A great piece on our current engineered descent into dystopia! This downward spiral of corruption, enabled by broad deregulation the constraints and guardrails of our institutions, has been accelerating for decades, at least since the 80s. We now seem to be in the end-stages of this race-to-the-bottom and have little time left for self-correction.
We need to be ready for Trump, the GOP and its funders and enablers to rig/steal the midterm elections. At the very least, we must be ready to demand bipartisan hand recounts of ballots by our states' and counties' election officials. We should be contacting our Secs. of State and state Reps. and Senators, now, to ask them what they are doing to ensure the security and integrity of our elections. There are proactive things they and we can do. For specific recommendations and in-depth background on the status of our elections, you can refer to this excellent Substack: 'This Will Hold'. I believe we are in a make-or-break moment for our democracy and for the rule of law. No one is coming to save us. It is up to us.
This is very on topic Jim. So how do we get these kinds of people turned around. They can’t all be “top dog” so to speak. Is it therefore possible that they will eventually attack each other to be numero uno? They can’t like the Jonestown guy relocate millions of people to a different country. Or maybe they won’t need that huge base anymore because they’ve enslaved the population to such an extent that they obey automatically. Like Hitler did. So it could be done in the 1930’s but with the world wide communications system we have now then surely they can’t replicate that system.
There was a time when organisations were held responsible to stakeholders: everyone involved in the operation and success of that undertaking. Now, there is a myth that only shareholders matter so the drive for short-term profiteering undercuts sustainable development, common-sense growth and consideration for the maintenance and curation of this beautiful plant home. Upside: the worship of the dollar has been exposed as another false god, imho xx and we can all benefit from that as defenders of freedom and safety fight on for us all xx Tx Jim xx Tx Ukraine xx
Yeah the wheels have fallen off of unfettered capitalism. I hope a generational social revolution is brewing, we need more politicians like James Talerico to step up and win. The good in us needs to prevail.
Reading this piece reminded me of a book I read in 2007 called The No Assholes Rule by Stanford professor Robert I. Sutton. He talked about how "certified asshole" bosses did things that sound exactly like what you describe here. He discussed TCA (total cost of assholes) and provided studies showing the devastating destruction they caused to businesses, employees, clients, victims, etc. and how to curtail these types of bosses or else they would hire more management like themselves. Sound familiar? *cough* Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Trump family *cough*. It's really too bad we as a nation have not yet stopped these malignant personalities from taking over and destroying everything. I hope we still can.
Great post. Two thoughts which I think will fit into the conversation here.
One. People seem to habitually forget that Capitalism is not an economic theory but a moral philosophy. Economics as a field of study did not exist in Smith’s day. So, theoretically, a vital economy requires constraints derived from a moral perspective. That’s just what we saw in the liberal order constructed in the wake of WWII. And it worked better than earlier versions of capitalism.
Two. “ A 2025 PNAS study of nearly 1.8 million people across 183 countries found that earlier societal conditions marked by corruption, inequality, poverty and violence predicted modestly higher subsequent Dark Factor levels.” This description perfectly models a socio-economic system in which entropy is increasing. Entropy always increases in a closed system.
OK, three. There are two forces in nature that resist entropy: gravity and life. While the universe is expanding into an entropic state, the collective gravitational pull within galaxies slows their internal expansion and helps to maintain their cohesion. Life has a bias towards diversification, which keeps big picture biology an open system.
Conclusion. Let’s declare another entropy-resistant force in the universe: moral constraint.
People don’t want to believe this. And we will all suffer because of that. It’s precisely why we’ve been so critical of the Dems because we know if it’s not stopped it will just roll up everything in its path. It’s a catch 22 & it really shouldn’t be.
Exactly. I've been immensely critical of the Dems in recent months for that very reason. We no longer have the luxury of waiting around while they play their typical games anymore. After all, at the moment, they're unfortunately the only option we've got unless we decide to rise up, revolt, and throw both parties out...
Yep. I was reluctant to criticize them even though I knew. Then the 2024 election loss happened & I couldn’t ignore it anymore because of what they weren’t doing. And because Biden pretended a pedophile wasn’t a pedophile. Actually they all pretend trumps not who he really is. To our demise.
