Category Archives: America
Z-man nails it
As often he does:
A public crisis like the current panic over the virus is where we see how people operate under pressure. More than a few people, who we thought to be steely-eyed cynics, have been revealed to be hysterical ninnies. Nassim Taleb, who really likes to tell everyone he is a man’s man, has gone so far as to post a one page paper explaining how best to throw your dress over your head and run around shrieking like a girl. He brings to mind this classic scene from the movie Airplane!
This graph gets to something else that has been revealed during this crisis. Those inclined to left-wing politics are more easily frightened than those attracted to more sober minded approaches to public policy. It is something to keep in mind when looking at how our guys have reacted to this crisis. For example, many of the old alt-right people now sound like one of the girls from the Huffington Post. It is a good reminder that there is a left-right axis within dissident politics.
Another thing the pressure of the moment has revealed, something I touch on in the show, is that many of our guys are wholly ignorant of economics. Given that the rejection of the neoliberal economic order is one commonality on this side of the great divide, it is a bit surprising that many of our guys do not have the first clue about how the system actually works. More than a few of our guys have taken to sounding like one of the girls from the Democratic Socialist camp.
The current madness may give us a glimpse of how an actual collapse of civilization would unfold. We have both the threat of the super-virus, real or imaginary, and the threat to the cult of consumerism. The reality of the virus in this case is unimportant, because it is assumed to be real. The same is true of the financial markets. We may not be in an historical collapse, but it is assumed to be a real threat. In effect, this is a live action stress test of the system and the people in charge of it.
The first thing we can observe is the great lock-down started when the nation’s circus performers, went into hiding before anyone. The sports leagues and public entertainment operations were the first to respond. One would think that having them continue the show would make sense, in order to keep spirits up during the lock-down, but that was not the case. In fact, the big streaming services downgraded their service quality at the start of the lock down.
Now, you can make of that all sorts of things, depending upon your temperament, but the one important take-away is that the people in charge are not all that concerned about people getting restless in the lock-down. Despite what we are told, they are not terribly concerned with the circus half of Juvenal’s famous line. They could be mistaken about that, especially as this thing drags on, but for now people seem to be getting along just fine with reduced entertainments in the lock-down.
Of course, the lock-down itself is important. The controlling ethos of the ruling class is unfettered movement, yet in a crisis, their first instinct is to halt all movement. The people who just a few weeks ago were singing the glories of the free flow of people and goods are now threatening to weld our doors shut. When the real end times are upon us, the first clue will be a mandatory lock-down of the population with cops in the streets and a 24-hour curfew, except for approved personnel.
Another thing we can observe in the present situation is how the authorities have started to abandon certain duties. For example, cities have started to throw open their prisons, letting the inmates run free. The argument is they could get the virus if locked up in close quarters. That means the people in charge would rather see them raping and murdering in your neighborhood than possible getting the virus and passing it to one of the bureaucrats operating the jails.
We are also seeing the cops abandon their duties. In Cincinnati, the cops are no longer responding in-person to 911 calls. The stated reason is “to reduce unnecessary contact between officers and the public to reduce the spread of COVID-19.” Presumably, if you call while being murdered, they will come out to identify your body, but if you call while it is just at the home invasion stage, too bad for you. If you want to get a glimpse of what the breakdown of society will be like, think about this.
Some people in dissident circles like to mock the paleocons, but the one thing the paleos got right before everyone else is anarcho-tyranny. Not only do we see this in our daily life in normal times, but it is in bold relief in this crisis. The first instinct of the people in charge is to “tyrannically or oppressively regulate citizens’ lives yet is unable to enforce fundamental protective law.” This is a crucial insight into the managerial system, but also how that system meets its demise.
That’s probably the way in which the great longed for collapse transpires. It will not be a great sudden end that results in chaos. It will not be a supernatural end that suddenly flings us into a post-apocalyptic world. Instead, it will be the slow withdraw of authority, along with the growth of a banal sort of tyranny. It is more cops hassling innocent people for no reason and fewer cops chasing actual bad guys. In time, new social systems evolve to fill in those gaps and provide local order.
The model to keep in mind is probably something like post-Rome Spain. Once the Roman authority collapsed, various barbarian rulers tried to fill the void, with varying degrees of failure. Eventually, local authority filled the gaps, providing order and protection for the people. In time, the Roman villa system became what we think of as feudalism throughout Europe. As the American empire fades, a similar sort of process will evolve. The end will be a whimper, rather than a bang.
It’s not like we were clamouring to enter…
U.S. Drops Proposal to Put Troops at Canadian Border:
The Trump administration dropped its consideration of plans to send U.S. military forces to the Canadian border to help with efforts to combat the new coronavirus, a U.S. official said Thursday, disclosing that decision after Canadian officials had strenuously objected to the idea.
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Ottawa that officials there were told of the U.S. proposal a few days ago but wouldn’t disclose where the U.S. units might have gone or what they would do.
“We are very directly and very forcefully expressing the view that this is an entirely unnecessary step which we would view as damaging to our relationship,” Ms. Freeland said. “We do not believe at all there would be a public-health justification to take this action. We don’t think this is the right way to treat a trusted friend and military ally.”
In Washington, a U.S. official said there had been a proposal to consider sending either U.S. troops or National Guard units to the Canadian border in support of the Department of Homeland Security, which is enforcing immigration laws under the burden of the coronavirus pandemic.
“This was under consideration, but it is no longer going to take place,” the U.S. official said. The official said the idea was one of several options that have been suggested and was not now under consideration.
The Department of Homeland Security had asked the Defense Department to review a proposal for the possible use of troops along the border, a second U.S. official said, but the proposal appears to be on hold.
Ms. Freeland said that Canadian officials and diplomats have been in direct contact with counterparts in Washington, including, among others, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, to relay their displeasure.
The Pentagon referred questions concerning any military deployments on the border to the Department of Homeland Security. A senior administration official said the administration was considering all options to slow the spread of the virus.
“Protecting our border is a national security priority and without proper precautions…the virus could pose greater risk to migrants, travelers, law enforcement personnel, health care professionals, and all Americans,” the official said.
White House and State Department officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“The U.S., of course, is a sovereign country, which does, as it ought to do, make its own independent decisions about what to do within its borders,” Ms. Freeland said. She added that symbolically it was crucial that the 5,500-mile border remain demilitarized.
According to the John Hopkins thingy right now, the U.S. has 85K cases; Canada, with roughly 1/10 x America’s population, only has 1/21 x that amount, at 4K cases.
And it’s not like even in normal times, Canadians want to enter America in large numbers other than to visit then come home; few apply to emigrate, and even fewer live there illegally. I myself lived and worked in America for about a year, two decades ago, under a NAFTA visa, and enjoyed my experience but was happy to return to my home country, which I love as much as Americans love their country, because it is my own.
And like the Mexicans, right now we’re trying to keep foreigners out of our country just like America and Mexico are each trying to keep foreigners out of theirs, same as most of the rest of the world these days. Hopefully, we can all keep tightened borders after; no return to the lax border controls of the status quo ante, please. 🙂
If there’s one thing this virus should kill, it’s the globalist managerial technocratic Brave New World Order.
