Through the ages, nations and cultures of spectacular proportion and prominence have risen to prosperity, and fallen to chaos, on very particular and fundamental principles. In some cases, these great and terrible declines have taken centuries to culminate (as was the story of the Roman Empire), and only a few years in others (the Soviet Union comes to mind). In every example of societal destabilization, however, there were many signs of danger long before the final plunge; some unique to each particular culture, and some common to all. One of the most enduring and frightening similarities between crumbling nations is an overwhelming belief amongst the people that they have somehow “advanced” beyond the need for concern. Each self-destructing society presumed itself invincible. Each country thought itself the pinnacle of human potential, only to discover yet again that in abandoning or subverting the principles of freedom, and the bedrock pillars of conscience, reason, and wisdom, they had become merely another footnote in a long marathon of footnotes.
Ultimately, the vast and sordid history of collapse could be summarized simply as a series of breaking points; moments at which opposing ideals and forces hyperextend the prevailing mechanics of a system, changing it entirely.
Some of these events have produced surprising strides of understanding and political progress, as prevailed after the American Revolution. Others led to dark and mindless collectivist nightmares that fog men’s eyes and hearts, as that which occurred after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The difference is one of focus. Imperialist (elitist) ideologies were deemed unacceptable in both revolutions, but the tides of each conflict leaned towards entirely separate values. Individual liberty in the West, and collective safety and sacrifice in the East. In America, the uprising was led by common men and the target was clear. In Russia, the uprising was led by elitists posing as common men, and the target was obscured. In America, much of the public assumed roles as arbiters and political engineers. In communist Russia, much of the public was oblivious to such responsibility, and only subject to engineering. Two revolutions in the name of ending tyranny with two entirely different initial outcomes…
I bring up these opposing paradigms not to spark another endless debate over the merits of communism versus capitalism, but to highlight a growing potential for a new brand of revolution in modern day America, now cutting through the surface, which may very well culminate in one of the two finales described above. More perhaps than any other time memorable, centralist and statist visions are today clashing with individualist and Constitutionalist pleadings for sanity. The air grows heavy and ripe for ignition. More even than any economic indicator, social indicators point in the direction of conflict and widespread malfunction. The question of “if” in terms of citizen dissent and the inevitable lashing response of government is no longer asked. Now, the question of “when” has risen to the surface.
To predict the exact timing of a breaking point is impossible, but there are signals to watch for; social and political attitudes to monitor and examine. After analyzing the shifts of multiple nations and cultures over thousands of years of human record, a pattern does, indeed, emerge. Similar developments in our times should not be taken lightly…
1) The Rise Of Moral Relativism
Inherent conscience is a vital artery to a healthy society. When that artery is cut, entire structures and peoples die. There is no way around this, as history has shown. Cynics, often utilizing a highly limited understanding of the processes of mass psychology and individual psychology, tend to confuse the word “conscience” with the concept of taboo. Taboos are man-made morals, and are commonly applied as a method of social control by oligarchs and collectives, just as many laws are created to appease sometimes dubious bureaucracies. Conscience is NOT man-made, but an inborn process that human beings draw from unconsciously, and which true honor, compassion, and sincerity are derived. Conscience is an intuitive product, not intellectual.
Moral relativism, by comparison, is a kind of emotional inhibitor which allows people to mechanize their thinking, and rationalize any activity no matter how despicable, as long as that activity is rooted in a “logical” framework. Logic, however, is limited…
Interestingly, there are some forms of theoretical mathematics which allow false conclusions to be presented as fact, and this same methodology of fuzzy logic is consistently used by moral relativists to achieve the “appearance” of reason. At bottom, intellectual prowess accomplishes little without the disciplines of experience, emotion, and insight. Cultures which widely abandon the guidelines of conscience always find themselves subject to collapse, whether economic or political. Without the ability to feel empathy for the victims of one’s actions, any disaster becomes possible.
2) The Displacement Of Cultural Subsections
A society that maintains healthy appearances by purposely displacing and marginalizing certain belief systems or political stances is by its very nature self-destructive. For progress to be made, inclusion of ideas is paramount. Ideas must be allowed to stand on their own merit and not be victimized by the biases of an elite minority, or in some instances, an ignorant majority. Strong and meaningful ideas must be given space to thrive while bad ideas must be allowed to fall to the wayside. This happens when open discussion is given fair play. Suppression of discussion, whether by force or by stealth, leads to an inability of the people to form a true identity. Forced consensus ends not in stability, but in madness.
3) Distraction Over Substance
Distracted people are uncaring people. A nation distracted by its own immediate desires over the concerns of the future is completely incapable of acting in its own best interest. Distraction comes in many forms, from vapid entertainment, to disinformation, to war and economic uncertainty. While most people are more than able to produce their own distractions, often governments will lend a helping hand in order to dissuade the masses from participation in the decision making processes. This includes the dilution of educational options and/or the co-option of the educational system altogether.
You will find that in nearly every collapse of modern times, the citizenry found themselves surprised and shell shocked despite numerous and easily identifiable warnings. You will also find that the stunned populace was usually obsessed with any existing method to avoid involvement in the workings of the system in which they lived. They were caught off guard because, in the end, they were more comfortable not knowing the details. Comfort at the price of vigilance ends in devastation.
4) When Law Becomes Tyranny
Law, at least as far as the fundamentals are concerned, is designed to protect citizens as well as authorities from undue actions and accusations. At its best, law shields us from our own follies, which may include the allowed ascension of poor leadership. At its worst, law is no longer used as a tool for protecting the public from error and malice, and is instead used as a tool for enslavement.
When a culture elevates and worships law over the contents of their own consciences, the abuse of law for the sake of control is imminent. Law does not trump heart, yet many past societies have been convinced to follow immoral laws all while mistaking their actions for “civic duty”. When law becomes infallible, fallible government becomes god, and no nation will ever be able to sustain such a delusion of grandeur for very long without reaping catastrophe.
5) Force Over Reason
Force is used only in two instances within a domestic political environment; when a controlling entity seeks to acquire or maintain power after fear and disinformation have failed, and when a rebellious public seeks to undo the wrongs done and reason has gone ignored. A nation run by dishonest men is already a supreme candidate for extreme collapse, but when despots turn to violent policies to silence dissent, you can be sure that conflict is soon to follow. The level of this tension will be readily visible in the militant presence of the government in public buildings, on the roads, and even in the neighborhoods of the citizenry. A standing army upon the soil of a country, regardless of supposed rationale, is a recipe for a breakdown that goes far beyond the more manageable effects of financial distress and into the realm of lasting and vicious war.
6) False Paradigms And Mistaken Enemies
A country near bedlam is usually filled with people seeking not just answers, but someone, anyone, to blame. This need for “justice” can be very misguided, and results in the projections of our own terrors onto innocent bystanders. Collapse is very often preceded by a swelling wave of attacks, usually directed at groups contrary to the majority belief. Political parties become factions. Ideals become battle cries. Fervor for retribution takes over. All the while, the true culprits (who are normally not a part of either side) sit back, relax, and turn the public in on itself. A frantic nation is an easily manipulated nation. Divided and fragile, such systems degrade while the source of the problem remains hidden.
