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Guest Post: Why Am I Hopeful
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
Why Am I Hopeful
Readers often ask me to post something hopeful, and I understand why: doom-and-gloom gets tiresome. Human beings need hope just as they need oxygen, and the destruction of the Status Quo via over-reach and internal contradictions doesn't leave much to be happy about.
The most hopeful thing in my mind is that the Status Quo is devolving from its internal contradictions and excesses. It is a perverse, intensely destructive system with horrific incentives for predation, exploitation, fraud and complicity and few disincentives.
A more human world lies just beyond the edge of the Status Quo.
I know many smart, well-informed people expect the worst once the Status Quo (the Savior State and its corporatocracy partners) devolves, and there is abundant evidence of the ugliness of human nature under duress.
But we should temper this Id ugliness with the stronger impulses of community and compassion. If greed and rapaciousness were the dominant forces within human nature, then the species would have either died out at its own hand or been limited to small savage populations kept in check by the predation of neighboring groups, none of which could expand much because inner conflict would limit their ability to grow.
The remarkable success of humanity as a species is not simply the result of a big brain, opposable thumbs, year-round sex, innovation or even language; it is also the result of social and cultural associations that act as a "network" for storing knowledge and good will--what we call technical and social capital.
I have devoted significant portions of my books Survival+ and An Unconventional Guide to Investing in Troubled Times to an explanation of how community and self-reliance have atrophied under the relentless expansion of the dominant Savior State.
The social capital and "return on investment" earned from investing time and energy in community and other social networks has been replaced by a check from the Savior State--a transfer payment that surely beats the troublesome work of investing in community in terms of risk and return.
The net result of the Savior State dominating society and the economy is the rise of a pathological mindset of entitlement and resentment--the two are simply two sides of the same coin. You cannot separate them.
Once self-reliance has been lost, so too has self-confidence been lost, and the Savior State dependent--individual and corporation alike--soon distrusts their ability to function in an open market.
This is a truly sad, self-destructive state of affairs, and deeply, tragically ironic. The calls for "help" quickly lead to dependence on the Savior State, and that dependence quickly breeds complicity and silence in the face of repression and predation by the State and its corporate partners.
In a very real sense, citizens relinquish their citizenship along with their self-reliance and self-worth once they accept dependence on the State.
I often mention that the U.S. has much to learn from so-called Third World countries that are poorer in resources and credit. In many of these countries, the government is the police, the school and the infrastructure of roadways and energy. Many of these countries are systemically corrupt, and the State is the engine of enforcing that corruption.
Rather than something to be embraced and lobbied, involvement with the State is something to be avoided as a risk. In everyday life, people rarely encounter the government except in law enforcement or schooling.
As a result, people depend on their social capital and community for sustenance, support, work and connections.
This is not altruism, it is mutually beneficial.
Once a community dissolves into atomized individuals who each get a payment from the Central State, then they no longer need each other. Rather, other dependents on the State are viewed as competitors for the State's resources.
These atomized, isolated individuals have a perverse relationship with the State and what remains of the community around them: lacking the self-worth earned from work or engagement/investment in a community, then their only outlet for self-identity is consumption: what they wear, eat, drink, etc. as consumers.
This dependence on the State also serves the State's goal, which is a passive, compliant populace of dependents, and distracted, passive workers who pay their taxes. Thus dependence on the State and a hollow consumerism are ontologically bound: one feeds the other.
The era of debt-based consumption as the engine of "growth" and "prosperity" is coming to an end. Adding debt via credit no longer creates growth; it actually takes away from the economy by expanding debt service (interest payments).
The vast majority of developed-world people have had the basics of life since the late 1960s -- transport, food, shelter and utilities. The "growth" since then depended on cheap, abundant oil and a consumerist mentality in which one constantly re-defines and renews one's identity not from social investments in others or the shared community but from consumption.
Not coincidentally, this dominance of consumption as the only metric for "growth" (as opposed to, say, productive activity) has been paralleled by the dominance of the Central State.
The end of credit-based consumption will be a very positive development, as will the devolution of the Savior State. The Savior State is like oil--both are at their peaks and are starting their inevitable slide down the S-curve. The world they created was not as positive for human fulfillment and happiness as we have been told.
Indeed, study after study has found that people with the basics for life, a higher purpose that requires sacrifice and a tight-knit community are far and away happier than isolated, atomized, insecure consumers, regardless of their wealth and consumption.
This potential to re-humanize our economy is why I am hopeful.
These are some of the themes I develop in my new book Resistance, Revolution, Liberation: A Model for Positive Change.
Longtime reader/correspondent Brad L. offered an insightful commentary on why he remains hopeful.
