III starts, it will be to put “Just Us and their minions” down less mercifully than we would rabid animals.
Ladies & Gents of ZH, please let me point out a BIG FAT TROLL named Pierre!
@DavidPierre
Great Googly-Moogly... is your entire life dedicated to trashing this Quinn guy? You're regular as clockwork when his articles come up, and it's always the same thing. The delicious irony being while you complain he always rehashes the same Strauss & Howe book, when it comes to beating the same tired horse to death he can't even hold a candle to your comments at this site. Methinks the object of your ire is the same thing that dominates your mental processes. It's so pronounced, one would think Quinn, Strauss, and Howe must have burned down your house while taking turns sodomizing you with a pineapple. A flaming pineapple no less.
To quote Pam from the show 'Archer': "(in sarcastic tone) Way to not give him the power..."
Jim never called him back after that one romantic evening.
"Good theories can be stated clearly and easily followed in a logical way."
You must be paying too much attention to the Fed speakers everyday, who clearly state their theories on the economy, employment, GDP, and jobs.
Congress was given access to te Social Security Administration funds right around 1970, as well. It wasn't like the robbery of the working class was one dimensional. I believe the last time the US budget was truly balanced (without gimmick math) was 1969.
Yup. Under a gold standard, the scarcity of real money and its corollary, higher subjective value, would limit the amount free to spend on frivolous pastimes like hookers and blow, and relieving the public of the shitty symptoms of "affluenza" such as that and truly rewarding diligent effort would go a long way toward making life authentic and personally rewarding.
How about justice. A foreign word in US.
those charts are truly fucked up
we have truly been betrayed
And in other news, Nationalism is rising....Geeee wiz, wonder why?
Nationalism is what oligarchs use to keep the sheep gazing down.
Bullshit, there is no such thing in a multicultural society. Sorry.
Yup, humanity is tribal. SJW all you want, but you can't undue 1,000s of years of evolution.
Bullshit, there is no such thing in a multicultural society. Sorry
Yes there is. But it doesn't include the by-laws of what NAFTA and the US CONGRESS that approved NAFTA fucked us with.
Oh, btw, FUCK THE US CONGRESS.
I trust Janet Yellen to be a Wall Street whore.
Only a truly thorough housecleaning of ALL the parasites, blood suckers, leeches, snakes, vermin, rodents, varmits and squid, will we be able to reintroduce, and instill the qualities of character, fairness and honesty.
However, society as a whole, has to want, desire, have backbone and moral rectitude to accomplish what obviously, needs to be done.
At what point do you start questioning of there is even such a thing as society as a whole?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-...
When I showed that to my fellow Airmen, I asked "Why are we allies with these rapists?"
They just shrugged and said "That's their culture over there."
I repeated "But why are we allies with them?"
They had no real answers, but their shame was obvious to me, like the babbling and sputtering of James Taggart in Atlas Shrugged.
That's when I questioned whether society existed as a whole.
So, who gets to decide when an individual or corporation is "seeking profits at any cost to society?"
Seems like you either accept the inherent morality of the Invisible Hand, or you don't.
I think these 4th Turning folks read a lot more into a simple currency failure than there is.
Yes the dollar can no longer be the reserve currency and there will be huge problems but to read bad intentions into every act of the banking system is wrong.
Consider for a moment if 2008 had resulted in a sudden collapse. The value of all paper falling to 10% of its original value. We would all be calling for the heads of central bankers because they were not smart enough to do QE or lower interest rates.
Yes there have been winners. It has been the equities mostly but those belong to every pension plan in the country. To blame the .1% does not quite point the finger correctly.
Many have benefitted from the stupidity of a system that expanded beyond what it could support. Most of us will pay back all the paper wealth we thought we had gathered in during that time of expansion. If Dimon is all in paper he will fall farther than most.
If we see that politicians and bankers have secretely been buying gold and farmland while preaching the purchase of over priced stock I too will join the pitchfork party. Until then I chose to believe that bankers and politicians are just as unaware of what is happening as the rest of the population.
Not everyone has a hobby of financial doomer porn as their main past time. Not everyone sees the rot. Most do not see what must come.
Get the fuck out of here, lasvegasbrainfart.
Said a bit more succintly,
this is the rise of the Self-Absorbed -- the Narcissist and Sociopath -- to a critical mass of places of influence and control.
The enabling factors are what they've always been: met expectations in periods of relative prosperity, followed up by creations of false wealth and an abundance of ignorance as it all falls down.
