“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”― Friedrich Nietzsche
In today’s episode I’m going to address an aspect of both yours and my life habits that I believe you will find compelling as it’s something that should be obvious to you, but is something I’ve discovered that we all fail to notice on a regular basis as we take some of the most obvious things for granted.
It seems the common theme throughout our society and the world is this ongoing battle between chaos and order. The world is by its nature a chaotic place and when order that has been established for a period of time starts to crumble and break down then it results in a great deal of chaos and instability.
This chaos that ensues once the stabilizing factor of an “order” starts to crumble will often result in a number of fights ranging from the political environment all the way to a violent battlefield of a hot kinetic war.
This ongoing struggle is something that manifests on both the chaotic side, as well as the side that society considers the side of “order” on a constant basis. The chaos that ensues within society manifests in a number of different ways within that society’s institutions.
It is here within these institutions where we find the battles that determine the direction of a society given that a society’s traditional faith has been held within these institutions.
I intend for the focus of today’s episode to be on why and how this chaos comes about when the order of things starts to break apart while also examining the strength, or fragility of this “order” of things within what we define as our society.
The Trust
First of all, I want to point towards a thing that we all engage in daily whether we think about it or not. If you consider yourself to be the type of person who doesn’t easily trust others then understand that I want you to pause for a moment and evaluate that belief.
Understand that if you are one to espouse that you don’t trust easily then I would contend that you most likely demonstrate that trust every single day you wake up. With each day that you awaken to go out and tackle life you demonstrate trust across several different avenues that you encounter daily in your life. Unless you live off the grid somewhere in a hut you built for yourself with zero electricity, or with zero contact with the outside world, then I will prove it.
So what is TRUST?
Trust is defined as the belief and knowing that we can have reliability in something. That something might be another person, it might be in the hope that when you turn over the key in your ignition that your car will start, and it is the fact that when you walk into your bathroom to brush your teeth every morning that you’ll have the luxury of clean filtered running water from your faucet.
These are just a few important examples of how you demonstrate trust in your life on a daily basis. This trust also occurs in other key areas of your life such as the trust you have in your money. That’s right, you trust that the money you have in your account is a good store of value in order for you to use and exchange for goods and services that you need in your life in order to live.
After all, what is money? Money is simply a trust that society agrees upon with a social contract that it has a certain value, but what happens when that value starts to fall?
When the value of money continues to diminish then that is a signal that you (or society) is in a way losing trust in that social contract associated with the stored value of those dollars. As a result of that lost trust in the store of value the strength of your money will weaken which results in you having to use more of your dollars in order to buy those goods and services that you need to support yourself and your family. This of course is what is known as inflation.
Take a moment to think about that and you will realize very quickly that society is only as strong and stable as it is based on the amount of trust all of us as citizens place on the “order” of all of these things to function at a level that we consider to be satisfactory.
This is where I believe we as individuals often lose sight of how the real world and life actually works. This is not something that is very complicated because it seems so obvious. After all, we all use a bank for holding our money, we use grocery stores to shop for our food, we use phones to communicate with people, and I could go on and on. At the end of the day we are putting trust into all of these institutions.
The point is that we live in an interdependent society where the institutions that manage all of these things that we place our daily trust in are owned, operated, and controlled by people that in most cases you and I have never met. Furthermore we don’t know whether or not we can trust these people either.
Now when you look at all of this in that way this is all either a huge miracle OR in a way it could be the worst nightmare any of us could have ever imagined.
After all, the trust that all of us demonstrate in the function of society all exists because we have all demanded to have these things be provided to us because they create what we perceive to be convenience for our daily lives.
Convenience vs. Inconvenience
So that last word convenient leads me into the next point of this discussion.
However, before I go there, if we look at the story of Medusa in Greek mythology you can see a very important life lesson that falls in line with everything I’m discussing here with today’s topic associated with society’s desire for convenience. .
Everything I’ve already pointed out in the beginning of this episode points to the connectivity of our society and how we all lend our support in terms of what we spend with our dollars, as well as, what we demand from the marketplace in the name of convenience.