7) Desperation And Loss Of Will
A culture on the verge of sliding into full spectrum disintegration is generally not very chipper, however, when this despair results in the handing over of personal liberty for the sake of so called “security”, an avalanche of regret and wild compensation in the form of moral relativism results. No matter what the state of a nation and its people, the will to move forward and to act for the betterment of the future can and does change everything. The blackest days of dread and ill omen are no match for man’s ability to endure when he holds the truth dear. No obstacle is insurmountable. No enemy unbeatable. But, when that will is lost, so too is everything else.
The concentration and frequency of the above elements can easily reveal the point at which a country is in respect to collapse. America now has many of these diseases at one stage or another, and in certain ways, has surpassed historic examples to form a never-before-seen dynamic for global turmoil. Currently, citizens are turning in greater and greater numbers to activism and protest, but the focus has moved away from the elites (central bankers and globalists) who deserve the largest portion of the public’s ire. We have allowed deflections to go unchecked for too long, and the unwillingness of arbitrarily delineated sides (false Left and false Right) to reconcile at least until the larger threat is removed is setting our culture in motion into the depths of a nightmare we are not ready to handle. Such loss has happened before, and, through courage, understanding, and tenacity, it has also been undone before. The choice is ours. It always has been.
it is rare to see a very long string of successful parents. Typically, parents reflexively lurch in the opposite direction from the motivators of their upbringing. Wealthy parents thus spoil their children, who are therefore unsuccessful. It is an unending cycle. This country is no different.
Can't fight the masses, bitchez! Sell lifeboats if the ship is going down.....
If you sell lifeboats when the ship is going down, you end up being the richest corpse on the bottom of the ocean.
One large subset of ZHers is still wondering how to profit, or at least protect their wealth through the times that we have now entered. That's a fatal mistake.
This isn't 1980, and this isn't 1929. It's not even Strauss & Howe's Winter cycle of history. This is something that we haven't seen before. If it's Winter -- then it's Fimbulwinter.
Investors need to think about how to help themselves, their families, and their friends and neighbors (better be a large intersection there!) live through these times.
If you're still thinking -- like someone above asked -- about whether to be in equities or bonds -- you'll end up at the bottom of the ocean, and your paper instruments of wealth will line the nests of crabs.
I think what you're getting at is to make your money while there's blood in the streets, but also realize that you don't want to live in a town with blood in the streets?
Retreating to a compound in the US won't work any better than it did in China or the USSR...
What I mean is that, in the very worst times, it is far better to have the things that money could buy, to the extent that they can be stored, rather than money. Only after you have invested in those things ( land, water, food, food production, heat, neighbors, arms, etc. ) should you worry about money. And then it had better be real money, not pictures on paper, or bits in a computer on a network that's gone down, in a city that's burning.
And no, don't think in terms of retreating to a compound. Think in terms of getting out of an obvious deathtrap, and to a place that is more survivable. I don't live in a compound -- Manhattanites live in a compound. I live in a place where I feel that I can really trust my neighbors, for miles around. They are self-reliant, but when the fewmets hit the windmill, we will help each other.
How much gold do you suppose that is worth?
The experience in China and the Soviet Union was that owning concentrated wealth of any kind was dangerous, and owning land was only safe if you were a bureaucrat. Thus, although gold or cash ownership would seem wise, in practice when national structure collapses, local units turn towards survival. Local police therefore became (more) predatory. If you used any cash or concentrated wealth like gold, this news leaked to local police, who trumped up a charge to hold a family member until additional concentrated wealth was delivered to them. Thus, you can hold concentrated wealth like precious metals or foreign currency as long as you keep quiet about it, but you can't use it. Again, staying put in China or the USSR was not a good survival strategy.
The difference is that in the U.S. as opposed to China and Russia many people have personal protection devices that they will use to protect their freedoms, property and family.
Those work well against un-organized and roving bands of individuals. They don't work well against coordinated state power. They do work well against coordinated state power when the majority of people are against the imposition of state power. They don't work well when the majority of the population welcomes the state power and sees it as a savior.
Very fine line between terrorist and freedom fighter. In the west we erroneously think that is determined by the actions of the terrorist or freedom fighter. In actuality, it is determined by the attitude of the population towards the goals of the terrorist or freedom fighter. If you fight the masses, you lose -- no matter how well armed you personally are. Rifles, shotguns and handguns are like spitting in the wind if you go up against air power and tanks.
Name another site where you'll see a word like 'Fimbulwinter'.
ZH is the shit.
Excellent article.And yes, the revolution is just starting.
In America, the uprising was led by common men and the target was clear. In Russia, the uprising was led by elitists posing as common men, and the target was obscured.
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Made me laugh. More fabled past by US citizens.
US war of independence was led by elitists. Most FF never hid the fact they would like to implement an aristocratic (the rule by the best) system.
They were elitist.
US citizens can not cope with their past. They really want people to believe that there was some change somewhere down the alley. There was not. The US citizen nature is eternal.
Good points, -1 for the gratuitous bigotry of "US citizen nature is eternal."
Welcome back On&AnAnonymous.
How was Gelden Week?
I love how you don't see the irony of your comments. The author referred to America, which was built as a commonwealth and where elitism did exist but was not held higher than personal rights, particular individual freedom and taxation without representation.
Your comments only mention the US, which has replaced the commonwealth and is a federalist regime, where it is acceptable to suspend little things, like, oh, the Constitution if it doesn't fit with their plans. Real US citizens, at least the 50% who still pay taxes and have not been bought out by TPTB yearn for a return of the commonwealth and less government. Your comments are misguided and woefully off target.
For irony, you must just look at your own comments.
So I quote:
"The author referred to America, which was built as a commonwealth and where elitism did exist but was not held higher than personal rights, particular individual freedom and taxation without representation. "
You know, from start, the US had slavery which was based on the elitistic conception of race. Negroes had to be enslaved by their racial superior, white people, who had to constitute the elite of humanity.
It is somehow ironic that from that plain for all to see situation, you think that some cheap propaganda claiming that in 'America' elitism was not held higher than personal rights, particular individual freedom and taxation without representation would be enough to cover anything.
Projection is a tough thing for US citizens.
The article is bollocks. No cultural change in the US. The only change is that some US citizens who thought that by birth right, would never be on the wrong side of US citizenism, are now slipping toward the wrong side.
It scares them to death. They are looking around in a US citizen typical manner, trying to find who to push under the bus. Problem: the number of people to push under the train is limited and the US world order is running out of this kind of people.
Too many US citizens, not enough Indians.
I agree with you about the article, it is more talking points than substance.
