Really, I am more than ready for a little silence on the airwaves. The day in and day out nonsense that takes place in Washington is more than enough to wear my patience thin. It’s bad enough that the situation in our nation’s capital has become so bleak. But couple those structural problems with the fact that the only people who reside in those marble halls are morons with law degrees, and you have a situation that is just insufferable.
The ceaseless stream of press releases from all the little groups, every other hour, on how we’re heading down a path that will lead to child murderer, family slaying, citizen killing terror has long since lost its interest.
Anytime someone’s little power pot-budget gets touched, suddenly the whole lot of them flip out and clutter the press with releases containing obviously dubious facts and illogical points about how any reduction of spending will systematically bring about the end of humanity. The culmination of this effort was Harry Reid saying that money being withheld from some gay cowboy jamboree would cause Nevada to lose jobs.
Sure it will…
The reality of the day is: our government sucks because the people in charge of our government suck.
The last thirty plus years have been dominated by this intense game, where all the players do their best to win at any cost. And the heart of this game is rooted in the false choice. That’s how you end up with the kinds of people we have, really. Because elections get phrased by the fanatics as a life altering decision between two fairly unglamorous ends.
But somewhere along the way, these same people who have dominated the process forgot something very important. Political power is shallow. It lasts only as long as other forms of legitimate power are undercutting it.
And most of these imbeciles, while more than capable of winning an election, are utterly incompetent when it comes to anything more substantive. They don’t have the discipline to manage resources, and they elect to increase those available resources well beyond the means of any other more sensible individual to handle either. You could have the best of industry in our government, and I doubt they would be able to correct it any time soon. It simply is too big, that anyone who tried would be worn thin.
So we find ourselves here. It’s time to thin this thing up and simplify it. And the first step is about to happen.
As Democrats and Republicans try desperately to paint each other as the source of the shutdown, they both seem to be missing a subtle concept here.
This isn’t the 90’s.
The last time government shut down, people couldn’t see the reasoning for why. We weren’t in a recession, and worrying about spending, to the average, myopic citizen, was not something to be comprehended. The idea that missteps during good times eventually lead to bad times is not something people like to acknowledge.
So you have two political groups right now fighting based on conditions that haven’t existed in 15 years.
Maybe next they’ll try to win the Cold War, or invade Vietnam?
Republicans are very much aware that they’ll be blamed for this. But blame and recognition are not very distinguishable things. If they were smart, and flexible, they’d jump up and start claiming that they’re responsible for the shutdown. That they are the carriers of the country, and are determined to get things back under control. Thanks to suffering, the will power is there, with the citizenry.
Instead, both groups look like blundering idiots.
But appearances are no longer going to be shaping the issue. Politics are increasingly less relevant, as cold, unforgiving boundaries are becoming more apparent.
For the first time, we have some of the largest players, like Bill Gross, questioning the logic of investing in treasuries. Image more like him appearing. Such a change could redirect the flow of capital in this country.
We should soon be coming to the point where all decisions of the U.S. government are undermined immediately. They announce a new spending program, and money circulates in front of them to drive up costs before they can even get it off the ground. Where people vacate traditional savings methods to embrace (increasingly less) fringe tactics. Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that precious metals markets were viewed with skepticism.
However, I don’t believe that means we continue on the path of decreasing dollar value and higher stock market prices.
The truth is that the credibility of governing individuals has been thoroughly shattered. But, with that ruin will likely come new behavior. These same men and women in their quest to stay relevant can be expected to change on the face of a coin. The same malleability that led them to ruining this country can just as easily lead them to saving it.
You see, a stark truth has been revealed over the last years. The lesson should be driven home by now: If in winning power, you lose relevance, you haven’t won anything. The actions public officials have taken to hold offices have simultaneously destroyed them.
And so we get to the critical inflection point.
Imagine, just ten years ago, John Boehner running around as a fiscal conservative. The man spent more money during the Republican controlled era of the early 2000’s than I care to recall. Yet here he is, fleeing his own legacy. The same can be said about much of the rest of them.
What will the men and women in control of government do in the face of its demise? What might they accomplish in panic?
I do know from studying systems that unstable solutions in networks very rarely exist in nature. Obviously, any change causes them to disappear. Most systems we witness are relatively stable, or non-linear. So I have no reason to expect that this event will mark the end.
Our government, our currency, and our way of life isn’t just going to be continuously destroyed for eternity. Not without new, younger networks springing forth from our current system first.
And so I am watching with baited breath. Could this coming calm be the first step in changing winds? Personally, I think the U.S. government has said quite enough recently. They’ve become increasingly belligerent this decade. Maybe I’m trapped in the moment, and the 90’s, and 80’s and…maybe they were just as bad.
But whatever happens, I think a little peace and quiet could do us all some good.
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