Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
“All we need to do to get safely through this,” said the scorpion to the tortoise and the tortoise to the scorpion, “is be true to ourselves.” (Wikipedia Image)
It was unthinkable that voters in the United Kingdom would elect to leave the European Union. And indeed, thinking was apparently not involved, because the very ones who did it are running around today screaming “WTF?WTF?” and asking please, sir, could they have a do-over? It is unthinkable that voters in the United States would ever, likewise, place their country in the hands of a President Donald Trump. Go ahead, take a minute and try. See? You cannot think it. Doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen.
The Brexit referendum was set in motion by British Masters of the Universe, personified by Prime Minister David Cameron, to demonstrate how silly it was to think the British people would ever want to leave the EU. Well, as our own Alexander Hamilton observed, “Your people, sir, is a great beast!” And the people of the UK reacted to their opportunity as if they were the cast of The Game of Thrones: they handed the prime minister a plate, put his newly severed head upon it, and gave his family a few days to clear their stuff out of No.10 Downing Street.
It all brings to mind the fable of the scorpion and the frog (or the tortoise in older versions), in which the scorpion begs the frog to carry him over the flooded river. The frog protests that he is afraid the scorpion will sting him to death, to which the scorpion replies, “That would not be in my interest, if I killed you I would drown.” Reassured, the frog takes the scorpion on board and starts swimming. Halfway across the river, the frog feels the dreadful shock of the scorpion’s sting. Just before slipping under water, the frog mumbles a single question: “Why.” “It’s just my nature,” murmurs the drowning scorpion.
The thing is, in the Brexit story, I cannot figure out who is the scorpion and who represents the frog.
The Trumpit referendum was launched by the Donald, the perfect embodiment of greed, vanity, stupidity and hubris. The great beast responded by putting him on a great white horse, brandishing pitchforks and setting up a huge procession toward the Capitol, on the way making lists of people whose heads they intend to have. Unthinkable that he should triumph? Not any more it isn’t.
The great beast, you see, is in a very bad mood. In 1980, or thereabouts, the Masters of the Universe pulled off a great global coup d’etat, which disenfranchised ordinary people from the fruits of democracy by chaining the powers of government to the will of the wealthy and their corporations. They did not tell us about this coup, of course, they did their best to keep it from us, with everything from comic-book-action-hero movies, to football gladiator spectacles to screaming debates about the variations of sexual activity and identity. And, need we mention, pervasive dread of the threat of black and brown people who want nothing more than to kill us all in our beds.
But is is dawning now, on the great beast, who is not, frankly, the sharpest beast in the dungeon, that something has been done to him; that the Masters of the Universe are not only not taking care of him but may be trying to kill him. Or at the very least, are perfectly willing to let him die in the street without health care, or social security, or shelter, or mercy.
Yes, the Great Beast is annoyed, and when annoyed, is very strong, and likely to destroy things without rhyme or reason, and without the desired effect; that is why Brexit Brokit. Afterward, the Beast may regret his tantrum, as he surely will if he now goes on to Trumpit.
But, you see, it is his nature…..
Nice one, Mr. Lewis! It seems that it’s the zeitgeist of the time now, collapse and contagion in the markets and the larger environment (from the sea to the sky) and that there’ll be no “safe havens” anywhere once we reach some critical point in the process. Keeping in mind that we’re well into the 6th great mass extinction event on the planet, it isn’t hard to realize that the mass of humans will come to the same harm that we have done to uncountable other species during our “joy ride” on Earth. The perplexing part is that we really thought we knew what we were doing and actually believed that there wouldn’t be any consequences of our profligate modern lifestyle. Somehow we didn’t “get it” and failed to realize that there was only one chance to do it right. [From Animal House: “Hey, ya fucked up – you trusted us!”]
