The Future Is What We Make of It – Part 1

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. … Most of us are about as eager to change as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.

– James Baldwin

2017 has been a really strange year for me. As tens of millions of my fellow Americans have experienced mental breakdowns following the election of Donald Trump, an unexpected sense of calm has come over me and I can’t remember the last time I was this optimistic about the future.

Importantly, the optimism I feel isn’t the demented, tribal and transient sort that many people experience when their politician of choice wins an election. I strongly disliked both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and I refused to support or vote for either. As such, I already knew going into November 2016, that we’d emerge on the other side with a dangerous authoritarian in power, and I mentally prepared myself to push back against whoever won. Although I think Trump is a terrible President and a fake populist, I think his winning the election might serve as the necessary kick in the ass our society needs in order to evolve.

If Hillary Clinton had been elected, she would’ve been given an incredible amount of slack from our depraved corporate media. In fact, the entire first year of her Presidency would’ve been dominated by non-stop slobbering about how amazing it was that the U.S. chose a female leader. This would’ve overshadowed anything she actually did and we’d continue to hear endless platitudes about how exceptional America is from our corrupt, self-proclaimed “elites” via the propaganda press machine. In short, Hillary Clinton would’ve gotten a gigantic pass by the media class which claims to keep the public informed.

All of this reminds me of the James Baldwin quote I put at the top of this post:

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. … Most of us are about as eager to change as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.”

With Trump’s election, the mask is finally off. Even Trump supporters admit that his election was a reaction to how corrupt and fraudulent our economy and society had become during the 21st century — first under Bush and then Obama. Independents such as myself, despite finding Trump revolting and dangerous, tend to agree with this assessment.

The only significant group of people who simply refuse to admit this fact are those who proudly proclaim themselves to be part of “the resistance.” Many of them thought everything was going just fine for the country while Obama was President simply because things were going well for them, which is just human nature. If things are going fine for you on a individual level, there isn’t much incentive to peek behind the curtain and question what’s really going on. You’re simply too busy feeling good about yourself and focusing on getting ahead. I know because I’ve been there.

During my Wall Street career from 2000-2010, I was primarily focused on my career and having fun with friends. Part of this was age related, but it was even more so due to the fact that I was on the fast track and my personal future — from a materialistic and superficial perspective at least — looked bright. It wasn’t until around the time of the financial crisis that I started to see the world from a radically different perspective. I started digging into our shady monetary and financial system, and from there, started looking into other industries, as well as the nefarious and unconstitutional practices of my government’s military-industrial-surveillance complex. The learning curve was exceptionally steep, but it’s been well worth the effort and I finally started the process of confronting reality, as opposed to living comfortably in my own bubble of privilege. Many others “woke up” during this same wave.

While all that’s well and good, there’s a catch. Although “waking up” is an exhilarating process, it’s simultaneously a terrifying and vulnerable time, especially in the early stages. I certainly spent a couple of years with visions of imminent apocalyptic doom, which made me more susceptible to going down all sorts of unproductive rabbit holes that merely sucked away my energy versus inspiring me with productive drive. It wasn’t until I heard about Bitcoin and recognized its revolutionary potential that I began to turn the corner and see a better path forward. Accepting reality for what it is, is productive, but wallowing in fear and despair is not.

At the exact same time I was fretting about the future and expecting collapse, others were working passionately on building the Bitcoin ecosystem. My fear and kvetching didn’t add much value to the world, while those who had focused their energy on creating a better world were helping to push humanity’s evolution forward in a tangible way. This realization forced me to once again question my entire worldview and mindset, which is why you’ve probably noticed a significant change in the tone and content of my writings this year.

While none of us knows what the future holds, it’s guaranteed things won’t get significantly better if we just cower in a corner in the fetal position shivering about what “the powers that be” are about to do to us. A revolutionarily better future will only emerge if we create it. Which brings me to both the problem and opportunity presented by “the resistance.”

It’s tempting to just write these people off as useful idiots being easily corralled into the vicious arms of neocons and deep state psychopaths following the emotional trauma inflicted upon their psyche by the election of Donald Trump. It’s tempting to do that, because in many ways that’s a fairly accurate description of what’s going on, but I want to try to be less judgmental right now. When thinking back to the early days of my awakening, I remember how malleable my mind was to all sorts of influences, both positive and negative. This is what happens to people when your entire worldview is suddenly shattered or disrupted. Human nature is to look for an alternative narrative that can help you once again make sense of the world. Unfortunately for most card-carrying members of “the resistance,” nefarious characters within corporate media and U.S. intelligence agencies were ready with a comforting narrative which gave them permission to avoid confronting reality: Russia did it.