So essentially as a society we’ve gotten a taste and perceive “convenience” as being this apparently attractive thing for us because we are snared by its seductive quality just as many men were seduced by Medusa in the stories of Greek mythology.
However the men that could not resist the temptation of looking Medusa in the eyes all met their demise and were turned to stone. Whether they found themselves satisfying their curiosity about a Gorgon monster, or gazing into the eyes of the same goddess that captured Poseidon’s eye the outcome was the same. Every single one of the men that could not avert her gaze were paralyzed for eternity within their new formation as a fossil, or a freshly made statue.
The only man that was able to turn the tables on Medusa was the Greek hero Perseus. To prevent himself from falling victim to Medusa’s gaze he used a polished shield that was given to him by Athena in order to safely approach and cut the head off of Medusa by looking at her reflection in the shield. This way he could safely watch her without falling victim to her gaze.
He would then later go on to safely rescue his love interest Andromeda from Phineus after the two got into a fight. Phineus was turned to stone by Medusa’s head which Perseus had kept in a safely stored bag.
So the lesson here is that despite having wreaked havoc on many men that approached Medusa, Perseus wasn’t only able to defeat her, but in the process of slaying Medusa he kept her severed head and used its powerful gaze against his own enemies.
I wanted to inject that little vignette of Greek mythology as I am about to make a strong argument as to why convenience is the single worst thing that you can put your money behind and demand for yourself and your family in terms of the market forces that currently exist within our modern day society. As we’re discovering the convenience that we seek with our actions that are done through the banks also parallels Medusa’s deadly gaze not by turning us to stone, but by equally paralyzing us as we become solely dependent on their product.
Essentially, our society’s desire for convenience is turning out to be the same dangerous desire that every man had looking into the eyes of Medusa prior to Perseus.
To clarify some things before I start I will confess that I’m very much a free market entrepreneur. I believe in the free market and every individual having the freedom to pursue success solely within a true competing free market paradigm where the playing field is level.
Now that last part that I just mentioned about the playing field being level is the part I want to focus on. This is the case because it’s this part of our society where the lines of private enterprise and free market competition have been blurred and corrupted with the involvement of subsidies and public/private partnerships. The name for this isn’t capitalism, it’s cronyism.
You see when the state subsidizes a business that provides a product, or service for that matter, to the general public then that business in my view is no longer a business. At that point that entity that is normally referred to as a business automatically becomes another arm of the government.
Why do I say this?
I say this because if a business is automatically issued subsidies by the state and is paid for with yours and my tax dollars then that business doesn’t have to worry about providing a quality product to compete against someone else that might offer a better option for the market. A simpler way of putting it is that there’s no competition, or very low competition, because the market isn’t a free market, but rather a captive market in this particular case where there are only a select few players that can play the game.
Why?
Because in this scenario the bottom line of a subsidized business (aka arm of the government) is guaranteed through issued subsidized dollars by the state. Imagine for a moment if you had a company and the state said it would make it mandatory for the public to buy and use your product by the force of law.
Knowing this then why would you spend one more red cent on advertising? Within this environment what motivation would you have to innovate, to provide a better service, or to simply provide a better product for the public?
Even if you said Brandon if I were in that position I would provide a better product anyways. I would say that perhaps you would, but first ask yourself if you ARE actually in that position and if you aren’t (which is most likely the case) ask yourself how you can trust those who are in that position to put forth a better product?
You see, a captive market provides a comfortable place for that subsidized business (aka arm of the government) and can at times be a huge convenience for the consumer and taxpayer (you) as long as it’s working.
However, what happens when that subsidized arm of the government starts failing and you have nowhere else to go in terms of acquiring the product or service that you need in order to live your life?
So on that note allow me to return to the trust I mentioned that all of us have in the strength of our money. You see right now there’s about 24 big banks that manage most of the country’s wealth here in the U.S.
When the big financial bubble burst back in 2008 some big banks got some really big financial bailouts from the federal government so that they could continue to stay open for business. Given that our dollars haven’t been backed by the gold standard since August 15, 1971 and the conditions of the petrodollar are now changing, along with the rest of the world having come off the gold backing standard, that means that all of our money is backed by-well, hope.