At least two sources have stated over the past few days that the Remain camp didn’t sufficiently hedge their bets or provide a Plan B if they lost the referendum. Another article I read said that ‘they’d’ been planning this for 3 years (!) and still didn’t get what ‘they’ “expected” nor planned at all for the other option. As a result, markets around the world are reacting negatively to this vote and businesses don’t know what to do because no one knows what’s going on or what to do about any of it.
Perhaps this is one of those “grey swan” events which economists have spoken about lately that tips the entire global banking system over and causes the crash we’ve expected since the last one (because “they” hadn’t fixed any of the causes of it since then). In the same way that the corporate class wants to replace everyone’s job with self-learning robots, they never take into consideration that those robots don’t buy their products and that unemployed humans can’t buy superfluous crap if they aren’t earning a living wage. So now there’s an enormous lack of “demand” for products and fuel, causing rampant market instability, which this Brexit vote only exacerbates. It won’t take much more for total disintegration to set in.
Very well said and those down under in Australia cannot gloat as we vote today for politicians that have no mmore underaatnding og reality then those up north.
I don’t believe it was either misguided, or a mistake, this Brexit.
Highly intelligent, and connected people spoke in favor of it. It’s always been the lapdog media, the overpaid bureaucrats, the lying politicians who gloss over the devastation begun with Thatcher/Reagan.
If you finally give a defeated people a little self determination, don’t be surprised if they use it.
Frankly I fully agree that a country unable to care for its native citizens has no business welcoming floods of immigrants. I’m quite impatient with the tired racism label always slapped on any European who dares to question the policy. BTW, Israel hasn’t accepted any migrants, and very few black and brown immigrants, yet amazingly, they are spared any criticism. Isn’t that odd?
Thatcher/Reagan, like Blair/Bush, ushered in a new deal for those who already have it all. It should have been called dismantle and destroy economics, and it continues to leave devastation everywhere.
In the end, the EU is at best a vicious destructive playground originally conceived by the same aristocrat who called for the engineered extinction of the European people. These same forces are busy cooking up punishment for these stupid whites who refuse to shut up and die like they are told.
No one seems to grasp the true nature of the poverty and annihilation forced on those who voted leave. I guess the engineers of political correctness have made it a punishable offense to have compassion for the suffering of one’s own kind. All we are allowed is sneering derision. Only black and brown matter, and quite obviously, only they deserve all the perks, bennies, and red carpets, because someone told you it has to be this way.
Well, the end of this entire system is not simply about the fall of the system, it’s also about the fall of man.
The EU set up the perfect storm, rule by central banks from Brussels.(do we want to talk about the trillions lost and the Libor scandal?)
Meanwhile in the US , we had an ENGINEERED credit default swap scam and 700 billion bailout (much of which went to foreign banks…guess who?) and where trade agreements have undermined the very fabric of the nation. A corporate kangaroo court can now sue states and counties for regulations that protect the citizenry and environment but cut into corporate profits. The elite have been warning us for many years that globalism is inevitable and labeling democracy as “populism”.
Yes how dare us pissants actually thin we knew enough to determine how we want to live our lives…we must be “uneducated unwashed beasts”.
Fortunately for me and others, propaganda and the stories the monied elites (which have owned this country since the constitution was penned coopting the articles of confederation in a coup d’etat, followed by a complete betrayal of the revolutionary soldiers during Shays’ rebellion) are not based on reason, but LIES.
They keep parroting the same sorry crap about how we have a democratic republic,(one of their biggest lies.) Then there are their lies to cover world conquest, (because the US is really trying to consolidate a world empire)the lie that started WW1, the lie that Started WW2, the Lie that started the Vietnam war, the LIES that started both wars in Iraq (and Afghanistan), and countless other baldfaced lies.
Yes, it is coming home to roost, the elite are now facing hostility that is going to make Bastille Day look like a kindergarten tea party. That is what happens when you turn people into landless serfs and USE them as “human capital”.