I see the potential for a discontinuous plunge into chaos driven by unsustainable debt every time I read a macroeconomic analysis. But "on the ground" in my own life, I see something different. Every day, in millions of unheralded ways, I see individuals making incremental changes in the direction of sustainability. There are twice the number of farmers' markets that there were 10 years ago, largely because the number of farmers is actually rising for the first time in modern American history. My buddy who owns an electric bike shop can't keep them in stock, because people are dumping their second cars in favor of e-bikes. There's more solar on rooftops every week in my little Tempe suburb. Etc. etc. etc.
It adds up to "damping the discontinuity," and perhaps explains why we are six years into fearing a plunge into horror that never quite seems to materialize. The better society that you envision - I often think as I read your great essays - may be quietly building itself under all of our noses.
The obvious question, of course, is will it happen fast enough? But I am very much an evolutionary theorist. Unlike Mencken, I don't see boobus Americanus when I look around me, tempting as that dismissal may be. The deeper truth about even the most pathetic Americans is that, like all human beings, they are the end product of 250,000 years of homo sapiens selecting for survival and reproduction, which means selecting for problem-solving.
And I dispute the notion that the "default" way to solve the survival-reproduction problem is to kill or otherwise tear communities apart. At a deep level, we understand that groups and tribes survive more readily - and allow us to mate and raise young more successfully-- than do individuals. I am confident that the emerging solutions will be rooted in that understanding.
Should the manifesting of problems pick up speed, I guarantee that this generalized, widespread, difficult-to-track-or-quantify problem-solving will speed up accordingly. I am confident that the former won't outpace the later to any vast degree. Ultimately, I admit, that's just a guess, but there is a lot of history behind that guess.
I know the numbers you have cited of the debt that's been taken on to support the Status Quo over the past four years ($6 trillion in new Federal debt plus the $7.7 trillion bailout of the banks) don't come close to being sustainable, and suggest serious, rapid, negative change. But a brilliant thinker once remarked that "Food is wealth, health is wealth, energy is wealth; all else is illusion."
So if the first thing that changes is the internalization of this ethic, the remainder of the changes won't be so difficult. Big if. Possible, though, because it will become necessary. Maybe the best example of "problem solving" that I cited earlier will be the revamping of problematic values...
Also - a huge, overlooked positive enjoyed by Americans is low population density amid vast tracts of arable land in a temperate climate. If sufficient food is the real basis for wealth, we'll need to seriously screw up - via nuclear war that spreads within our borders, for example - to experience the loss of anything we truly need. Any "suffering" rooted in the loss of cheap Chinese crap does not, I think, deserve to the labeled as such, and perhaps many people will come to realize this.
I guess I'll stay hopeful until forced to become otherwise. Have not been forced yet.
Thank you, Dan and Brad for these contributions. I will close this Christmas Eve entry with two favorite quotes:
From the poet Rumi: Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasures.
From Leonardo Da Vinci (via Kathy K.):
Don’t underestimate this idea of mine, which calls to mind that it would not be too much of an effort to pause sometimes to look into these stains on walls, the ashes from the fire, the clouds, the mud, or other similar places. If these are well contemplated, you will find fantastic inventions that awaken the genius of the painter to new inventions, such as compositions of battles, animals, and men, as well as diverse composition of landscapes, and monstrous things, as devils and the like. These will do you well because they will awaken genius with this jumble of things.
Best wishes to you for a safe and happy holiday season!
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CNBC just said sometime in 1999 the s&p closed at 1264..I was blown away by that
Sure I've been saying to all the bulls and their euphoria that markets are at 1999 levels, not even inflation adjusted. And at about 1960 levels priced in gold.
YET the Grand Illusion still keeps all the sheeple sleepy.
Is Tayler okay, no tweets in awhile?
Sheep,
After that stat, I feel blessed in a simple way. People don't realize we have stood still or fallen off a cliff.
My glass is half full today.
Mankind's self interests and inhumanity to his fellow species can seem overwhelming at times, yet during times like these, mankind often shows he or she is capable of true nobility.
With that, there is always hope.
Pain is often associated with change, as in surgery or working out. But the benefits are undeniable in many cases.
Thumbs and year-round sex make me hopeful too.
Corruption and blindness, not so much.
2012 will be a year of change, even by our 'new apocalyptic normal' standards. Hold on to your hats and above all your principles.
God bless us every one.
We are dealing with seriously dumbed down, successfully propagandized populations that have no idea what's going on all living within political and economic systems that have evolved to take advantage of their ignorance, stupidity, and apathy. So, how can this possibly end well? I'm not the least bit optimistic.
Amen. Very well put.