As idiotic as the whole obsession with Russia has been in 2017, it serves a very useful purpose for the entrenched and discredited U.S. power structure. It effectively gives permission to that segment of the population who thought everything was hunky dory during the Obama administration to continue with that worldview. If everything can be blamed on meddling Russians, then we don’t actually have to confront the rapacious oligarchs running this country into the ground. This is the real tragedy of “the resistance.” By creating and pushing the Russia narrative, these master manipulators are intentionally preventing tens of millions of Americans from confronting how bad things really are. As such, a considerable percentage` of the population simply refuses to admit that our big problems were not created by Vladimir Putin, but are very much a home grown affair.

This presents the danger and the opportunity. If the millions of people in “the resistance” continue to blindly blame our deep problems on Russia while fantasizing about how awesome everything would’ve been if Hillary had been elected, we’re in for some serious trouble as a society. On the other hand, if some meaningful percentage of this group can move beyond their initial election trauma and face reality for what it is, the future is very bright. Let’s never forget that the 2016 election was as much about staying home as it was about voting for Donald Trump. Enough of the country was pissed off about the corruption and degeneracy of the status quo to elect this guy as a middle finger to the “experts” and “elites.” People don’t love Trump, they just despise the status quo.

While I think most rank and file “resistance” members continue to be happily manipulated at this stage since it allows them to avoid confronting how truly screwed up this country has become, I suspect a certain percentage of them can eventually come out of their stupor and evolve into productive agents of change. Tomorrow’s post will dive more deeply into why I think that’s the case.

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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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15 thoughts on “The Future Is What We Make of It – Part 1”

  1. Michael, apparently I saw the same thing as you in Donald Trump. His very personality indicates a “P. T. Barnum” mindset. I knew that he was going to promise much and deliver very little. While he has done some things that I agree with (cutting regulations for example) he has totally failed at others (tackling the national debt, reducing the influence of the deep state, getting us out of the middle east). The best thing that I can honestly say about him is that at least he’s not Hillary Clinton who by now if she had been in charge would have gotten into a nuclear war with Russia and sold the entire country out from under us to the highest bidder.

    Reply
    • How much did Putin do in his first year at power? and he did not come to totally scorched earth, he was FSB chief two years before presidency.

      Trump treaded into a totally hostile environment. Don’t expect him to do magic in his first year, he barely manages to survive. And evacuate his family from The Hill on pretense of thankgiving 🙂

      But I was to talk about rockets. There came news that really freaked me out.

      Did you maybe saw Aussie 2000 movie “On the beach” ?
      “No one realized whose that first missile was, and no one left to investigate it after”
      rottentomatoes.com/m/1099460_on_the_beach

      It is not assuming, there is no superheroes and big blasts, it is just a slice of life after sentence.

      Yeah, now to the news.

      http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-russia-should-fear-north-koreas-nuclear-weapons-missiles-23367?page=2

      ————

      What is surprising to the Russians is that the United States did not
      install a self-destruct system on the GMD interceptors to prevent the
      missiles from landing where they should not.

      “The fact that it does not have self destruct is surprising,” Kashin said.

      “And I am not sure anyone here knew about that.”

      Indeed, Lewis flatly stated that the GMD interceptor does not have a
      self-destruct mechanism while Pollack explained that the weapon is a
      kinetic kill vehicle with no warhead.

      ——————

      So USA sets in Europe and Asia many missiles which

      * go ballistic paths
      * land into Russia
      * can not be destroyed midcourse

      Missile defense is based on saturation idea. As some “Korea” launches 10
      missiles USA launches 1000 counter missiles. 10-20 counter-missiles
      will do their duty. 900+ others would continue into Russia by
      ballistic trajectories.

      What would you think Russia would do, seeing 900+ ballistic missiles
      from USA incoming? Summon an emergent UN session?

      It would only take ONE rogue submarine between Kamchatka and Alaska to trigger automatic M.A.D. exchange. Cards house, ready to be smashed….

      I would not say I had a break-down, but I freaked out royally.