As to your comments about slavery, it's not irony, it's history. Slavery is just another example of exploitation of the poor which has been going on for thousands of years and still exists to this day. The irony is in the example that you chose. The civil war was the inflection point where the path to a large central government was created. It was not about slave rights, it was about preventing France colonizing Canada and keeping Great Britain out of Mexico. Both of those countries backed the Confederation, they saw the US as a growing threat to their mercantilism and wanted the split America into two weaker countries. Tell me, were the slaves better off in the post civil war environment? Elitism now reigns in the US, ahead of personal rights and the foundation on which the country was based. Apparently Obama can override bankruptcy law and force GM bondholders to absorb a loss while letting the union and their syncophants cut to the front of the line. What is this war on terror other than an abject failure and money pit? I think what you describe is the injection of socialism into US culture that has been taught in the schools and paid for by the federal reserve. America did not use to be this way. I hope that if and when the population wakes up and realizes what really is happening they will demand a return to what it used to be. There has not been a cultural change yet, it is still coming. The US will have two options: return to the commonwealth or become a socialist nation.
Mix Mashed potatoes.
Founding Fathers were US citizens. I did not refer to civil war. You did as you think it is an example more tractable for you.
Never the US has been what you suggest it was considering freedom and stuff.
Fabled past.
There were poor in the US but not all poor were slaves. And that is history too.
"Founding Fathers were US citizens."
The Founding Fathers were British citizens. They did not become US citizens until ratification, after the war was over.
Moron.
There are poor everywhere, genius. The real issue in the US is that is has become a welfare state where the poor are content to get money from the government and not work to put themselves in a better situation. I refer to the civil war because one central theme to the conflict was abolition of slavery, which seems to be very important to you. No country is Nirvana, so why don't you trot back out to Kensington Square or wherever your OWS buddies are, it would be time better spent than writing this drivel.
The real issue in the US is that is has become a welfare state where the poor are content to get money from the government and not work to put themselves in a better situation
LIKE they have any choice for survival but to cooperate with elite policy? Work where? For what? The millions and millions of poor and unemployed have a better shot at wealth now by buying a Powerball ticket than to attempt wealth via so called "work" even if it could be had. I am a person that worked full time while going to college later in life more than full time in the evenings and nearly fucking starved in the process and what did I find when I was finished with my bachelor degree in finance? I found that if you are clever enough and handsome enough and willing to eat a giant shit sandwich each day of work and were born straight and white you have about a 10% chance of being allowed to compete for a few crumbs from the tables of those born into dynastic wealth, and their hired guns (the good ole boy network). If you are not in the top 90+ percentile in all ways and have human flaws you will be used the way Lucy used Charley Brown when she promised this time she will hold the football still for him.
If some give up and "sponge" then more goddamned power to them, all the better to bring about the collapse of a corrupt system of feudal privilege for the elite that laugh at all of us behind our backs and think nothing of cruelty and murder to secure what they own and increase it every day at your expense. Unless you are one of them then defending them is a sad irony, like a Jew defending the death camps.
The "Forefathers" we've enshrined as secular Gods were quite ignorant about simple human rights for the majority of the population, i.e., Native Americans, African slaves, and women--their lofty rhetoric about "all men are created equal" notwithstanding. That lump in our throats that this wondrous phrase elicits is clearly the product of generations of state indoctrination about The Forefathers, imo.
You would have had little trouble finding people with more highly developed consciences and ideals down at the local pub, I suspect. Nonetheless, they deserve credit for doing what they did. Just not elevation to the pantheon of "immortals," imo.
I think ananonymous' point that our own mythology is debilitating is a good one, apart from his apparent intention of devaluing an entire people in making it.
Mythology is not debilitating it is blind belief that is. It is not a contradiction to know that the U.S. was built on slavery and freedom. Slavery was much more common than freedom was in their time. Revolution and change came as a result of people knowing they weren't truly free and slavery was the best example of that; the poster child for the cause.
It is more important to know what is right and wrong than to look to someone as an example of hypocrisy/contradiction in saying what is right and still doing wrong.
Agreed.
This is where the blind embrace of our putatively sacred Constitution by modern "retro-revolutionaries" is so problematic, imo. While they mouth great ideas about Liberty (rebranding the "freedom" that decades of recognized government propaganda has discredited), they militate for return to a previous state of grace that never existed. It's strikingly similar to religious fundamentalists who wave their bibles around claiming to represent God . . . regardless of how out of step they are with the majority or how profoundly their self-serving interpretations of scripture violate the actual spirit of the biblical narrative. Marxist ideologues are the same. Likewise for neo-cons. And so on.
Unfortunately, people who'd like to just matter-of-factly address the shit that's going wrong in the real world tend to be drowned out by such people.
I'd love to get away from such diversionary nonsense and to just look at what works.
Call me amoral, but I believe that if shit don't work for the majority, then it don't work. Period. I don't really care about bullshit excuses, however captivating the extravagant justifications might be--they're just the means by which we get sold.
Let's just fix it.
What are you babbling about?
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It is not a contradiction to know that the U.S. was built on slavery and freedom. Slavery was much more common than freedom was in their time.
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Please show me one example of one slaver society in which all people are slaves. Only one.
It is the nature of slaver society that some are slavers, others are slaves. It does not make it a free society.
If not, then every slaver society is built on freedom and slavery. A worthless nonsense that brings nothing to analysis, other than trying to bamboozle cheaply.
And again, history is bad for US citizens because not so far from their shores, the US had a revolution that was about freedom: Haiti. And this exposed once again the real nature of US citizens concerning freedom.
So when telling "Revolution and change came as a result of people knowing they weren't truly free and slavery was the best example of that; the poster child for the cause." we have here another US citizen trying to make up for his fabled past vision.
I have come to the conclusion that the story of the US founding is pretty much a giant lie. It was the bankers and swindlers trying to edge each other out back then. The whole freedom and liberty thing was just part of the dodge. The only difference is that guys like Jefferson went broke playing the game--there were no bailouts back then.
Too true Aerojet. Vested interests, mercantilist to the core, to boot, ruled. All European, Beholden elitists. The "common" man was never intended to join the party.
Even in th eso called best of times, they were being ground up in the great industrial/war machine.
Most americans gag and hiss 'conspiracy garbage" at the list below, never bothering to research and then refute even a single one.
Caveat Emptor and all that sort of thing...
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/hey-america/
ORI
The American people have enjoyed more meaningful liberty in a more orderly society than any people in modern history. What is really relevant about our revolution is not how it happened, but the result: Genuinely decentralized power, which lasted for three generations. During that time most American paid zero tax of any kind, we were not kept slaves.At the time there were two central threats to average Americans: the growing global banking power, and European political power. We resisted both, and the people and their government routed two central banks.
only diamonds are eternal.
History is proving that only diamonds and US citizens nature are eternal.
Knowledge is an accumulative phenomenum: new things are learned every day.
-1 bigotry posing as moral righteousness.
Bob, I think that needs to be understood is that from the outside, the American People are one giant blob, a single, large unit with uniformly applied characteristics (loud, arrogant, obnoxious, over-weight and under-informed). Most American tourists and foreign "bosses" do not help the cause by living up to the stereo-type (chicken and egg question anyways).
A "nationality" will always have a broad brush applied to it, inevitable.
Look at the 'Indian" labels that shit-talking trolls like Vast Dom throw out... you just let it wash off you like water.
But all stereotypes have strong foundations. If you, like me, exist in six-sigma territory, all is good.