It seems the rhetoric on this site has been ratcheted up recently. Most articles and the comments below seem to be predicting an imminent collapse in the banking system that takes down everything with it. The market may not be far above where it was 10 years ago but it has not collapsed. Even the most dire economists (Schiff, Faber) advocate holding some equities.
Well you could consider PIMCO's 2012 forecast as discussed here
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/pimco-releases-2012-economic-forecasts-pre...
And position yourself for significant economic stagnation/contraction. Some equities....OK....how does 10-20% sound?
What would make sense, outright ownership of corporate bonds to maturity, meaning the actual paper certificates with 5% plus interest, is (surprise) virtually impossible for the individual investor to procure.
In a zero real return environment across all major asset classes, diversification is still smart. It's the expectations that have to adjust.
When zero real is all you get, you have to increase savings in a big way. Thus reducing consumption. It's a negative feedback loop, but we deserve it for 30 years of low interest 'forward consumption'. It'll take that long to unwind, if we can escape the corruption that is the true market (and democracy) killer.
See, the corruption is what takes the zero real return negative. If you are not worried about it....have a nice swim!
The Horse Manure Problem:
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2011/03/29/the-horse-manure-problem/
I'd be a lot more hopeful if the "Status Quo" could get the Nicolae & Elena Ceausescu treatment and we could get back about 14 of the 15 trillion that disappeared over last 30-40- yrs.
Intriguing notion on atomization. I have primarily noticed this in a political context whereby, in my opinion, people have the potential to lose the ability to coalesce around candidates, good or bad, who are running for office. In my mind that leads to a fragmented electorate and amplifies that possibility of a charismatic yet dangerous person capturing enough of the vote not because they are the "best" candidate, but because the opposition is fragmented via atomisitc political self-absorption.
I had never considered atomization in the sense of consumption as a differentiator for those who can otherwise only identify with the Savior State.
Also, an interesting point that entitlement and resentment are 2 inseperable sides of the same coin.
Why I'm not hopeful.
Hope & Change is not a strategy. With politicos of all stripes with their collective heads in the sand, debt ballooning everywhere, where is the growth going to come from? From more debt? To think that B. Hussein Soetero or Merkozy can even comprehend the problem is a stretch, let alone have any kind of solution.
You can hope all you want, but it isn't going to change the outcome of a collapse of fiat paper and sovereign debt.
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
Exactly. The "easy routes" for central bankers and the pols they own do not provide a correct solution to the problem. And they're working with a now obviously fatally flawed Keynesian economic model that leads them to blindly attempt the impossible task of fixing a debt saturation based problem via the acquisition of massive amounts of additional debt along with the transfer of private debt to the public sector. This can't end well and won't.
I have Faith that one of the most well armed Nations in History will handle starvation well, being hungry and watching your baby daughter starve are two completely different things.
I have Hope that People will treat each other with respect, even though on T.V. (Idiot Box) People are given a reason to hate one another 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I believe that Human Nature falls more to the side of good than evil broadly.. but when the leadership and planning committees are plainly evil.. I dont understand how the ignorant sheep could be herded in another direction easily.
People would rather feel good than feel bad.. thusly the facts are constantly over looked in favor of some puff piece of shit like this one.
People cant handle the truth and even if they can they would rather not be bothered until the truth is thrust upon them and they then have no other choice but to pay attention.
No one can change what is going on. (out of us here)
No one is at fault for what is going on. (out of us here)
so why would one want to drive themselves crazy with the thoughts of what could be? if it happens then it happens! might as well live as blissfully ignorant as possible until such time that it is impossible to live blissfully ignorant of the realities that surround us daily.
Yes!
Ignorance is Bliss!
Stupidity is Heaven!!
and we might as well party like its 1999!
Ignore it ALL!
Ignore Your Rights NOW! you will have forgotten you had them later! when you need them.
You fucking idiot scum deserve what you have allowed to happen!
Pandora's Box contained all of the evil the world had to endure. So why did Greek Mythology put 'Hope' in the Box? The ancient Greeks despised inaction. Sitting on your nuts and 'hoping' things will get better deserves scorn. Make a plan and do something. Today is better than tomorrow.
Dude, where is this year round sex that is being spoken of?
Seriously, I'm surrounded by blissfully hopeful people, unaware of the underlying rot in the political, financial, social, and even religious realms.They don't care to hear the unvarnished truth about anything. Its not polite.
My hope was summarily crushed back when Ronnie Reagan was elected; the corruption of those eight years are still crushing US.
My solution: smoke happy weeds, go along to get along, be absorbed by the borg, embrace the Fukushima radiation, and take solace that no one knows my secret insane "conspiracy theories", all of which are far more probable that the collective delusions.