      I don’t know if it was clip/project thinking, or exceptionalism fundamentalism, but it totally consumed American missile designers sanity.

  2. Mike,

    I very much enjoyed reading this and feel I’m traveling on much the same path you are. I turned 40 this year, have two kids and finally realized the world doesn’t have to end the way 95% of the alternative media has portrayed it would since I first “woke up”. That period of time was such a waste of many good things I had going on in my life, particularly the growth of my wonderful young family. It also cost me financially as I put all my eggs in one basket convinced the dollar would die and I would be protected. I how I wish I, with the help from others I listened to, would have challenged that underlying assumption and diversified myself better. Oh well, live and learn.

    As for politics, I mostly reveled in Trump’s election because I knew the worst parts of the power structure loathed him. Furthermore, I thought as you suggest that he would be able to, through his ridiculous pomp and flair, widely reveal the utter insanity of the American Empire. I think that is happening, both through some positive things Trump is employing and through his fumbling of the international issues. Regarding the latter, I think this has allowed other nations to step in and offer different solutions for the world, thus better balancing the power structure.

    As for the “resistance”, I think the recent sexual abuse scandals will go a long way to discrediting the momentum against Trump (the good part being the inwardly focused power structure), Russia, etc. People are starting to actually apply the liberal standards to the puppets that bear them, which has really unwound the pretense of their higher moral ground. In fact, they are worse to women, minorities, children, etc. than their political opponents they have vilified. This will cause them to reassess their belief system and stop investing in the status quo. I am actually quite enjoying watching that facade be torn down in real time, sort of the Berlin Wall of our generation.

    Good time are ahead. Thank God for the internet and good people like you that put yourself out there seeking a better path of peace and justice. Be well and keep being you

    Best,

    -Justin

    Reply
  3. I agree with the political assessment, but it is far from clear to me how bitcoin can save us from the oligarchs and bankers. What prevents the central bankers from simply appropriating bitcoin and outlawing its competitors?

    At that point bankers won’t need their debt based currency racket anymore because they will simply skim from every singe worldwide digital transaction.

    Reply
    • “What prevents the central bankers from simply appropriating bitcoin and outlawing its competitors?”

      It’s not just Bitcoin, Ralph, it’s cryptocurrencies as a whole. In other words, Bitcoin has proven the concept works quite well, and so the horse is out of the barn.

      A good analogy would be P2P file sharing of MP3’s and how the major labels/music industry tried to stop it by suing their own customers, instead of adapting their business models to the new technology.

      They can try to appropriate and outlaw cryptocurrencies. But it won’t work any better than getting rid of Napster as a free P2P file sharing service got rid of P2P file sharing.

    • Well, if the cryptocurrencies cannot be defeated, does that mean the banks are out of business? If it’s as simple as that then maybe things will get better.

  4. And is it a good idea to embrace a cashless monetary framework? I say this is the kiss of death and should be resisted at all costs.

    Reply
  5. It’s always intersting to read comments that start with “I agree…” and then seem to go in the other direction. Michael called Trump: “a dangerous authoritarian…a terrible President and a fake populist.” Many of Trump voters are still blind to the real Trump.

    Yet Rocketman “saw the same thing as you in Donald Trump… but that he has totally failed (other things that I agree with) (tackling the national debt, reducing the influence of the deep state, getting us out of the middle east). On these issues, the problem is that his lack of skill, but the fact that these solving these “problems” goes against the goals of a dangerous authoritarian. There’s a huge differenc between not fulfillign campaign promises because you couldn’t (such as Obamacare Repeal) and because **you never planned to try.**

    As for Justin’s commment that “the worst parts of the power structure loathed him,” that is a bit naive. His whole cabinet is a who’s who of the power structure, with Billionaires and Bankers (Goldman especailly) making the rules. Those Cabinet picks were in the works before he was even sworn in. Now it might be a different *part* of the power structure, but that would be like somebody claiming that they have totaly changed their investment strategy by switching their assets from Gold to Silver.

    Also, while there is no doubt that the government is overregulated, one should examine which regualtions are kept and which ones are not. In almost every case, the regulations that hurt multi-national companies and oligarchs are the ones that are falling. Can anyone name 1 regualtion that has been removed that doesn’t help the 1%? If Trump was truly a hero for the working class, why has he stayed silent on the tax bill?