The great beast perhaps is not revolting but dying, his protectors have robbed and assaulted him at every opportunity, they have used and destroyed the cherished offspring of the beast in wars and unimaginable violence against others, they have taken the beasts homes, lands, water and food and substituted a broth and gruel most foul of entrails and animal fodder.
Today I read a story on the failure of the US Congress to approve funding for disease research and control specifically, the Zika virus unless the agreement included odious and vicious attacks on other programs including the care of the offspring maimed and damaged by their masters folly and then I knew the beast is not free and a slave to his masters and those masters are actively engaged in trying to kill the beast, why? seems it is their nature to do so.
The beast may be dying but it will take the masters with them.
So IYHO Tom, should the Brits have voted to stay or to go?
I don’t have an O on that, not even an HO. The global crash is well under way, and anything that slows it down an iota or speeds it up a farthing is of no interest to me. The idiots who won that election are certainly not showing me a keener grasp of reality than the idiots who lost it; an neither the European Union nor the United Kingdom has demonstrated either the will, the ability or the desire to lead anyone to lie down in green pastures. It’s possible, though, that by anointing Brexit and Trumpit, the Great Beast gets us through the crash faster, and thus to whatever green pastures lie on the other side. When going through hell, they say, keep going.
How’s the coffee at the Diner this morning?
LOL. This is really quite a significant question, because it speaks to whether Democracy can work in a situation where there is no good choice to make. If democracy can’t or does not work, what other choices are there here?
Far as Diner Coffee goes, I personally take it Black, double espresso Sludge Cup. However, some Diners prefer a Frappucino, a sweeter collapse mix. I like my collapse straight up, no sugar, no cream.
RE
Democracy where?
Brexit was, in large part, exactly about sovereignty and self determination. It should follow that there is a general concept in Britain and the USA that the government does not represent the people. Its actually nigh impossible to disagree with this perception, because the workings of government repeatedly stick the people with conditions they never voted for, or on.
A good example here is the so-called “free trade” legislation, a misapplication if there ever was one. Since the advent of “free trade”, the lot of the middle class has deteriorated, commensurate with a ballooning of wealth for those who have it all, but never enough, aka the shithead class. The people are constantly forced to endure more such corporate stitch ups to accelerate this process.
Certainly the secretive, lying nature of the current democracy cum corporate fascist empire does nothing to engender a state of trust between those they abuse and this government by and for itself.
None of this is going to make the airwaves, the lapdog media is far to busy projecting fantasy existences, to ever be bothered with reporting the stories of what is actually unfolding. Further, the lies, misdirection, and propaganda constitute an effective barrier to any attempt at communication. Thus, a white worker who happens to notice that his job just went to an immigrant receiving societal bennies cannot possibly have a point, because hes’ just an effing racist.
What we are witnessing here, is nothing less than a turning point in human history. Empire, that force of centralization and authoritarianism has just been handed its marching orders. This is highly significant, because the most reviled people on the planet have just said they want their self determination back.
From this point on, Empire is going to have a harder, not an easier time functioning. The opposition to a suicidal, genocidal elite is only going to grow. Most certainly, Empire will continue to behave as badly as it can, and doubtless become more savage doing so. Note all the reports of the shithead class cooking up punishment for those stupid racist Brits.
Personally, I see a complete self destruction in store for the owners/rulers. They simply will not take the steps necessary to mitigate any of this, and we can all look forward to the time when their twitching forms are dangling from light posts, and any other likely tall appendage.
I had rather hoped for a quieter, more dignified end to industrial civilization, sinking gracefully under the waves with only muffled explosions, a la the Titanic. However, any such hope has been dashed. Its going to be a brutal and bloody descent into anarchy, with the shithead class confirming their wish for violent suicide every step of the way.
So much potential, all thrown away.
All this anthopocentric discussion and decision making ignores that reality that industrialized civilization is irreversiblt using up limited natural resources – an unsustainable process regardless of what peopl think or do.
The world is collectively losing its mind.