Hope is for puppies, children, and the mentally ill.
indeed, acceptance of what IS - the only way to surf the Now.
Hope (and change) died with the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.
It has dampened down a movement that was just finding its legs. It will silence the voices that need to be heard so that hope was possible.
To me, it is the clearest evidence that the NWO is here and there is no fight possible without an immediate threat to your life and liberty. That is truly hopeless.
Any hope is now reduced to wishful thinking.
Only the sheeple have hope, as illusory as it is, and I envy them.
The future of our society is reflected in the children. Ask your K-12 teachers what the quality of their students is. Who are the breeders in society? The top 30% of earners or the bottom 30% state dependents? When you gaze out over a classroom in an urban center do you see the faces of kids who will grow up to solve the world's problems? The geniuses who will create new medicines and energy supplies?
Its exactly because humans beeings get tired of the gloom and doom cenarios that the markets work.
They dont need the goverments stimulus.
It does take longer and it is more gradual, but it does work, it is natural, it has its own pace and it doesnt have any moral hazard.
The markets dontt need to be syncronized with the politians schedule, they are independent
Hope is the adversary of acceptance. Acceptance in the prerequisite of change.
Hope and change are diametriacally opposed. As long as there is hope, there is no change.
Once the unchageable is accepted, it can be changed.
Hope is not a reasonable confidence in an expected outcome, any more than fear is the reasonable assessment of a danger. The first is properly called confidence, and the latter is called prudence. Hope is the unreasonable gamble on a long shot, and fear is an unreasonable assessment of danger to the point of discouraging action. Fear and hope are siblings, and it requires courage and inner fortitude to overcome both.
A pox on hope- it is a sickness of the mind and should be discouraged in all humans.
Sorry, not buying it. Fear is just as likely to be irrational as hope. The gambler is addicted to unrealistic hope, and the neurotic is crippled by unreasonable fear.
Both hope and fear have their uses, and must be kept in balance. I hope I don't see any more simple-minded comments, but I fear they will continue and proliferate.
Unlike the author, I do see boobus Americanus around me--in droves. However, I notice that (as the Genii said of Aladdin) "He can be taught." I, too, see people making incremental changes in their lives and slowly but inexorably abandoning their destructive materialism and their dependence on government to provide what no government can provide.
We are a long, long way from renewal, but I see the first signs of the rebirth of community and personal responsibility, like the robin that returns while the snow is still on the ground.
hahahh, yes a pox on hope!
hope is a future imagined, and takes one from the present moment, where the only real power lies.
hope can be a tool that stunts action in the now, delays joy in what is, however seemingly meagre.
jam today!
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/jam-tomorrow.html
"HOPE" is the last word in defense of salvation!
H ___ Hypothetically
O ___ Optimistic
P ___ Predicated
E ___ Existentialism
Hope is hard-coded into us as the will to live. All you have to do is just read about what humans can and will endure to live in the most horrific and appalling conditions. Always how I have defined 'hope' and what it is largely about to me.
abandon hope all ye who enter here....
(Long)
The future is seldom as bright as we've hoped or as dark as we've feared.
What I see is a society that is facing a fundamental paradox - in a world where the vast majority of work has been automated, what do you do with the people who formerly did those jobs? Our economy is based upon the Taylor hour - the idea that a person's work was worth a certain amount of money per hour, and that by providing that work, the average worker would get paid a sufficient amount not only to insure that they could continue working (basic needs like food, shelter, clothing, transportation, etc. met), but that he or she had a surplus that could go into purchasing the products his or her labor created.
In an ideal world, the profits gained by automation should have been shared equally between the purchaser of that automation and those people that were displaced, but of course this never happened. Instead, the profits went to the investors, and from there into chasing yield, essentially unproductive financial tricks that abstracted out the notion of labor altogether. Offshoring is simply another form of automation, and in fact could only exist in conjunction with that automation - you cannot offshore if you don't have the communication, logistical and transportation infrastructure necessary to do so.
We're facing the logical end-state of this paradox. The arguments concerning the "Savior State" provided above are simply another vehicle to blame the displaced. If people were only self-reliant, if they were only willing to live an austere life and not challenge the status quo, if they weren't so dependent upon the largess of the government, then the economy would be in better shape.
It's such a tempting argument, because in our Calvinistic culture we have a strong tendency to look upon those who are poor as somehow not being as worthy of redemption, because obvious God does not smile upon them. In reality, it is simply another form of aristocratic feudalism, another attempts to keep the serfs bound to the land and the slaves to the plantation. It doesn't address the automation paradox, doesn't address the very inconvenient fact that work is a finite resource - there is only so much work to go around that provides enough value to make it worthwhile to pay for.