    Reply
    • That’s a nice arrogant summary of the comments on here – not one comment starts with “I agree” and then lauds Trump as our savior. You have a reading comprehension problem.

      To clarify, the worst elements of our government and deep state were out to defeat Trump – the mountain of media, business and international power brokers were screaming against him at the top of their lungs. The Rothschild family themselves were campaigning against him. What does that tell you? What does the ongoing Russian nonsense tell you? There has not been an internal power struggle like this since Kennedy was president.

      I did state that Trump is a perfect way to expose the absurd nature of the empire. Many of his policies are ridiculous, but may be better marketed or hidden by a more cautious and polished politician. Trump tells us everything on his Twitter feed, which is a running account of just how arrogant and stupid the power structure has become. Before, it was hidden. Now, we have a game show host screaming WE’RE STUPID to the rest of the world. A gold fund manager mentioned recently that while on a trip to China the simple mention of Trump in business circles elicited immediate laughter. They know he is a joke and they plan to take advantage of that fact.

      No thinking person that supported Trump over Hillary believes he is the savior for the country, but his election may be an important bridge to a better place for us all long term.

  6. Pre-election, it was obvious that Trump was taking advantage of the public’s anger with the status-quo. However, unlike most of Trumps’ voters, I – like Michael – realized that he is a charlatan and never intended to go after the power structure that 1%s, especially those **born** into that 1% like Trump, are inherently part of.

    I also agree with Michael’s message that Trump’s election may be good for the country long term NOT because he is now President (as Trump supporters seem to think), but by the very fact that he was elected despite opposition from both major Political Pparties.

    ((Michael’s , please correct me if I am misintepreting what you wrote)

    Reply
  7. Justin, you alluded to “some positive things Trump is employing.” Can you give me an example of any of his accomplishments in office that actually weakens the power structure that opposed him?

    Again, look at his Cabinet picks. You think “the Rothschild family” is upset that for the three most powerful financial positiosn in the US, Trump hand-picked 2 Goldmanites (Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin) and Director of the National Economics Council Gary Cohn) and a Carlyle Group alumni (Jerome Powell for Chairman of the Federal Reserve)?

    The power struggle was over as soon as Hillary and Trump won their party nominations, but Trump the Master Marketer managed to fool you.

    Reply
    • How about avoiding a nuclear war with Russia? Ending the TPP? Arresting massive amounts of pedophiles?

      Again, I am not a supporter of his, but these are positive things that went against the worst parts of the power structure.

      Sounds like you’ve got the world on lock BTN – good luck buddy.

    • A.S. Trump and Hillary below are tokens, talking heads for hidden forces chosen and supporting them.

      It is not even that pedophiles got arrested, it still may be a token gesture, and later they may be released, if they pay enough to investigators to claim “not enough evidence”.

      Interesting is that Hillary-owned media had to report it, together with those pedophiles links to Clintons. Grudgingly, briefly, but they had to mention it.

      Recently media had to grudgingly accept that “color-friendly” Hillary was on of enablers of blacks slave market created in “liberated Libya”.

      Basically, Trump is crumbing the censorship and makes uncomforting facts drop by drop delivered to simple Americans accustomed to worship anyone those MSM point them too.

  8. Apologies ‘if this has been addressed (don’t have time to read them all)… but re: cryptos… can someone tell me (or give a link) why the obscene energy requirement for mining, etc. won’t doom them? I desperately hope it won’t but the numbers are ominous.

    “I think” (words I try to use more often 🙂 the plutos know that ‘fear and insecurity’ paralyze us… just what they want. (Notice the current effort to shred the Euro security net …. do you think they ‘facilitated’ the destabilizing immigrant influx?)

    Also, don’t we ALL tend to believe what we want to be true… myself included. This explains a lot of the Trumpites and Resisters blindness. If they don’t ‘SEE’ a picture of a feasible alternative (as provided by Bernie.. hence his demise), they must cling to the only glimmer of ‘hope’ … or sink.

    Ralph Nader was/is pretty smart… maybe his book is right..’Only the Super Rich Can Save Us.’ Or Bernie’s funding strategy… no corp. $$. Then it really is up to us. Or…. we need ideas, ideas, ideas! (Sparring among ourselves with ‘deep state factoid swords’ won’t get us out of our own bubble … IMHO : )

    Reply

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