Scary World Management 101
I listened to Robert Breedlove and Jeffrey A Tucker (Founder of the Brownstone Institute) riff about the pandemic, #Bitcoin, governments, violence, etc.
It was recorded Dec 2021, so pre-Ukraine, pre-Trucker-Convoy, pre most of the Scary Stuff Going On Right Now. Jeffrey A Tucker has recently published a book entitled The Purges Have Begun.
Here are the ideas I heard:
The idea that human beings should be equal in freedom is relatively new
Started with St Paul: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
But in Mar 2020, 3 things happened:
1. We discovered afresh: Freedom is an Idea. Under. Attack.
It terrifies many people.
Either, They lack confidence in themselves (for managing the Responsibility), or
They like Power. Being violent, and seeing the results. It’s the only jolly they can get. Real Freedom takes that away.
2. Governments reintroduced the idea of Class
Only this time, Class is defined by your access to Power.
If you work in/for the Govt, you instantly became Upper Class, everyone else Lower Class.
As of Mar 2020, access to power determines a great deal of what you can do with your life.
3. Millenials finally had something exciting happen to them
One young girl’s comment: “This pandemic is the first thing that’s HAPPENED to us.”
Hence why so many of them jumped on the bandwagon.
Chilling Quotes from Nazi writer Carl Schmitt:
A life without politics is Boring and Dreadful.
I want blood to flow in the streets. That’s how you know your life matters. We need big things to happen to us. An enemy to hate.
Who, exactly, is the enemy?
The REALLY chilling bit: It doesn’t matter!
We don’t study history to learn its lessons
Rather, we study history to flatter ourselves.
Because every generation wants to think it’s better than the generations who came before.
(And we’re secretly terrified we might not be.)
Bitcoin was one of few systems that kept right on ticking through the pandemic
But even Bitcoin cannot help a world that doesn’t want to believe in freedom.
Governments and central banks are afraid of Bitcoin. They understand Gold. And Bitcoin is a better Gold.
But they’re terrified of stablecoins, which provide instant, low-risk, low-cost transactions.
They can’t compete with that.
Tucker‘s Essential Thesis:
The State is Doomed to Obsolescence.
Govts are universally One Big Flop. Last useful state accomplishment: Apollo moonshots? Maybe?
The State, and its managers, are PANICKING.
Looking for anything to make them look legitimate. Anything that will Keep Fear Alive.
Covid (and now the Ukraine) gave them what they hoped would be one last chance.
But this leaves Scary Questions:
What is it like to live in a western democracy where governments are Completely De-legitimized?
What will happen when all centrally-controlled western systems FAIL?
When the State Becomes Irrelevant?
Something much better? (Like real individual freedom?)
Or something Much WORSE?