AnAnonymous has excellent observations. I say that from a 12 year, powerful stint in various parts of the US.
ORI
I agree that's it's easy to go that way. But it's morally bankrupt, imo, rather than the insightfully moral perspective that it pretends to be.
Hey, if he'd leave out the asshole part of his message, I'd have little criticism.
As you say, there's some truth in every stereotype--hence the racist nonsense of the nigger haters and anti-jews. But that doesn't justify the breathtaking leap into bigotry, however well it might be embellished.
If he wants to play moral, he's gonna have to raise his own game. Or at least stop shitting on anything and everything American every chance he gets. There's nothing respectable about that, as far as I can see.
On the contrary, it is malignant with contempt for us as human beings, i.e., "The US citizen nature is eternal." I have no obligation that I know of to tolerate that.
<("!")>
Agreed.
ORI
Yeah, I know. I'm getting a little intense.
Must meditate.
Being a negro or a white person has nothing to do with being a US citizen.
US citizenism is first and above a state of mind. US citizenism is what US citizens commonly refer as Americanism.
US citizenism is probably better supported by certain genetic make ups.
US citizens are not to be found only in the US. Every pan European proponent in Europe is a US citizen whose dream is to apply US citizenism in Europe.
Libya has been overtaken by US citizens material, Libya rebels who disguised an ethnical cleansing behind a humanitarian cause.
The story on the contempt of human beings is typically US citizenish.
Contempt of human beings is US citizenship. It is easy to collect examples from this site. US citizens love to explain the actions they do as US citizens as being driven by human nature.
I posted a number of times on that. US citizenism is not human nature. US citizens do not sum up humanity.
US citizenism is a selective expression of human nature.
The attempt of expanding the base, the attempt of blobbing up to involve more people in a possible retaliation is US citizenish.
For example, I stated the case of Haiti. On Haiti, a US citizenish myth is that the negroes attacked white people on sight. When facts showed they attacked French people and let other white people leave.
If you attack French people, you attack white people.
If you attack US citizens, you attack human beings.
In your own actions, here's a direct example that the US citizen nature is eternal. You've just behaved as your ancestors did, in the very same US citizenish manner of blobbing up.
It is factual. Based on observations.
The most important point is still that depicting US citizens is not depicting human beings nature. I dont know about human nature, too large for me to apprehend. I know about US citizens nature though.
Keep your cheap propaganda for yourself: targetting US citizens is not targetting human kind.
Claiming that targetting US citizens is targeting human kind is a US citizenism trait.
A "nationality" will always have a broad brush applied to it, inevitable.
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No broad brushes. I do not speak about nationality. I do not speak about US citizenship.
I speak about US citizenism, what US citizens call unproperly Americanism (Americas are three continents and by thus, Americanism refers to a state of mind that would draw its origin in the three Americas)
US citizenism (Americanism) is first and above all a state of mind, a philosophy, a culture.
It has nothing to do with US citizenship or the US nationality. One could be born in the US, possess US citizenship and not be a US American in the way they have not adopted US Americanism/citizenism.
You finally said something that accords with reality, congratulations! Both revolts were run by elites. The difference is that our elites then told people - go and be free, make something of yourself. The elites in Russia started exterminating people.
AnAnon,
I assume since your a foreigner (or act/write/hate like one).
You never read the Federalist papers, or the Const, nor the BOR's, nor the Amendments.................
They are written diametrically opposed to eveything you said.
I read most of the FF papers. Have notes about them. Actually, I studied them more than I read them.
It is a big mistake to assume that the deduction that the US citizens nature is eternal is done lightly.
For example, I cant tell that human nature is eternal. But when it comes to US citizens nature, facts shows that their nature is eternal.
Their behaviour has not changed one bit since the inception and application of US citizenism.
Just like so many other civilizations before us, we are at maxium social complexity. Hundreds of years in the making, this cycle. Generations now at what is undoubtedly the peak. No different than before except the the stakes are higher... the number of people involved are exponentially higher... virtually the entire world is affected... etc.
This time though, unlike Rome, the decline will be swift. Decades at most, not a century, of decline marked with sudden drops and bursts of false hope. Some places will do better than others. All is not lost. But, a period of profound pain and adjustment is coming.
We are still animals, and have a long way to go before we have a chance to break these sort of cycles. Of course, since most folks can't begin to fathom cycles that occur on timelines longer than thier lifetimes, this reality is simply ignored.
We're nowhere near maximum social complexity. The diseases that afflict us are not related to complexity.
Since you speak of cycles, we're not talking about technology. Consider the normal pattern of life through most of the past cycles - it was agrarian and stationary. Droughts and disease sometimes brought starvation, but barring that you had a system that could go on for generations, unmolested. Elsewhere, people schemed to control wealth and power, and when their schemes collapsed, those elements of society closest to the center suffered the worst. In seeking to maintain their power, elites will construct elaborate mechanisms of control through laws and institutions, adding to the complexity of society. You see the pattern: it is not the nature of societies to become cancerous. The cancer has to be planted.
Even now, it is not the natural complexity of an advanced society that threatens us, but the systems and controls established by the elites, tying tens of millions to them through dependency. That isn't a natural system, again it has to be imposed. If we were still a nation of small property owners working our own land we wouldn't be facing these problems, but they are not rooted in complexity, rather in ill intent. The existence of the human brain, supercomputers, etc. tells us that working complexity exists that goes far beyond the simple rules we need to function as a society, even at a hight level of technology, interaction, and interconnection.
The systems and controls established by the elites are an increase in complexity, and it seems clear to me that there are already diminishing marginal returns on approaches that rely on increases in complexity. So I'm not following the argument that we're nowhere near maximum social complexity. I think we are, and there is much evidence supporting that view, but one of the best analyses along these lines comes from Joseph Tainter. See e.g. COMPLEXITY, PROBLEM SOLVING, AND SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES, by Joseph A. Tainter, 1996 http://dieoff.org/page134.htm. He also wrote a book on the same topic that went into this in much more depth.
You see the pattern: it is not the nature of societies to become cancerous. The cancer has to be planted.
It is human nature to plant the cancer. It's one of the seven deadlies to which we are all susceptible. Greed.
<A repost from earlier>
For the record, I don't take meds, hear voices in my head or am delusional. I hold an MBA from one of the top 10 Bschools in the world and for the most part, am a sane person. So hear goes...
I just had lunch with a friend. She is Aboriginal and does fasting and sweat lodges as part of her tradition.
She told me that she has a spiritual Elder. This is akin to a Spiritual Director in the Catholic sense. This woman has an ability to see into the future. She spoke of a great wave washing over parts of Asia that would kill many, many lives. She said 3 days before the 2005 Tsunami.
My friend told me that her spiritual Elder, who is 80 years old, who does not have a computer, who does not understand the Internet told her the following statement, based on a vision she recently had:
"Within the next 6 weeks, the money system of the world will collapse and end. It will not be the end of the world, but it will be the end of the world money system and how we are use to living our lives."
Do with this as you wish. Not investment advice.
Now, which is it?