The irony of course is that there are so many problems besetting this country right now - crumbling infrastructure, decaying educational systems, environmental remediation, a healthcare system with too few practicing doctors and nurses - that are desperately in need of such work. Yet as most of these do not directly impact those who benefited most heavily from the loss of work due to automation and off-shoring, these receive inadequate funding. Taxing the wealthy to cover at least some of these costs is the most logical way of at least starting to provide that funding, but because those same wealthy have effectively captured the government this is not going to happen.
This is indicative of the second paradox of contemporary life - the extreme mobility of wealth. In feudal societies, wealth was not portable - it was tied up in land, physical treasures, horses and livestock, and ultimately the utility derived from a given land's tenant serfs. This meant that like it or not, the wealthy still had to live among the people that produced that wealth, and a bad lord would soon be facing rebellions and decreased returns from their serfs. It also meant that vassalage could be expected to put some portion of their wealth to the common good, even if the lords in question would have preferred otherwise.
Today, wealth can move blazingly fast, and as such it becomes far easier to hide. It also means that the wealthy have no real reason to invest heavily in their local communities (or the communities of the source of their wealth, which may or may not be the same thing). They can afford their own police, their own medical systems, their own education, their own infrastructure. They can insure that products produced in sweat shops in Southeast Asia at fractions of pennies to the dollar (or in automated factories in Mexico) can then be sold to wealthier shoppers in the United States, driving out local manufacturers who can't compete without also going automated, the profits of which are then invested into even more automation or into their gated communities accessible only by helicopter.
The people in Mexico or Southeast Asia do not significantly benefit - their work is valued at far below what it would be in the United States (assuming that the plant isn't automated, in which the only benefit to the local community is to the local land-magnate who sold the property), and they often have to face the environmental fallout costs of these plants. The people who buy the cheap products do not materially benefit - had they bought local they would probably have paid more, but they would have had clothing or articles that would be of higher quality and would last longer, and the money would have stayed in the community. The government doesn't benefit. Indeed, only the investors benefit, and those investors buy and large are still, even in this day and age, a very small percentage of the overall population (certainly well less than 1%), and typically are the self-same inhabitants of those gated communities.
Is a bigger government the answer? No. Governments can be bought and sold, and the more consolidated the concentration of power, the easier it is to corrupt it. The last fifty years has proved that, if nothing else.
What of curbs on corporations? Revoke the personhood of corporations. Place a requirement upon corporations that they can only have a presence within a given state or city if they are willing to undergo a plebiscite every ten years for renewal of their license, once they reach a certain size. This will have tend to tilt the balance of power away from consolidated chains and towards local businesses, which would increase the number of jobs and more importantly keep the proceeds of those jobs in the region.
Make bribing a government official a crime, and enforce it (and strictly define what a bribe is). Put term limits on all offices. Decentralize governments - make state and local governments more powerful, and reduce the overall power of the Federal government (or even split the country up into it's fundamental historical regions).
Change corporate laws so that investors in a corporation can be held legally liable for laws broken dependent upon their overall investment percentage - if you are 40% invested in a company that defrauds people, you may be facing fines or jail time. Place compensation caps upon director-level positions and above as a fixed multiple of the median wage for a company. Additional amounts can be paid, but they will be taxed at a far higher level than the compensation limit. Require that a company's financial statements are publicly accessible in electronic form and are no more than one month out of date. Reinstate limits on corporate ownership of media.
I'm sure others can come up with their own suggestions, but the ultimate take-away here is that before blaming the "Savior State" for inducing moral laxness, take a close hard look at those shouting that message the loudest, and ask where the problem really lies. When there are no other avenues, people will turn to the government for help if it is provided, but in my experience people prefer to make their money by working for it, by doing something legitimate and productive. When people's professions are destroyed from beneath them, when hard work, loyalty and dedication is paid back with pink slips, diatribes about how immoral and lazy the poor are and the wholesale plundering of their savings and retirement accounts, it's perhaps not surprising that they reach a point where they opt out of the system.
I believe this is what we're looking at over the course of the next decade. Ordinary people are taking their livelihoods to the web. They are leaving the existing system where they can. They are moving their money where it is more local and accessible, are shunning the markets in favor of direct investment, and are ironically taking on risk knowing that they are liable for their losses. Why? Because it's fair, and I think people put more of a premium on fairness than most of the corporate pundits will readily acknowledge. They are creating cooperatives with very specific covenants about what such cooperatives can and cannot do.
