Unquiet Musings

Heightened anxiety, reduced capacity for rational thought and decisions, greater likelihood of reverting to the mental shortcuts of stereotypes, heuristics and biases – just what a propagandist needs, when there is a populace whose hearts and minds need swaying. Projecting bogeymen to garner support, silence opposition and consolidate power? It’s a tactic as old as civilization itself. Just the like body mounts its stress response – so does society as a mass of people. And just like the body gives up higher-order functionality to focus on an immediate existential threat (whether real or merely perceived), so too does society as a whole.

I often get a sense of (false?) déjà vu, of having met someone before – but never had I felt so with a whole tableful of people. It literally was like coming home, listening to a large Christmas dinner conversation between a large, extended family of Turdites. In the course of just a few hours, I learned quite a bit that was more than just the (somewhat vain and self-serving) reassurance that I am not alone – even though that itself is of course nothing to sneeze at. I learned specific, immediately useful and low-cost survival skills that will help me whether TEOTGKE happens tomorrow, next year or a decade hence. Even more important, I had the privilege of meeting independent thinkers who believed in freedom, and were coming together to help themselves and each other achieve it.

I would like to propose an inaugural meeting of the Secret Society of Turd (SST©). Will there be others, organized locally by other Turdites interested in the same? Go forth and multiply these local gatherings. I challenge the community to come up with at least 3 more gatherings for next weekend. There are, at a minimum, a few THOUSAND readers of the site out there -- reach out and touch someone today.

Some light musings on the usually incomprehensible economic prognostications of the Maestro, the notoriously fickle pronouncements of career politicians, and the direction of gold pricing in the near future.

It works better if you click the chart at the end (fixed it now so it actually opens larger)...

WARNING: This piece is a shameless attempt to distract you from the world of precious metals, finance, economics and geopolitics to draw attention to a ‘strictly human interest’ story. Please do not make ANY decisions, let alone investment ones, based on the information presented. This is purely for entertainment purposes.

Politicians and governments garner favor, popularity and support from their constituents in different ways. Birthdays are naturally occurring opportunities to fortify and enhance the popular image of beloved leaders. I, for one, gladly welcome the fact that our wise and benevolent overlords/puppets statesmen have now grown to “present their appeals more intelligently”.

If this small, relatively insignificant NATO-member and formerly staunch Keynesian lackey can indeed change, and brave the perilous waters of taking on the Fin_Mil_Industrial_Gov complex, there may yet be hope for the rest of Europe, for the rest of the world. I have no idea whether this truly a real ‘exit’ from the current world order. But my lineage and upbringing dictate that I continue to believe in the indomitability of the human spirit. Light will eventually prevail, and victories that seem pyrrhic may topple symbols and thus ideologies.

“The main principle of ideological subversion is TURNING A STRONGER FORCE AGAINST ITSELF. Just like in the Japanese martial arts: you do not stop the blow of a heavier more powerful enemy with an equally forceful blow. You may simply hurt your hand. Instead you catch the striking fist with your hand and PULL the enemy in the direction of his blow until he crashes into a wall or any other heavy object in his way.” - Yuriy Bezmenov a.k.a. Tomas Schuman

The Russian establishment has been playing the game of manipulating the opinions of the masses just as long as their modern Western counterparts, and they have become arguably just as adept at it, if not more so. The enemy of your enemy is not always your friend. Be mindful of information, but be aware of whence it comes, and why you are presented with it and by whom. While of course current developments ARE historic in many ways, and apparently that history is speeding up as we speak, there is also a need to consider the longer game.

“Now if anybody thinks we are getting average daily news items this week, I will not try to differ with them, as this is an admittedly subjective side to what I do, but just allow the rest of this week bring us whatever it will.”

It seems his observations hold just as true now, if not more so. To be honest, I am having trouble keeping all of the global, regional and nation-level geopolitical developments all in frame as a single interconnected whole – there are simply too many simultaneous events. It certainly feels like the time remaining on the clock is rapidly running out for at least one of the players, and the little buttons on top are getting whacked at an ever more furious pace.

No matter how jaded and frustrated I feel with the markets, how depressed I feel reading the daily news (both due to events and the determined effort of media owners to control and mislead the populace), no matter how futile my wage slave existence seems sometimes, there is always a beacon of light reminding me to stop whining and start doing things better, smarter, faster.