….face it, the GOP/Republicans are, in effect, rebelling causing insurrection, polarization and doing so like a cult enthralled. Could there possibly be an understandable theory, motive or plan behind all that?
Everyone, I think, tries to understand phenomena (especially politics and corporations) by ‘analyzing’ the results in retrospect and assuming there was a logical sequence of events orchestrated by someone or a group of someones to achieve that end result. We conveniently set aside the regular occurrences of Murphy, luck, external forces that no one could have foreseen and, of course, the very common phenomena of unintended consequences when we do that. We also conveniently ignore the power of the status quo, ennui, lethargy, apathy and the inertia of the people. I.e – look at the slow response to life-threatening Climate Change – if there really has been one!
And then there is the basic active resistance, opposition and counter forces to just about everything in life. Plot to overthrow the government and you will likely be thwarted by SURPRISE! the very government you intended to overthrow. Resistance may be futile but it is omnipresent…i.e – any parent with teenagers knows this inevitable force of nature.
There are a lot of dynamics involved in changing the direction of anything (for good or evil) and all the conspiracy theorists in the world seem to forget that mankind cannot even keep the trains, planes and buses running on time, let alone schools, hospitals and government services.
When you really think about it, a conspiracy theorist is an optimist, a person who thinks change happens quickly, relatively easily and as planned.
On the other hand, everything starts with a thought. Every idea, every theory, every philosophy is made up of thoughts. Genesis starts in the mind. It may not end well (as stated above) but all things start with thought and that includes dreams, goals and the hard-to-come-by.
Still, some revolutions worked. Some inventions worked. Some new businesses work. Some conspiracy theories….? Maybe some of them worked, too…..maybe….somewhat…
Which brings me (finally) to my point: the currently and obviously underway MAGA/GOP destruction/undermining of democracy as a functioning managerial system. Is that really a planned exercise? Or is it just a Murphy/Trump led chaos and an accident of the times? George Santos, a clown-liar of biblical proportions….? Is he just the accident of a mindless populace? Or was even he somehow chosen by design? Who would pick a George Santos? And why?
Being a person with less faith in planning and a bit too much faith in ‘just winging it’, a man who does not believe in any one rule fitting all because we are all so different, a guy who simply cannot live one day the exact same way as the next due to a revulsion of routine, I tend to think natural chaos rules the world and thank God it is a relatively benign and harmless chaos-theory butterfly in the Amazon doing everything most of the time.
And sometimes, like I did, you might even win the lottery.….(Sal, life OTG, great kids, good friends, great dogs, good health…my lottery win-package just goes on and on).
But, still, one has to think about the ‘maybe’…….what or who could possibly be behind a conspiracy to destroy the very foundation of a modern society and coming from within that same and rather successful society? What is the positive there? What is to be gained by a plan intended to destroy the very Constitution/Declaration of Independence that attempted to free the people and give more equality to all (at least on paper)? And why would the people themselves support a plan intended to destroy them?
Surprisingly, there is a logical answer to that. Logical but immoral, evil, dastardly and everything opposite to the values expressed in the Constitution/Declaration but still, there is a Machiavellian logic that gives an answer….
….but first, a tiny step back in history. For eons, mankind has been herded, managed and controlled by an ‘elite’. And ‘elite’ is very closely associated with wealth and power (even when it was a religious elite or a big-man village bully). Like prides of lions, packs of wolves and even herds of elephants some emerge as leaders and the rest of the group just follows.
In humanity’s case, that elitist leadership amassed wealth and power and controlled the rules and systems. The rest of the plebes were slaves and labourers. And the elites were happy. If any of the plebeians were not accepting of that form of order, they were killed, tortured, incarcerated, enslaved, segregated, impoverished or otherwise thrown out with the garbage. There was order. The rich were safe and in control.
I won’t bore you with much more of what you already know but suffice to say, the common masses are, today, still controlled by the rich if in no other way than the cost of living imposed by the system ‘they’ run and the simple fact that most people who want a home and food to eat are indentured into servitude (the workforce) for their convenient 20/25/30 mortgage-paying years so as to pay off that home. Even more control is exerted by the police and justice system, education, health care and credit/banking ‘costs’ and penalties.
Prior to WW2 most people, despite the equal-opportunity rhetoric of the American Constitution/Declaration of Independence, were poor, rural and wholly without power. After WW2, with the rise in American prosperity and industry, the middle class gained a voice, some power and – EGADS! – they did it by actually using the bloody constitution. “The bastards are voting in droves!” The middle class began to influence things from wars (Vietnam) to consumer items (cars, TVs, etc) to equal rights and civil rights and social justice……..worse, democracy started to spread around the world.
The rich elites were NOT amused. “Just who do these bloody people think they are?”
And so the rich began to claw back their elitism. And, again, I won’t bore you with all the ways in which they did it but it first showed up as Regan and Thatcher, it showed up as the assassination of MLK and the Kennedy’s, it showed up as Newt Gingrich (Roger Stone, Lee Atwater, Jack Kemp, Karl Rove and also a young GW Bush made a big push in the 80’s and 90’s) together with all the other dirty tricksters, more military-like use-of-force policing, the War on Drugs, cultural and racial polarization and the rise of ‘branding’ and celebrity. And it all showed up as accelerated and increased wealth and power for the elite, connected and privileged.