The only recourse is protection of principles and insistence on the rule of law, which comes from virtually nowhere but humility... and hence the sickness and force of Narcissism stares us in the face...
Narcissism has a huge weak spot. Just ignore it (them). Their existence depends upon your loyalty to them. They are parasites and slaves to the art of manipulation to get what they want (need). Ignore them and they die. Its really that simple.
TL;DR If you read one Fourth Turning article, you've read them all.
Why is that silver haired lady hiding her face...were they trying to take a mug shot...
Fourth Turning???....
Sounds okay to me as long as it involves 110 story buildings with rubber tarps at the bottom to haul what is left of them away after they've been thrown off the top!
Fourth Turning or not, the rate of decay is accelerating.
The good news is that the “system” is almost dead. There will be many opportunities for those who get things done and very few for the crony capitalists who are only good at bribing politicians and delivering power point presentations.
Invest in yourself.
Yellen about had a nervous breakdown. The bullshit is getting so deep it's making her sick.
Where are we going to find people of character and integrity to lead us after the fires go out ?
LEADERS ARE EVIL... unless you mean "leaders" who only lead by exhibiting good behavior. But that's rarely what people mean by "leader" any more.
What needs to happen is all leaders are hung.
Then people make their own decisions, take their own actions, then enjoy/bare/suffer 100% of the consequences of THEIR OWN actions, and 0% of the consequences of actions taken by others.
"Where are we going to find people of character and integrity to lead us after the fires go out ?"
I dunno, Galts Gulch?
zBy the way, it's not going to take till 2022. This shit is going down in the next two years...and that's being optimistic.
People may not like this, but we can't have an economy, we can't have trade, it will only breed corruption. Don't give them the tools to corrupt and there will be no more corruption. Volunterism is the only way its truly going to work. I know this is a very foriegn concept for most people, but if you think about it, we would be aeons further ahead had we not based society on an extention of pure ego. As far as this article, I think that we can keep this bullshit system going for as long as we let it go, whether it be backed by gold, oil, or pure confidence. It may not be fun for the majority most of the time, but I see no reason why it HAS to crash or come to a catastrophic end, unless the planet is somehow decimated and we all die. While history does tend to repeat itself, esp when we blatently ignore the lessons of the past, I think we will find, that it will repeat itself and keep going round and round unless we do something to stop it.
The problem is one of consent. Too many people believe in coercion rather than voluntary association.
Succinctly put.
I had a conversation once with the mother of one of my son's friends. She's a nice woman and well-intentioned. I got into this conversation with her (role of government), and her response fits perfectly what you say here. When asked about the welfare system, she said: "I just don't trust people to help. We have to have the welfare system to force the people with money to help with the poor."
Exactly what you say. She believes "charity" must be coerced.
Because these cycles are long, it can be hard to maintain perspective on what current events actually mean. Borrowing in some ways from Toynbee, the authors of this explanation of historical cycles package them into 80 year periods, give or take.
If you start in 1940 and count backwards 80 years, and continue on, you can see the pattern. The crises in 1940 culminated with WWII, and 80 years before that there was the US Civil War around 1860. 80 years before that there was the Revolution in about 1780 or so. 80 years before that and the American culture was still enmeshed with England, and you can find the crises of the Glorious Revoltion on both shores. 80 years before that in England, there was yet another crises cycle and so forth.
There is ample evidence that cultures experience cycles of growth and decay, but the overall cycle from birth to death is still mysterious. Any individual cycle in the life of a civilization can seem self contained and give the illusion of a single forward flow that progresses towards an inevitable conclusion. Additionally, each cycle in the Authors theory consists of 4 phases of about 20 years each. Because our lives are so short, we easily lose sight of the big picture over a span of 20 years and tend to examine things in light of the last phase that we just passed through.
In our current state, we have just left the 3rd Turning, according to the authors. A time of consumption and excess, and slow decay. That was autumn. We are now in mid winter, living in the 4th Turning when all the old instutions come into question and may be rebuilt.
However, the mechanism of the cycles may not operate as the authors imagine, and indeed the foundational belief that cultures require large, centalized control of some type is probably flawed. Human culture may be evolving past these Alpha-Beta dominance systems as technology makes scarcity a thing of the past.
This could be the final act of the Iron Age. We could be witnessing the end of slavery, as the global awakening takes place. If things continue peacefully, it is very likely. If the psychopaths bring the nuclear fire onto us, things may go another direction. But in either case the survivors will never forget what came before, and there is no turning back the clock on the sure knowledge that material progress has impressed in the mass cultural mind.