Well, I'm not a spiritual Elder, or a Time Bandit -- but I sure have to agree. The world is changing. I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and smell it on the air.
Don't a lot of us feel like we have walked to the edge of the ocean and noticed that the tide has receded away from the shore and clear beyond the horizon? That's not the time to stop and collect seashells. It's time to run for your car.
This is investment advice: Convert between 50% and 100% of your wealth to tangible forms as quickly as possible. 'Invest' with systemic collapse in mind. A good guide would be to invest as though you knew that a large part of the world, including your part, were going to lose electricity for one to two years.
"A good guide would be to invest as though you knew that a large part of the world, including your part, were going to lose electricity for one to two years." Perfect advice.
I agree, I too sense the world changing and I clearly see it in the manipulated price of PM's and everything else. Look out for those that look out for you, safeguard your wealth and prepare as best as you can.
There is too much pish being debated on this now, you've either got a pile of physical for use in the new Rome or you havent. Either way you are only going to come through this, if/when it happens, if you have community and friends you can trust.
UNFORTUNATELY, they have made sure thats been taken away from most of our developed "western" material driven star seekig fucking society. It suits them. Easy control.
United we stand, Divided we fall regardless of which side of the fence you are. And never have the people been defeated when they unite. Keep a free open mind and help your mates and fuck those who will fuck with you.
Keep on stackin and BTFD in these final days.
I was at a major social function the other evening and was asking people I met about their prognosis for the economy. I had a banker tell me that with his 40 years of experience, he's withdrawn all of his savings and put it into pms... he said that he believes that a major collapse is coming.
Out of the 4 strangers that I asked this question to, everyone independently said that they think something big is coming... and the rest of them were not bankers.
Thanks for posting these experiences, they are extremely interesting.
I have a request. Since *you* are a person who knows both bankers, and a person who has a Spiritual Elder, maybe you can translate from the medicine woman's language to the language of B-schools and economists.
What seems to you like a plausible translation of "the monetary system of the world is going to end" ? What is a plausible sequence of events, and how does it work its way down from the stratospheric heights to street level?
I have been kind of knocking my brains out over this problem for a while now.
All I can think of (but with little confidence) is something like this:
1. Some banks and other corporations implode, possibly related to European debt. Possibly banks that were thought relatively healthy, but have been looted.
2. Derivatives markets ( CDS ? ) chain reaction, mostly invisible to the street. Finance ministers and bankers start calling their wives and saying "Take the kids and go to the cabin."
3. Fed tries to backstop world with massive credit creation, and is crushed. Trillions of FRNs lost in an abyss that is quadrillions deep. Credit markets flash-freeze worldwide.
4. Most markets go bidless as most financial institutions try to sell assets to raise cash. Five days of circuit breakers in worldwide equities markets. This is first sign of the crisis that Main Street notices.
5. Rumors of ATM network 'malfunctions'. Two kinds of bank runs happen simultaneously: runs on ATMs for cash, and runs on 401K redemptions. Neither works for many people.
6. Bank holiday in US. Closed door meeting of congress. Pension fund seizure is marketed as 'rescue' -- pension fund assets are replaced by Government Account Series T-bills.
7. But on main-street, people don't have cash to buy food, and their plastic isn't working. Truckers on the highways are unable to buy fuel. Grocery store shelves in most areas are stripped.
8. Unrest in large cities. National curfew is declared but attempts at enforcement fail spectacularly. Attempts to federalize national guard units are rejected by most governors.
... and ... things kind of go downhill from there.
What would your version of this story look like ?
You'vwe nailed them...
My guess is the trigger is bank failure in Europe... pulls down other banks including those in the US... massive liquidity injections by Fed... bond and stock markets (and PMs temporarily collapse) in a drive for liquidity... liquidity suction is so severe that PM liquidation is massive and prices drop quite dramatically... Blackrock Spiders collapse with 1:100 physical paper... then you see a screaming search for physical... hyperinflation within 2 weeks.
#uck... I hope we are wrong.
To get a sense of how things can cascade within hours... take a look at Senator Kanjorski's recall of September 15, 2008.
Start at about 2:05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD8viQ_DhS4
If this happens... it will be hours, within 24 hours... circuit breakers don't work with derivatives.
btw :: the tsunami was in dec 2004.
we all know what B S teach best : BS for the corporate good!
But money today may not be money tomorrow. That is the danger. Tipping points come very suddenly.
Elders don't get younger. There is normalcy bias for elders to see life waning in shades of dark colors.
Oh, that explains how she got it right.
It would be nice to see her false positive and false negative rates on prior predictions vs. events. Sorry, one doesn't convince me.
Thanks for catching the mistype.
Something is coming...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ujAXxNxU0
btw - I thought the article was a good read.
"...but it will be the end of the world money system and how we are use to living our lives"
Do her spirits use poor grammar, or is it you with your fancy education?
"her spiritual Elder, who is 80 years old, who does not have a computer, who does not understand the Internet"
If he can't predict something that pervasive, what makes you think he has insight into anything else?
What communist don't get.... they. will. be. killed! There is no such thing as social utopia. He who has the gold has the power... period.
Good luck dreamers.
Typical US citizenish article.
US citizens are expansionists.
Expansionists usually prefer to stay away that the main issue with an expansionist scheme coming to a halt is that expansion is coming to a halt.
Here we have a cultural expansionist for whom the current issues are driven by cultural shifts.
None of his points stand.
For example, US citizens have always been moral relativists. Since the beginning. They have not changed one bit.
They declared that every men was entitled with an unalienable right named freedom (absolute morality) and relativized it by stating that some men should be kept as slaves(relative morality)
One could run through all the points to do the same and expose that US citizens have not changed one bit. Their nature is eternal. No change in it. No cultural shift.
What is going on is simple: less and less room to expand on. It is a normal stage in any expansion based scheme.
All in all, nothing new here: cheap propaganda.
Very true. Also, the American Revolution was not begun by commoners, it was the elite there, too. That kind of undermines the author's point. Revolutions just end up randomly.
Lady, your posts are super entertaining.
AnAnon,
As usual another stupid statement on your part.
IN THOSE TIMES.
All humans were not considered MEN.
Man, is a finite being, and being finite, must evolve spiritually, mentally, morally, and ethically,plus many other facets of history come into play.
YOU throw Slavery at Americans.(your a 360* Race card chunker),How many hundreds of not thousands of years were there SLAVES?,before America was?.
WHO sold them into slavery?,often they themsleves did.
More often, their OWN countrymen did .Where do you think the Honkies got the idea of importing African slaves from?,from the African tribes that had for centuries had done so.(So you cannot morally go there).
Also, 90% of all Black Americans would if polled, NEVER would have wanted to remain in Africa.They would for the most part not ever have been born, and likely died early,turned into slaves there,and never had a shot at the American dream(although not free by any means for their race,for several Gens).
If given an option, and I were Black, I would definitely prefer the American way,for sure over the past 50yrs.
Black/Black, Red/Red,Yellow/Yellow/Brown/Brown,European/European.( Same Same.)
Face the entiity of history fairly, and do not blame Americans (as a nation) who were not even around WELL before this started,with the Moral Relativism crap.