Therein lay the ‘ingredients’ for a conspiracy……and there was even more…..
“Ya know, George…the real problem here is some deadbeat bastard’s vote has the same weight as mine! I went to Harvard! That is simply not right. Who dreamed up this democracy crap, anyway?”
Put bluntly: There is also the motive writ large. The wealthy elites do not want equality. They do not like ‘voters’. Why would they want to share power with the stupid, poor, multi-hued people? Indentured servitude of the masses worked well for them in the past….it always has done….so there is a collective willingness to ‘let’s go back to that’. “Let’s go get that authoritarian power back!”
Does that, in itself, constitute a conspiracy? I do not know. Just because you have the appetite, the ingredients and the old tried and true recipe does not mean you are cooking and dinner will soon be served. Or does it? Even with the facts of a well financed Fox News, Roger Stone, Trump and the Proud Boys playing the script out right in front of our eyes – does that mean the game is well and truly afoot?
Or is it just an ugly, primitive, bred-in-the-bone idea and inclination revisiting us once again?
Our Off the Grid Home 
Two things: first, re running on time. You forgot about the Japanese. EVERYTHING runs on time there.
Second, GOP conspiracy. They would all have to agree and they are not near smart enough to pull this off!
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True. Germans are a close second. Punctuality is next to Godliness in both places. I was comfortable there.
The GOP agreeing…? I kind of agree…but I do not see the GOP as being all the Boeberts and Greens. Not even the Trumps. I see the GOP as the rich, rich, super-rich that funnel the dough…..they can ‘sway’, they can ‘manipulate’ with their money. They have influence. The people we see on Fox news are their minions, catering and kowtowing for the kibbles and bits. Still, I am not so sure we have a real conscious conspiracy…like you, I have my doubts. But we certainly have a kitchen and it definitely has the ingredients…..
But I really appreciate it that you read the blog til the end…thanks.
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Unfortunately.
I don’t think its a conspiracy.
Just a dog eat dog world that seems to be getting more vicious.
The Movie “Idiocracy” seemed to sum up our broken democratic system fairly well.
Voter apathy eventually allows the lunatics, grifters and snake oil salesmen to the top of the pile in elections.
‘Normal” working people avoid politics like the plague these days.
Sad.
Rich and Poor.
Everyone can’t be rich.
People are lazy.
People are stupid.
The lazy and stupid that are lucky enough to be born into money will still be rich.
For a while..
The people born poor that are lazy and stupid…..will always be poor.
Life sucks for the lazy and the stupid.
Stupid people will have their money stolen by smarter lazy people or smart rich people.
Life aint fair.
Stupid rich people usually suffer the same fate…then they’re poor.
I also have a problem with the definition of rich.
You & Sal may not have a lot of money but you certainly live an enviable lifestyle….are you “rich”?
I work and make good money but I rent and invest.
I own nothing and can’t wait for retirement….am I “rich”?
Questions questions.
The world wide ageing demographics are going to radially alter economies and maps.
50 years from now?
100 years?
After the Black Death in Europe the population in some areas dropped more than 50%.
Entire villages, towns were empty.
Taxes and rents plummeted.
The people that were left alive, could demand almost anything as payment for services.
Inflation soared.
Leaders were overthrown.
Countries, religions, societies fell or rose.
Now?
Interesting times.
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To answer your questions: Yes. Sal and I are rich. Beyond belief rich in everything but time and money. Our money is small and our time is running out…but we are ‘golden’ right now and will be for awhile. Then we die.
You? Are you rich? No. Not in the least. But you are POTENTIALLY hugely rich….it is just around the next corner. No sense having money if you don’t spend it. Keeping your powder dry just leaves you with a lot of dry powder. Having good health, skills and a great brain and the ability to think well does you no good if it is used only to work. All work and no play…..
I can say all that with conviction because there are only three variables we seem to focus mainly on in life – time, health and money. To my mind, time and health are way more important but, of course, y’all need SOME money to have those other two. Gotta eat. As we age, time becomes the most measurable currency….health and money then tend to come and go. Time is unknowable but we know we have some and we know it eventually runs out. And so TIME is of the essence.
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I agree with what you say. I somehow relate a bit to noncon (although he will be a lot smarter then me), but why do we not see the things then? Why do we keep running in this treadmill and work ever harder while time and health are running out?
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Lots of reasons….the system has attached a lot of different umbilical cords from societal to obligatory, from convenience to simple debt…the list is huge. You have friends and family (anchor #1), a job with duties and obligations (#2), you have a neighbourhood and neighbours (#3) and you have ‘status’ in your society (#4). You likely have debt and monthly payments #5). You carved out a niche over the years and you now fit that niche very well, and so does your wife and children have their niches. In that sense you are not free to move because you are bolted down, fixed-in-place, entrenched. There are ropes and chains and a veritable net of cobwebs.