With respect to your opening quote from Friedrich Hayek, it should be noted that Hayek was a libertarian who opposed inheritance and progressive taxation. That near-sightedness alone should raise a red flag when considering otherwise sensible remarks, and he made a few. Hayek advocated authoritarianism over democracy because he believed collectivism, i.e. socialism, always resulted in a dictatorship that could only be cured by another strong man - a benevolent dictatorship run by intelligent capitalists, a misnomer. His involvement with the Austrian Economics of Ludwig von Mises exposes his trust in the free market and the inevitable resort to austerity as the only justifiable means of economic regulation. Margaret Thatcher idolized him. We know better.
Just outside of my window, a young turkey is peeping frantically because it cannot find a way through a wolf and wire fence 4 feet tall. I must go out there and threaten it with capture in order for it too know that it has wings to fly..
Water, electricity, animals and humans take the path of least resistance.. Monopolies, oligopolies, dictatorships exist, because there was no blocking agent.
The U.S,. had a blocking agent, a Constitution and a tripartite government, but the dark forces, eventually learned how end run them, by capturing them.
And they captured them by playing on our fears and needs. The same way Adolph, Benito, Franco and Lenin captured their countries.
All societies devolve to bi classial , in essence the overlords and the peasants
The bane of the overlords, aka nobility, aka oligarchs, is a healthy middle class. Otherwise known as Bourgeoisie
The middle class presents a threat from below, from which competition can emerge and threaten them, it also represent a rung on the ladder down..
The solution from their perspective, eliminate the middle class
This really is the way it is. Growing up in the 70s there was a leftover assumption from the 60s that our society had finally "grown up" and would continue on a path towards more equality, more enlightenment. This was buttressed by the fall of the Nixon Administration. The phrase that the resignation proved "...that NO ONE was above the law" was a naive over simplification.
I remember in c. 1980 I was in a history class where the teacher informed us that "progress does not always move in a forward direction." Many of us scoffed and felt we were insulated by our laws against such back-peddling.
Wow, what a powerful piece! It give me a framework for arguing in favor of the need for strict and clear regulations of powerful entities. Thanks, Jim!
A great piece on our current engineered descent into dystopia! This downward spiral of corruption, enabled by broad deregulation the constraints and guardrails of our institutions, has been accelerating for decades, at least since the 80s. We now seem to be in the end-stages of this race-to-the-bottom and have little time left for self-correction.
We need to be ready for Trump, the GOP and its funders and enablers to rig/steal the midterm elections. At the very least, we must be ready to demand bipartisan hand recounts of ballots by our states' and counties' election officials. We should be contacting our Secs. of State and state Reps. and Senators, now, to ask them what they are doing to ensure the security and integrity of our elections. There are proactive things they and we can do. For specific recommendations and in-depth background on the status of our elections, you can refer to this excellent Substack: 'This Will Hold'. I believe we are in a make-or-break moment for our democracy and for the rule of law. No one is coming to save us. It is up to us.
This is very on topic Jim. So how do we get these kinds of people turned around. They can’t all be “top dog” so to speak. Is it therefore possible that they will eventually attack each other to be numero uno? They can’t like the Jonestown guy relocate millions of people to a different country. Or maybe they won’t need that huge base anymore because they’ve enslaved the population to such an extent that they obey automatically. Like Hitler did. So it could be done in the 1930’s but with the world wide communications system we have now then surely they can’t replicate that system.
There was a time when organisations were held responsible to stakeholders: everyone involved in the operation and success of that undertaking. Now, there is a myth that only shareholders matter so the drive for short-term profiteering undercuts sustainable development, common-sense growth and consideration for the maintenance and curation of this beautiful plant home. Upside: the worship of the dollar has been exposed as another false god, imho xx and we can all benefit from that as defenders of freedom and safety fight on for us all xx Tx Jim xx Tx Ukraine xx
Yeah the wheels have fallen off of unfettered capitalism. I hope a generational social revolution is brewing, we need more politicians like James Talerico to step up and win. The good in us needs to prevail.
Reading this piece reminded me of a book I read in 2007 called The No Assholes Rule by Stanford professor Robert I. Sutton. He talked about how "certified asshole" bosses did things that sound exactly like what you describe here. He discussed TCA (total cost of assholes) and provided studies showing the devastating destruction they caused to businesses, employees, clients, victims, etc. and how to curtail these types of bosses or else they would hire more management like themselves. Sound familiar? *cough* Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Trump family *cough*. It's really too bad we as a nation have not yet stopped these malignant personalities from taking over and destroying everything. I hope we still can.