Why not dwell on ongoing slave governments, and caste systems?, as bad if not worse than slavery.
Your moral absolutism will not get us out of this mess either.
Interesting points, but let's be real: the Soviet Union fell apart without a wimper and disappeared like a vapor. This is counter to every article that has been posted about how governments that are too large and intrusive will do anything to preserve themselves and remain in power. This paradox is not addressed in this post or really any other I have seen. How can one of the most brutal, oppressive regimes go away without trying to retain power through violence and martial law? Please explain.
In my opinion, the USSR was bought out by the Rothschilds and the other elite bankers. They put Stalin in place, remember? The experiment failed, so they paid off the Politburro and pulled the plug. Now they are going to try reinventing socialism in the US, on the back of what used to be a capitalist society. They have learned their lesson, have we learned ours? Quite frankly, they are doing an outstanding job in facilitating the conversion. It is stunning how the sheeple do not see the Federal Reserve as the dangerous beast it really is, and how the Fed's owners want to imprint their Fabian culture on the entire world. It is only the top 1% who are elite bankers or who do their bidding that are the problem in this drama.
The Christian Czar had spent centuries using pogroms against the minority Jewish population. Dispursing them throughout the lands and into positions in government, the military and business. He wanted them as a group .....destroyed. Well, the long of the story.... the USSR was a jewish empire. Marx..ism.
One possible explanation (you're right, it begs for one, people don't surrender that kind of power peacefully):
In 1984 a high level Soviet defector named Anatoly Golitsyn wrote a book called, "New Lies for Old". He stated that since the early 1960s, the Soviet leaders had conceded amongst themselves that the west would never back down, given the brutal past of communism. The west had to be lulled into a sense of complacency. Golitsyn predicted that the breakup of the warsaw pact and the end of the Berlin Wall would happen within a decade of his writing. Russia would retain its crucial power (nukes and oil), and would rely more on proxies outside their borders.
After the 'fall', we heard stories for years about how they couldn't pay their soldiers, etc. Meanwhile development of advanced weapons systems continued apace. There's no telling what the real power in russia - or behind russia - intends to do.
The Occupy people are opposed to so much wealth being held by so few people. Great. Got it. There are essentially three ways to correct this.
1) The 1% will recognize the errors of their ways and magnanimously redistribute it. Probability of this happening: 0%
2) The 99% forcefully take the 1%'s wealth. Probability of this happening: 0%
3) Have the government collect it in the form of taxes and redistribute it. This is the most practical and we know that the current administration supports this model. Unfortunately for the Occupy folks, unless they are completely stupid and cannot recognize facts, the current administration is about as corrupt as can be and would end up using that additional revenue for wars, bailouts, crony capitalism, gun running operations, etc. Probability of this happening: 40% (only because the "unawake" still find government sponsored shakedowns virtuous).
So, what's going to happen when the Occupy folks can find no politicians that serve their interests other than Ron Paul? The "movement" withers on the vine because their is no method of achieving the goals they desire. They are living in a fantasy world and until that is realized this movement is meaningless.
You just don't get it. People are not looking for a vehicle of change. They are looking to stop being a vehicle of "status quo". It will start like it's started. With fuck you I'm not the horse you rode in on.
Dogs are the most genetically diversified beings on this planet. Riot dog will end up being in charge in greece.
The elite will look to the "everyone" to fix tihngs. They'll use the counterfeit money to "bribe" people. The people will make big promises but never deliver.
If you don't think these billions in student loans are not going to end in a giant fuck you then you are having difficulty seeing exactly who is living in a fantasy world and who isn't.
Billions in student loans, credit card balances, mortgages, business loans, car loans...lots of fuck yous out there.
And agreed it is more about stopping the status quo from kleptocratic corporatist oligarchy and socialism for the elite.
I wish americans would stand up, but they won't. The schools have programmed all americans to avoid being the object of any left or right epithet. As soon as you mention corporations you are a commie' or as soon as you mention inner cities and democratic graft, you are a turner diaries nut job.....Identity politics leads to this end. Extreme apathy defines america now....Like Soma...
Americans will act like those caught in Katrina, stuck on the roof waiting for someone to do something. Crime will rise slowly, independant thinkers will be vilified. Businesses will close, property values will go down, people will move to another town, another county, another state, you people always do. No tenacity anymore, my evidence is Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester and the Ohio river valley....Now it's Florida and California...You just picked up and moved away...you always do.
So all of the revolution talk is B.S. you are all bitchez, all show and no go............and occupy wall street are paid monkeys.
Pathetic......
and your free speech uses a big red paint brush.
personal experience always trumps academic inanities. You're fooked and your little countrymen too.......We (rotw) all watch with deep Schadenfreude at your trajectory. The Europeans are used to failure, they keep coming back, the chinese are experts at suffering the indians ditto........milk fed and caged americans are too weak to do anything about whats coming.
I will come for a visit and buy your house for a Silver dollar. And you won't do anything at all but say "Thank you! May I have another?"
Your country doesn't have the collective courage or a common vision. You are doomed. It will break up, just like the russian anaylyst Igor Panarin stated. Some regions left, some regions right, but all regions feckless and impoverished. Enjoy!
We're special. We've not had the turbulence you've had. We're just simple wage slaves for the cartel, you folks have been their cannon and political fodder for as long as you've been setting up one failed system after another. Our system has worked much better, so we're a little complacent. You think it's in the genes, and ours are weak? Most of us decided to come here, or were born to such folks. That spirit of indepence has always been with us and us alone; virtually all of the rest of the world is disarmed. If we are such patsies, why do we have the guns? You personally HAVE to trust that your government won't kill you and confiscate your property, we retain a check on that. Other populations are grist for the mill. In this day and age, that is the ultimate standard. We might not rebel, but we can. You can't do dick.
no offense dude, but have you never seen pictures of populations after they've been aerosoled with biowarfare chemicals? do you even realise how easy it will be to crop dust any area "they" want?
then later, "they" come by & pick up all your fabulous weapons, from your decaying hands. . .
oh, and flu shots. might give 'em a miss this season.
You are confusing tollerance with passivity.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.
For a much better overview of how empires collapse, check out a little book called "The Fate of Empires" by Sir John Glubb. A quick Google will bring up mulitiple hits, but there's evidently some sort of copyright issue with the estate, so it's not as easy to find the whole thing as it once was.
A good summary can be found at http://www.the-spearhead.com/2010/01/14/john-bagot-glubb/
We fit his pattern perfectly. And he wrote this book in the 1970's.
I wonder if you know how truly bad it is out there. Or maybe you do.
I live in one of the top three most dire states in terms of unemployment. The folks who used to be at the margins have now been joined the working class, which makes the middle class the working class, and so on and so forth right down the economic ladder. People "postponing" seeing a doctor for hypertension, ibuprofin to relieve the pain of an infected tooth, praying that $4.00 of gas will get you back and forth to your convenience store job...
The retail numbers come out better than expected. Why? Because it's possible to get "used to" cereal and raisins for supper so why not spend that extra 5 bucks on a DVD?