These same people are also learning old skills, or variations on old skills. They are restoring old cars and motorcycles and building new ones from scratch, they are sewing their own clothes and growing their own crops, are taking up welding and smithing and basic engineering, They are building goods for games online or trading, writing code for their own ventures rather than taking up with the big companies, and they are becoming highly skilled at it. Some are becoming skilled at reclamation - tearing down houses and buildings, restoring lands to fallow conditions. There's also a growing market for entertainment in that realm that bypasses the big producers, and does so with an increasing level of success. As these markets grow, they also pull this talent and resources from the existing markets - fewer programmers to be hired, fewer artists, fewer engineers and entrepeneurs.
And yes, there is a definite gray market quality to it, if not black market, but it's really about the only way that I see the current impass ending. Big government is in a deadly embrace with big finance and the corporate-military infrastructure. These organizations all have huge amounts of uncollectable debt, and are dependent upon huge sums of money flowing. I hear periodically that the government debt is now several tens or hundreds of trillions of dollars, and that we are taxing our children's and grandchildren's lives in perpetuity.
I don't believe that will happen. The governments will collapse first, or repudiate the debt or otherwise lose legitimacy, the corporations (and their investors) will be out money poorly spent and many will be forced to close their doors. The grocery stores will no longer carry twenty variations of every single kind of food, we may have fewer gas stations and be forced to spend more time on foot. McDonalds, Burger King and Starbucks will disappear, and in their place there will be more local stores and restaurants. I expect the Internet will remain - people will move heaven and earth to keep their Internet connection, even if everything else goes away. I also expect that at some point we will see the great unraveling, as the strains that have been building in the United States since it was founded finally rip the fabric of the country apart, but that won't happen for a while yet (I'm guessing either 2050 or 2090).
In short, the future will not be utter chaos, but nor will it be the world of today. Globalization is over, at least for a while. We're in for a period of decentralization and reduced choices, of microcorporations and ad-hocracies. Long term employment will become a luxury that few will have, but if you're skilled and willing to work, you can do quite well. Personally, I prefer that kind of an economy - it feels more honest.
ahhh, another great post. . .
two ideas popped out for me - one:
reminded me of a story of the "new world settlers" coming upon the original inhabitants, and being horrified at their lack of "clothing" - no corsets or layers of undergarments to hide the shame of the body, as put forth by their restrictive belief system - and how slovenly they grew their "gardens" - the 3 sisters of corn, beans & squash being sown on a smallish mound of soil, each plant complimentary to the other. . . the newcomers knew better of course, crops need strict ROWS to exist, and this allowed them to label the first peoples as childlike "savages" - and gave them permission in their minds to steal the lands, eventually killing the peoples, because they were "godless". . . aye.
now ^this^ puts me in mind of DIY culture, or punk, not so much the music, but the idea, which is: if you want music, do-it-yourself. . . if you want food, learn to grow it, if you want clothes, make 'em, etc. etc. - there are periods in time when small groups of people just shrug free of the massive systems in place to smother them, and make do in a celebratory way. . . this is always somewhere if you can learn to see it, and it's making a comeback in amrka too, in small pockets, unlikely places. . . like the "tiny home" idea, or land shares, or just creative people occupying specific neighbourhoods, etc. etc. it's harder to get amrkns on board, there is a lot of fear at being seen as "different" particularly "poor & different" - that ole Calvinist "god ain't smilin' on YOU" fear - but it's out there, and with effort, can be tapped into.
thanks as always for your thought provoking posts. . .
Another fit.
More fabled past.
US of A built on self reliance? Oh oh Santa Klaus.
No, the US is a story of success of the State and communauty spirit (communaulism)
Indians were stateless, no taxation societies that were eradicted by US citizens settling in the Americas.
More fabled past.
The current world order is the result of US citizenism.
US citizensim includes heavy weight on the State (mind you, US citizens considered that statelessness was a sign of inferiority of people) and communauty spirit.
Communaulism has absolutely not diminished in the US. On the contrary, just like theState, it has been improved, increased, perfected.
US citizenism has taken wings in 1776. It is quite natural that its flight led it toward higher skies in the direction it wished: more stateness, more communaulism, more propaganda etc...
US citizens nature is eternal. There is nothing to be restored because nothing has been lost. No fabled past.
Hope floats in a sea of despair. The human soul is enriched by hope and weakened by despair.
Even in death camps hope eventually rises within the human breast and inspires the downtrodden.
Hope is a treasure, hope is the reason we raise our head off the pillow and rise from our beds in the morning.
Things will change, we do not live in a static universe. To hope the change will be positive is a way to channel our fear of change into a better day.
In India the god of destruction is also the god of creation, they are two sides of the same coin. Destruction must occur for there to be space for creation.