The dump regime reminds me of a famous quote by Dolly Parton - "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap."
Great post. Two thoughts which I think will fit into the conversation here.
One. People seem to habitually forget that Capitalism is not an economic theory but a moral philosophy. Economics as a field of study did not exist in Smith’s day. So, theoretically, a vital economy requires constraints derived from a moral perspective. That’s just what we saw in the liberal order constructed in the wake of WWII. And it worked better than earlier versions of capitalism.
Two. “ A 2025 PNAS study of nearly 1.8 million people across 183 countries found that earlier societal conditions marked by corruption, inequality, poverty and violence predicted modestly higher subsequent Dark Factor levels.” This description perfectly models a socio-economic system in which entropy is increasing. Entropy always increases in a closed system.
OK, three. There are two forces in nature that resist entropy: gravity and life. While the universe is expanding into an entropic state, the collective gravitational pull within galaxies slows their internal expansion and helps to maintain their cohesion. Life has a bias towards diversification, which keeps big picture biology an open system.
Conclusion. Let’s declare another entropy-resistant force in the universe: moral constraint.
People don’t want to believe this. And we will all suffer because of that. It’s precisely why we’ve been so critical of the Dems because we know if it’s not stopped it will just roll up everything in its path. It’s a catch 22 & it really shouldn’t be.
Exactly. I've been immensely critical of the Dems in recent months for that very reason. We no longer have the luxury of waiting around while they play their typical games anymore. After all, at the moment, they're unfortunately the only option we've got unless we decide to rise up, revolt, and throw both parties out...
Yep. I was reluctant to criticize them even though I knew. Then the 2024 election loss happened & I couldn’t ignore it anymore because of what they weren’t doing. And because Biden pretended a pedophile wasn’t a pedophile. Actually they all pretend trumps not who he really is. To our demise.
With respect to your opening quote from Friedrich Hayek, it should be noted that Hayek was a libertarian who opposed inheritance and progressive taxation. That near-sightedness alone should raise a red flag when considering otherwise sensible remarks, and he made a few. Hayek advocated authoritarianism over democracy because he believed collectivism, i.e. socialism, always resulted in a dictatorship that could only be cured by another strong man - a benevolent dictatorship run by intelligent capitalists, a misnomer. His involvement with the Austrian Economics of Ludwig von Mises exposes his trust in the free market and the inevitable resort to austerity as the only justifiable means of economic regulation. Margaret Thatcher idolized him. We know better.
I would say that "intelligent capitalists" is an oxymoron, rather than a misnomer.
Just outside of my window, a young turkey is peeping frantically because it cannot find a way through a wolf and wire fence 4 feet tall. I must go out there and threaten it with capture in order for it too know that it has wings to fly..
Perfect metaphor! We all need to find our wings and our courage to fly above this deadly morass.
What a great metaphor. Fly turkey fly!
Water, electricity, animals and humans take the path of least resistance.. Monopolies, oligopolies, dictatorships exist, because there was no blocking agent.
The U.S,. had a blocking agent, a Constitution and a tripartite government, but the dark forces, eventually learned how end run them, by capturing them.
And they captured them by playing on our fears and needs. The same way Adolph, Benito, Franco and Lenin captured their countries.
All societies devolve to bi classial , in essence the overlords and the peasants
The bane of the overlords, aka nobility, aka oligarchs, is a healthy middle class. Otherwise known as Bourgeoisie
The middle class presents a threat from below, from which competition can emerge and threaten them, it also represent a rung on the ladder down..
The solution from their perspective, eliminate the middle class
This really is the way it is. Growing up in the 70s there was a leftover assumption from the 60s that our society had finally "grown up" and would continue on a path towards more equality, more enlightenment. This was buttressed by the fall of the Nixon Administration. The phrase that the resignation proved "...that NO ONE was above the law" was a naive over simplification.
I remember in c. 1980 I was in a history class where the teacher informed us that "progress does not always move in a forward direction." Many of us scoffed and felt we were insulated by our laws against such back-peddling.
Needless to say, we were wrong.
Beautifully stated...
Wow, what a powerful piece! It give me a framework for arguing in favor of the need for strict and clear regulations of powerful entities. Thanks, Jim!