Then there’s your job. Men identify with their work a lot. Women tend to relate more to people. Relationship is how they primarily identify. So, you each have personal-identity ‘glue’, too.
Personal identity is HUGE (ego) for men and it comes from your work.
Plus there is the work itself and the customers and staff that rely on it. Maybe even the larger society. Now you add in your bank account, your address, your phone number, your doctor and all the little conduits you have just to serve WdG personally (let alone those conduits that serve family). You may have a membership, a seat on a board, a hobby that ‘keeps’ you there.
And then, aside from all your modern-world perks and conveniences offered and taken from roads, electrical services, garbage collection, pools of skilled labour, etc, there is the very normal lethargy attached to moving from a fixed place (Newton’s laws: In the first law, an object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it. In the second law, the force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. In the third law, when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction). Those laws translate to human behaviour.
Now add the confusion and fear of something incredibly DIFFERENT not to mention RESISTANCE from all those folks and facts listed above and well, it is simpler to dream and plan and stay the course. And staying put is easily rationalized by all the MONEY you make….woo hoo! But – and here’s the rub – whether you stay or whether you go, time keeps on ticking. At a certain point, the option is no longer on the table.
Changing the course of the world’s largest oil tanker is much, much easier than doing the same for mature males/females well established in their own world. Life change is harder than sea-change.
The good news is that it is not only doable but few of the fears are ever realized and little of the good that was established (reputation, friends, etc) are ever lost. You do lose convenience (no Starbucks, no handy fix-it men, no house-to-store-to work chauffeuring. You learn to lift and carry. You gain a bit of muscle strength) and you lose income but, to be fair, being healthily INCONVENIENCED is part of the goal and living OTG (once established) is much less expensive. And, anyway, most people now work just to afford to keep working.
“So, it is hard to leave the modern world but not-so-hard to enter the OTG world….that is the opposite to what I thought!” Yep. Leaving the old ways is a psychological leap. Starting life anew is an interesting, fun soft-landing (if done right).
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Read “The Sweet Hills of Florence” by Jan Wallace Dickinson. The title is a misnomer. It is historical fiction and very well researched. Very powerful. People want someone to protect them, make their life better, so some leaders will exploit that for their own ends or because they have great (misplaced) faith in themselves. Democracy is when power can be held to account without intimidation.
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Yeah, I agree with that. The peeps prefer: ‘let someone else do it’. That is some residual animal-pack-think goin’ on….follow the bigger and older leader to the next watering hole and grassy plain…….it all eventually leads to religion, celebrities, brand names, human cults and leaders, followers and the mind-dead…..but you get to eat….so there is that…..
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First of all, what a blog! Well written and with a lot of historical background.
From a blog on mud wrestling to conspiracy theories….respect!
I have always somewhat believed, that there is a group of really super rich people (like about 20 or so), that are really pulling the strings on a global scale. And you are right, it is not even the Trumps or the Bushes that are pulling the strings, they are the puppets, doing exactly what this small group wants.
This group has only 1 goal, to be even richer as they are now.
So they “play” the world scene, even creating political unrest, “starting” wars, because that will grow their fortune by some more billions. Who do you think profits the most from this war in Ukraine? Again, the super rich, that speculate and trade in oil and gas. They make 170 million dollars PER ship!
So the conspiracies that we see or think we see is only the tip of the iceberg. We will never truly understand the real powers behind the curtains
And we, the poor, are only grains of sand in the desert, blown by the wind
True richness for us is in the things you mention : our wife, kids, health, living OTG (or dreaming about it)
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As I said, ‘maybe’. There is no doubt that there are such rich people and there is little doubt that they use their power and money to sway and influence…..but, but, but….can they really execute a full-blown conspiracy theory-like plan that emerged starting in the 70’s? I dunno. Of course, Gazillionaire Sr. begets Gazillionaire Jr. and Jr. begets Gazillionaire lll but is that all there is to that sophisticated evil plot?
I am inclined to think ‘somewhat yes’ and ‘mostly no’….meaning there are more forces at work than any one or several plots or conspiracies can envision or cope with. As Robbie Burns said, “Best laid schemes of mice and men oft go agley”.
I also really think there is a deep-seated, primitive desire for ‘order and servitude and following-a-leader’ so long as the populace gets a full stomach every day. People seem to love so-called leaders. Celebrities. Heroes. Movie Stars. The irony, of course, is that no cabal, star-chamber or secret society can ever control the world so long as our life spans are finite. Even rich people die. So, for me, the question is still unanswered.
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True, the primitive desire for order and servitude has been a basic need for a very long time. Therefore, the gazillionaires do NOT need to plan things in to detail. They just make the waves, and along comes a boat and a skipper (plotted by them of course), that promises them safety, food and a safe haven. What do you think most people will do? Of course there will me minor schemes being set up by local leaders, but somehow I believe that the global economy of things is somehow steered by a few (like the super condensed version of Davos)
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