Destruction isn't always negative and construction isn't always positive. The future is ours to attempt to influence, hope is a helpful trait, but it is not a plan.
Until the space is made by destruction of the status quo, there is no place for creation to occur.
This ratty tattered system is failing as evidenced by the economic collapse of entitled institutions like banks and currencies. The disenfranchised awaken as their entitlements dissolve, as their plans fail, as their jobs dissapear.
The future will be a time of adjustments, but in a decade this will be a new world. Its shape cannot be fathomed in advance no more than to guess the eye color of an unknown child born 10 years from now.
I hope we understand.
Hope is being the biggest falsifier of the truth.
Actually a lie would be the biggest falsifier of the truth. Hope is an emotion, truth is knowledge. Truth is enlightenment. Truth is vision in a world of lies.
Hope neither negates nor enhances the truth. They are independent and separate entitities.
Thoughtful post Tyler. Thank you and Happy New Year!
I like the theme of this post, but the author has it mostly wrong. I agree that hope is needed for after the collapse, whether it comes from the unlikely self imposed austerity or the the more likely hyperinflation.
He is right to have hope but his misguided fantasies about peak oil (i.e., running out of oil), unproven and inefficient alt energy, local sustainable agriculture ),etc., has it all wrong. That sounds like more tyranny to me similar what we are currently experiencing with Solandra and GM. What is needed is a restoration of our goverment to its relative size of say pre federal reserve 1900 along witht the free market and small government that existed at that time. At that point we would shortly find the country and the world flush with inexpensive fossil fuels as soon as we got rid of the beaucracies that are hindering its finding and production. We will also find that freed up farmers aided by freed up genetic engineers are more than capable of producing plenty of good food for the world and the food that people actually want as soon as the government gets out of the way of its selection and production bythe eliminations of the New Deal era an later subsidies, unhealthy promotions and mind boggling regulations.
I mainly though have hope for the future because I know that this country is full of intelligent self sufficient good guys with guns and lots of ammo to go with them. Has anyone seen the gun and ammo sales statiistics lately? This is not city gang banger gun buying here. I think the good guys far out number the ignorant and welfare dependedent bad guys with guns in he cities and are likely better shots. The liberals in the cities are of course unarmed but will be given a renewed lesson on the source of their liberty, when they are saved once again with good guys with guns. Most of these good guys live in rural areas where there is still a memory and appreciation for a society base on freedom and self sufficiency and I am hopeful they will help restore America to a hopeful and productive place once again when it soon becomes necessary.
A good artistic metahpor for this triumph of the good guys over the bad guys is the book and movie The Road based on the book by Cormac McCarthy At the very end the good father has given his life so that his son may live, at which point a well armed good guy with a gun (likely a guy who grew up in rural area and also knew how to grow food) appears to take care of ths son and the readers and viewers are given hope that a just, good and free society once can once again arise from the literal and actual ashes. I highly recommend it for anyone that wants to know there really is hope. The movie/book also give good representations of what can also happen during the breakdown and is good warning to be prepared. Stay away though from some of McCarthy's other work, like say No Country of Old Men. Now is certainly not a good time to read or watch that one.
"I tell ye, the devil's in the wheel of that there phantom ship... y' better hold fast!"
movie?
Yep, I see this happening regardless of outcomes - hard, soft or medium landings. Inter-state nuclear war may be farfetched but not something like the USD losing its reserve status and/or our aggregate standard of living declining. Once that happens we'll have to become more self-sufficient because our purchasing power will be greatly diminished. Growing your own food, hunting etc will all be useful skills. Smarter people are beginning to pick this up. Going to a feminized, automaton-mill (college) and getting degrees that are basically proxy consumer items (she has those Alfredo Saucito shoes = she has a degree in blahblah) is quickly loosing relevance and thank the heavens for that. Vo-techs are quietly becoming more attractive option for both parent and student. Why? Because bumbling consumer addicts still need plumbing, electricity, carpentry, etc especially when things start to break. Supply and demand. Also, consider that very recent radical social changes will also be corrected. Women, for instance, all of a sudden becoming the undisputable "superior" to all things despite 250,000 years of history will see that self-declared reign revert back to its rightful balance. Other "special" interest groups will see the same thing. The hipster will be quick to barf-up any number of dogmatic soundbites to the contrary, but like it or not social justice is wrought with malinvestment. Blacks after securing basic societal rights i.e. voting etc would have climbed into a prosperous position if it were not for welfare and affirmative action. Today, 40% of black men are unemployed and the family structure is decimated, how is that progress? Believe it or not Black people will be better off once this unravels, although everyone including them will get poorer, at least their state-dependency will end.