"...as technology makes scarcity a thing of the past."
This ignores the inputs "technology" requires. We have benefited from easily accessible non-animal energy sources for the past 150 years. I don't see technology doing too well as that comes to an end. Renewables do not have the necessary energy density to replace the "dug out of the ground" stuff.
This energy use is also creating serious environmental concerns. Forget about global warming, which is now so thoroughly muddied a debate as to be meaningless. The air in Asia is unbreathable over large areas. The Pacific Ocean is rapidly dying. Hundreds of millions of people are directly affected by these issues.
No, I do not put my faith in technology.
"But in either case the survivors will never forget what came before, and there is no turning back the clock on the sure knowledge that material progress has impressed in the mass cultural mind."
For more than a thousand years, the majority of the population forgot the material progress of the Roman empire. A small protected religious class maintained enough of the materials to reawaken ideas later, but most "survivors" of Rome forgot what was possible. Because...it wasn't possible anymore.
Do not underestimate the potential for large-scale societal collapse. Just because we haven't seen one for a couple of millenia doesn't mean it's not possible. How likely is it? I have no idea. But the probability is not zero.
Not my down arrow, btw. I'm just quibbling, not strongly disagreeing.
As the Grey Champion, and the architect of the demise of Ponzi Casino Capitalism, I can assure all that the psychopaths that run Wall Street, The City, Vatican Bank, de Rothschild Bank, the FED, and every other bank in the entire world, have no clue what is happening to their carefully constructed rip-off of all people throughout the world. They get people like Quinn to write drivel that makes it look like they are in the drivers seat, but as the architect of the 08 Wall Street Crash, I know they don't have an effin' clue. In brief, the 'Cartel' was reverse engineered, deconstructed, analyzed 1000s of ways to Sunday, and re-engineered to blow all of these motherfuckers out-of-the-water in one go. The 1%ers have no possible way out, and their collective demise is 100% certain from an engineering standpoint. Empirically, the 1%ers will spend the remainder of their lives under my control. And I have programmed their collective destruction because when I do a job I always do it right the first time so that I don't have to go back and touch up my work.
I'll be helping out too, you can be assured of that!
Look at all these comments you've stirred up, Jim. Attaboy!
I HAVE AN IDEA
stop letting jews control every aspect of our society- finance, media, telecom, agriculture
these people, they are born with raging fanatisicm in their hearts..much like the brettons or the germans are born with blonde hair...
And if you don't think that there are non-Jews are in on the scam as well, you are even more credulous than the average American. Indeed non-Jews constitute a majority of the 0.01% today with globalization and all.
I read Part 1 and truly worked at understanding what was being said. I read the first 2 paragraphs of part 2 when it became unneccessary to read further. I concluded that with parts 3 & 4 the turning was actually the stomachs of anyone who continues to labor through this esoteric dribble.
Excellent, excellent article. As a socialist, I agree with much of the data and the conclusions you draw thereon, with one small reservation--capitalism is crony capitalism, and property rights and contract enforcement are a form of government coercion. The flaw that allows money to attract money and power to accrue power is in our debt-backed monetary system and its evil twin, investor control over enterprises.
Extractive investors (who only contribute money, which are TOKENS for real economic power, not wealth in itself) control enterprises to strip them of all value; this is what has been powering the stock market lately. Create separate management and investor boards, the management board controlled by the workers/original founders (the exact split to be determined as a function of employee number) and an investor board which will pool funds and negotiate with the management board. The management board should have the ability to REFUSE any investment or return on capital which it sees as inimical to the long-term interests of the business.
Only this, and the end of the debt-backed vampire squid, will free people from the tyranny of unearned income that the wealthiest and most powerful make.
This is just a protracted groundhog day, running across the centuries since man has been on earth in societies. Human nature hasn't changed much so the same things continue to happen. We're just re-experiencing the same dynamics again—over and over again—and this time we're wearing Brooks Brothers suits and driving BMWs, instead of wearing togas and driving chariots. Same as it ever was. As Yogi Berra said... "It's deja vu all over again."
We'd better stop stressing, and enjoy life, and calmly prepare for the future while we can. This runaway train that we are on will eventually hit the end of the line and... crash. (Earlier in time it was a runaway chariot, camel, or goat cart.)
For those who think this series is over the top.
Just look at the charts and make up your own narrative. A good mental exercise and probably won't differ all that markedly from the author when all is said and done.
theres only one phrase that adequatley describes this whole theory.
Confirmation Bias.