You want breaking points? It's coming. When cereal and raisins are a luxury, we're all in deep shit.
The income ceiling for food stamp assistance in Hawaii was recently raised to $69,000. Go spend some time in a grocery store and watch people use food stamps for one purchase and then cash for the liquor and cigarettes. Let's look at the Welfare program, which rewards 13 year old girls for getting pregnant with a monthly check that goes up if they get pregnant again. The breaking point will be when the lower class that has become accustomed to having the government buy their food and pay for their housing realizes that the gravy train has ended.
And peanut butter is going up 40%...as an example of the "new normal" of luxury items.
"Lions and tigers and bears...Oh My"
Brandon: This is on target.
Bitchez: Ignore this at your peril.
Physical Silver!!!
<sarc "Bullish" sarc off> ;-) Just had to. Can't help it any more...
This article made me think of John Ralston Saul's work.
"Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West" is one of my all time favorite books.
So it appears we have a problem, and we seem to understand part of it. Basically, the U.S. economy has backed off of a huge run up, and the rest of the World is with us. Now, as all charts seem to act, we go into a down trend. Unfortunately it is not as easy to shift the entire life of ourselves and our family to adjust, or keep status quo, as it is to sell Apple and buy IBM. Many have been hurt; many more are going to be hurt. And it is possible that in some underdeveloped Nations people are going to die.
Yesterday is gone and it was one hell of a great party. Now, we have a two fold task to deal with. Surviving while keeping an eye toward reconstruction and above all, keeping the Constitution in operational condition.
Forward thinking under duress or real pain, physical as well as mental is very difficult. We are not yet there to the real pain and hardship. I do not think the leadership is willing or maybe capable of leading us to the “I had a dream” survival and building mode.
We may loose a generation of wealth, education, and structure due to visible and shadow events. But, the U.S. population who has lost control of the Nation within which it lives, must regain control. The disaster can partially be blamed upon bad leadership making bad choices. This may be from being dumb or criminal or both. But it is clear that the word CHANGE is not tainted or re- defined by the present or past leadership.
We can not make this thing better without change of leadership.
VOTE
VOTE SMART
Gandhi, MLK, USA
I think leadership is the problem, not the solution.
I think that is the awakening that's happening.
Constitution is pretty old. Maybe it's time for a new one.
Life in modern America, and I am sure it is not unique to America, used to be good, I remember being happy and even delighted by my life much of the time. Now I wake up and switch on the coffee maker and go out for a smoke and get my first cup of java and life still seems good, till I turn this damned infernal pornograph on and see what a surreal place I really live in.
It is like being a disembodied person inside the mind of an insane serial killer who tries to have good manners but always insults everyone encountered. This must be what it would be like to be an ignorant peasant walking down the road one day who sees a Blackhawk helicopter land and uniformed jocks bristling with weapons get out and come for you, blindfold you for days, and when you wake and the blindfold is gone you are being interrogated at a military base in Cuba.
I woke today to see Mr. Obama has decided to send military advisors to three African nations, Uganda, Central African Republic, and the Congo. They are to"advise" the governments there on proper methods of battling a 26 year old insurgency. News flash Barry, if they have not figured out how to fight insurgency in 26 years will our 100 advisors really make that much of a difference? And I would like to point out our involvement in Vietnam started with just a few dozen "advisors," you do not have to be near dead with age to remember exactly those words on the evening news then. And we are talking about nations with the WORST records of human rights on the planet, Uganda and Congo are actually worse places for most residents than Iran is for Iranians. One of them is actually set to impose a death penalty just for being born homosexual, not even for the acts involved, just being gay. Now that gay American can serve in our military one has to wonder if they can even be sent to an "ally" that has made a death penalty just for being gay.
Like I said, it is bizarre, it is not rational, why in god's name would you do this?
Then I go to another story in the news, President Calderon is declaring defeat in the state of Veracruz, drug gangs are now in control there it seems, next step of course is addressing the symptom and not curing the problem, get American boots on Mexican soil for another war created by our own prohibition. All of northern Mexico is now a narco-republic requiring force. Or we could simply let people destroy their lives with drugs as they see fit. Again, insane either way.
I knew it was all over when "rap" and "hip hop" were labeled music, and tattoos were hailed as art. My washing machine makes more lyrical "music" than what passes for a good tune these days, and I leave stains on my sheets prettier than most tattoos. Who needs blood in the streets when you have the total destruction of everything we ever had that was good?
I am starting to think that the difference between good and insanely bad is not outside of me but in my own mind, if I could somehow disconnect from this damned computer I would not see the rot and evil and thus it would not be part of my reality. At least I might get a few more months of sweetness and calm before the insanity of modern life comes to my door.
Obama -- who has denounced the LRA as an "affront to human dignity" -- said the troops would serve as trainers and advisers in the efforts to hunt down rebel leader Joseph Kony and would not be involved in combat except in self-defense.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Uganda’s infamous Kill The Gays bill is back and is being fast-tracked through Parliament. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, or AHB, which proscribes the death penalty for being gay, was far from dead itself, and was never “shelved,” as many in the media werre falsely reporting. Rather, the Uganda Parliament merely ran out of time to debate and vote on it.
Now, with a new Parliament in session, the bill, which calls for the death penalty for the “crime” of being gay or HIV-positive, and prison sentences for friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances who believe someone is homosexual but does not immediately report them to authorities, may be voted on “by the end of August,” according to Uganda expert Warren Throckmorton.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
A horses ass it seems can justify anything, even American boys and girls fighting in 6 nations simultaniously, seven if we go help Mexico, even involving America with governments like the one above. If this does not really bother you then you have to finally admit to yourself that you are a fascist. If so own it, quit denying it.
+1
thank you for taking the time to write both of these thoughtful posts above, boiltherich - really nothing to add beyond noting I've read them both a couple times now, and I too wish I could find a way to abandon the infernal computer web that pulls me back here - we are all going forward at speed to meet whatever awaits, I wish you and yours any peace you can find.
remove
Cleaning my hat ...
"Our country” (the one that is to be “taken back”) belongs to the fools, the base, and the corrupt just as much -or more so, due to force of sheer numbers- than it belongs to the wise, the pure, and the noble. That’s the whole proclaimed point of Western Democracy. Equality. The wise, pure and noble are always outnumbered. When you make all equal, you instantly negate wisdom, purity, and nobility."
http://arcticpatriot.blogspot.com/2011/10/cleaning-my-hat.html
"In America, the uprising was led by common men and the target was clear. In Russia, the uprising was led by elitists posing as common men, and the target was obscured."
I would argue the exact opposite is true.
If so, it looks like 1. even the common man can't control his genocidal urges, or 2. He can't keep elites from co-opting his government and doing it. Whatever happened in Russian can be counted in millions of souls.
"Ultimately, the vast and sordid history of collapse could be summarized simply as a series of breaking points; moments at which opposing ideals and forces hyperextend the prevailing mechanics of a system, changing it entirely."
Ummm, that's rather good. Who exactly wrote that? Because I'd to from now on read whatever that person writes. Guidance?
demographic shift and the can kicking to 2022 : Abbey Cohen's take on the US economy at that horizon. GS, the squid's crystall ball gazing.