No one is having more state dependency than businesses are having. They are having dependency for roads and dependency for having waters and electricities and for states to being sure they area not being stolen by peoples who would be breaking open the doors to the places where businesses are working and dependencies for rules that would be keeping the businesses that are being little from being taken by the businesses that are big. Many things that are happening that are good for businesses could not be happening without states doing things that are good for businesses while the people are paying for those things that the state is having to be happening for businesses.
Which is why the system as set up now is absurd. Mitt "corporations are people too" Romney wants to be president of "you cant see my tax returns" USA. Hey Mitt, can I get on your economic team and pay 11%? I might be successful too!
When the aliens show up, they are going to wonder how most of us made it out the caves, yet fully understand why many of us want to go back.
Mitt's a Mormon male, they're very special in their own eyes, and don't need to justify anything they do, as long as they hold the Melchizedek priesthood, and wear their temple garments, and do their temple work.
they answer only to their "heavenly father" - no one else. secrets, rituals & secrets. . .
Hope is what one has in lieu of expectations. Despair is what one has when expectations are dashed.
There's a lot of expectations out there in a whole host of countries, from Greece to China to the US to Brazil.
There's hope in countries that didn't quite make the front page.
Who fares better if things turn south?
As logical as we think we are, logic only serves a purpose if it makes us "feel" good.
We are an emotional species. Zero Hedge is written to appeal to the emotions of its readers, you either like it or you don't.
Hope is an emotion.
Nothing wrong with hope. Might as well mix it in with all the other emotions we shoose or not choose to entertain.
My dog can write a better analysis of logic than you just did.
Hope your doog is not plagarized like your avatar.
Not saying much for the dogs master is it?
CHS is slipping, lately. I couldn't even read this post past the first few paragraphs.
Whatever he said is pretty much wishful thinking. Nobody around here is going to give up their guns, gold or silver on "hope."
Hope? Nope.
Some are defeated already; perhaps you would be one of them. In that case, you have no use for pearls of wisdom from Charles Hugh Smith or a gun, it’s only necessary to have two ankles for ankle braces and two wrists for handcuffs.
OK, I like the doom and gloom stuff as much as the next guy. Because they're usually right it seems. But I think that we may have overshot on the gloom side as always. Marc Faber makes the point that equities often survive a collapse (world wars, depressions). Warren Buffet has a portfolio full of companies that were founded in the 19th century. That's right: the 19th century.
Maybe the Chinese moving from credit to equity will help keep the ship afloat. See the last line of this article:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/business/2011-12/27/content_14332943.htm
Why are we really worried about China, Greece, France, etc. The only reason is that all the the TBTF Banks are invested there.
Yet, when you think about it we are the bread basket of the World. When everyone is starving we have abundance of food. The Middle east Countries will gladly give us Oil for food. Otherwise what will they do? Starve to death? The problem is that we are not charging enough for our food as they continue to raise prices on oil. So let them keep their oil and we will keep our food. Plus, we have an abundance of Natural Gas that could be used in Cars, Homes etc.
Imagine living without electricity.
O beautiful for heroes proved/ In liberating strife/ Who more than self their country loved,/ And mercy more than life! America! America! ... God shed his grace on thee… --Katherine Lee Bates (1893)
America’s founding ‘As a city upon a hill,’ visible for all to see so that it must not fail in its efforts to set up a godly state in the new World, was built upon the beliefs expressed by John Winthrop in 1630 on board the Arbella, as opposed to “our pleasures and profits,” written before the landing of the Puritans in New England:
Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck (the wrath of God that falls on nations who fail to do God’s will) and to provide for our posterity is to follow the Counsel of Micah, to do Justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God.
For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly Affection, we must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, we must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality, we must delight in eache other, make others Conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labour, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our Commission and Community in the work, our Community as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as his owne people and will commaund a blessing upon us in all our wayes.
So that we shall see much more of his wisdom power goodness and truth than formerly we have been acquainted with.
We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations: the lord make it like that of New England:
For we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speake evil of the way of God and all professors for God’s sake; wee shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into Curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither wee are a-going.”
Yes, little Junkie(s) to my post of the beliefs of our forefathers. America, you believe, has been beaten by such as yourself, or as John Dos Passos classifies you: “by strangers who have turned our language inside out who have taken the clean words our fathers spoke and made them slimy and foul,” all expressed in your pathetic little “junk.” You are one of America's betrayers who pave the way for the rich, the stronger who have us "clubbed off the streets...who have bought the laws...and when they want to they hire the executioner to throw the switch..."
Now Charles Hugh Smith has thrown down the gauntlet; now we shall see.