Top Goldman Strategist: Watch Out For The Year 2022Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/abby-joseph-cohen-says-watch-out-for-year-2022-2011-10#ixzz1asaGT2i7
No wonder the Squid is the SQuid. And runs the world...at least upto 2022!
buy silver bitches!!!!
hahhahahahah. remember that, when people used to randomly post about buying silver to break jpmorgan.
yea. the good ol' days.
The author doesn't understand ethics, unfortunately. Moral relativism is wrong, but normative ethics is wrong too; Logical ethics is misguided, but surely he's not suggesting we should all just follow our emotions and instincts. WHICH IS IT?
Normative ethics is based on the one and only natural law: that we own our own bodies and the prducts of our labor. Decisions which violate that priciple are objectively wrong.
Moral relativism should be applied to all other decisions. (ie, those which do not involve violating property rights).
So sad that few people get this. I hope they do one day.
I'm learnign Espanol now...Mandarin, Urdu and Arab next if things go well...soon all containers and signs in the USA will be written in three or four languages....the trend is not always your friend.
+1
Enjoyed the essay. As someone who often rants about double standards and moral relativism, I would say that moral relativism has not risen, but has always been an intrisic part of the fabric of American society, better known as "(American) exceptionalism". You hear it when people rightly express anger and disgust at mass murders and rapes done by 3rd world soldiers, but not when it is done by your own troops. Acts that are unacceptable when done by other people, like torture, assassinations, invasions, theft, defective manufactured goods (Like GE's nuclear reactors in Japan, & Union Carbide's chemical plant in Bhopal), even shooting down a civilian airliner with 290 passengers including 66 children, are often excused, rationalised, and defended when it is done by "Your people". Cpt. Will Rogers, commanding USS Vincennes which shot down the civilian Airbus A300 (Flight 655) received the Order of Merit medal from GWH Bush at the end of his tour. After all, they were only brown Iranian kids. Logical framework doesn't have to enter into it.
The rest of the points are very well made, but I dare say that the first is the most important point of contention that must surely be at the forefront of all that pisses people off about today's society where giant Ponzi schemes are excused because it is done by the government, fraud is neither investigated nor prosecuted because it is done by too-big-to-fail corporations, the famous and the rich are able to avoid going to prison (Except perhaps poor Lindsay Lohan) simply by being famous or rich, and the very people who are paid to protect the public are instead protecting the few powerful from retribution. Not just the police, but other agencies like the EPA protecting oil companies who poison the water supplies of American families. (See toxic chemicals used in "fracking" by oil company surveys, and how they are exempt from disclosure. See also American toy manufacturers and how they are also exempt from disclosing toxic content. In 2008, when there was an explosion of stories about toxic toys from China, I did a post about how in laboratory tests on 1268 toys sold in America, they found that the vast majority of toys containing dangerous levels of lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury were Made In America, but most people don't want facts - published http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071205/BIZ/712050398 )
You might not even need riots or revolution if you can find some decent people who will simply do their jobs in politics, and apply the existing laws of the land to every political and corporate thief who break them. Call me naive if you want, but I reckon Ron Paul might be a good start.
Brandon Smith's work is always a great read and provides for some serious deep thinking. Moral relativism isn't just an American contruct, it rears its ugly and destructive head anytime a society shelves moral absolutes. Right and wrong become subjective based on situation or circumstance. Clever euphemisms constantly repaint or replace and obfuscate wrongs. When this occurs, the final countdown begins and a "me" generation begins to facilitate that society's eventual collapse. IMHO
People like to compare America's decline to the decline and fall of Rome, but one thing never mentioned is that the biggest impediment to Rome's survival was that their small-town Republican constitution wasn't equipped to deal with the issues that arose as Roman hegemony increased. Perhap's our problem is the same??? Maybe in part?
A republic ceases being so when world hegemony is achieved. It is then an empire that has betrayed it's founding principles.
Nope. The us constitution is framed in simplicity for exactly this reason.
Look at everything since that has purposefully undermined that principle. It is exactly the opposite in your example. More laws, more collapse, more bonuses.
Shouldn't we be discussing fag rights?
Brandon said, "Interestingly, there are some forms of theoretical mathematics which allow false conclusions to be presented as fact, ..."
What are these forms of theoretical mathematics?
He also had no clue about what fuzzy logic actually is.
The Jews are making their big play for worldwide communism. People should know that communism/socialism was of Jewish origin and that the bolsheviks were Jews. In Russia they murdered between 20 and 60 million people in the name of their vile ideology. In the 60's the 'cultural revolution' was led by Jews who went on to give us affirmative action (ie advancement based on tribal affiliation rather than merit), women's rights ( so they could get all the shiksa pussy they wanted), queer rights (a large number of Jews are buggers and dykes), the welfare state (so they could get jobs and earn interest on borrowed money), etc. By fostering the same kind of tribalism that defines the Jewish community, they have fractured America and destoryed its culture. Now all these tribes are fighting for ever more 'rights' and 'privileges' and an even more oppressive government.
Spot on!
It shouldn't be long now for the 'white-supremacist' reply.
you guys need to really relax your fear of a nonexistant commie pinko take over. the establishment is corrupt. it's not about left and right really at all. it's about ending the wars, sanity in economic and foreign policy matters.
No it's about a mindset. One mindset - the original one of Americans - was of individual rights, individual responsibility, limited government, the same rules applying to everyone, and no free ride.
The mindset we have now - courtesy of the Jews is - special rights for certain tribes (ie bankers, Jews, blacks, hispanics, queers, etc and no rights for the white majority), blame whitey for everything and suck him dry in 'reparations' to pay for his imaginary sins against everyone, ever expanding government to micromanage the goyim sold to us using the rhetoric of 'protecting us', rules for everyone except the chosen ones - they are above the rules, and bail out the tribes for their failures which is socialism to a "T" at the expense of the productive, the normal, and the good.
They are after total cultural destruction in America just like they destroyed Russia, just like they destroyed Palestine, just like they destroyed Iraq once we invaded. That's all these people are. Destroyers and vampires.
no. it. wasn't.
try some history books, preferably not of the "approved curriculum" variety - the "original" amrkns did NOT extend "individual rights" that applied "to everyone" - that's a basic understanding that needs to be made before ANYthing else you decide to believe in.
Incorporation is the rot in every numbered example above.
Until there is corporate accountability there is and will be nothing but failure of every level from individual consciousness to the rule of law.
No one will see it coming, but they get record bonuses!
Give a working citizen a bonus, or better yet let him keep his money, instead of cock sucking sam paying the fraud bonuses above with it.
This ends when government colluding with fraud masking as a free market is burnt to the ground, and many bankers and politicians behind fraud Inc. are dead or behind bars.
Let the .001% eat cake until they fucking choke - burn the rest of their fraud kingdom to the ground.
Babylon will fall read revelation. And for all you racisit crackers out there..... your gonna die. cause we all gonna die..... hahhahhahahahahahahaha stupid mother fucker.