That’s right, that piece of paper, or digital balance, you see on your ledger when you get your statement from the bank that tells you how much money and financial value that you have is simply a social contract that is built on trust. That’s it.
I point this out because the precedent for the federal reserve to print endless amounts of dollars to allocate through these banks that you and I use everyday of our lives has been thrown into high gear since 2008 and went on turbo-charge since 2020 with nobody in sight attempting to even slow it down. As a result of this out of control spending with no end in sight we’re seeing this trust diminish more and more by the day.
Yet we all use the banks and we all as consumers continue to utilize their services allowing them to continue to keep the printing of money flowing from the federal government while, at the same time, growing their centralized authority and power over the rest of us.
After all, we all continue to use our credit and debit cards when we checkout at the grocery store or the mall because it’s not convenient for most of us to carry cash. At least that’s the excuse that I hear from people when I ask them why they don’t carry cash.
Because we don’t trouble ourselves with the inconvenience of carrying cash, we are growing the wealth of the banks by swiping a debit and/or credit card out of convenience. In fact, the demand for convenience has evolved beyond even carrying cash or swiping a card. It’s to the point now that we don’t even have to swipe our cards as now this popular use of that piece of plastic contains a special technology that allows us to simply tap them at checkout.
You might be asking Brandon how is it that we’re making the banks richer by using a credit/debit card for payment
Well the answer is very simple.
You see every single time you tap or swipe your credit card the bank is making interchange fees from the merchants at the point of sale. These interchange fees are fees that go back to the banks to help them to mitigate any losses they may potentially incur should the risk of lending you money on credit result in your failure to pay back that debt that you accumulate at the risk of the bank.
So you and I both are making them richer, more powerful, and more dangerous by using the plastic.
You’re probably thinking Brandon I get how we’re making them richer, but how are we making them more powerful and more dangerous?
Once again since 2008 the federal reserve banks have been able to print money along with the federal reserve at an apparently never ending pace. Furthermore, in doing so the banks drive more inflation, but since big business oligarchies such as these big banks and other major sized companies are in control of such massive wealth it’s easier for these entities to control and acquire assets. This is the case because they already have a tremendous amount of dollars, particularly when they’re able to receive government deposits from money that is printed at will.
So when those dollars are inflated these entities can still acquire assets where an inflated dollar makes it even more difficult for the rest of us to acquire assets because our dollars continue to get weaker and weaker.
This is what Klaus Schwab of the WEF means when he says that “You will own nothing and be happy.”
The Weimar Republic
“I was reading in the paper today that Congress wants to replace the dollar bill with a coin. They’ve already done it. It’s called a nickel.”― Jay Leno
However, the other danger at the core of this situation is the prospect of hyperinflation.
You see back in 1921 and 1923 (particularly in 1923) hyperinflation struck the German Papiermark which was the currency of the Weimar Republic.
You see, after WWI the Treaty of Versailles was a powerful buffer to ensure that the actors left behind in the defunct German Empire couldn’t wage war on anyone else again.
However the terms of this treaty were a significant financial strain and made it unlikely that the German economy would ever recover from its powerful grip. Because of this financial strain the country couldn’t purchase imported goods and because of the loss of their colonies they couldn’t readily count on cheap raw materials.
In addition to all of this, billions of marks that had been hoarded away as a result of the war suddenly came pouring back into circulation after the war was over. Now the Weimar Republic found themselves with a significant increase in the money supply. Does this sound familiar?
Now after having such a shortage of goods and a significant increase in the money supply conditions were optimal for inflation.
However despite there being a good opportunity for the government to get a grip on the economy in 1920 due to the marks stabilizing with the exchange rate for some months compared to the U.S. dollar the government still chose to print even more money in order to try and pay down that reparation debt associated with the treaty. That printing of money sounds familiar as well, right?
As a result of this by July of 1922 prices had jumped by 700 percent as hyperinflation was ushered in. (Source: Hyperinflation in The Weimar Republic-Britannica)
By November of 1923 a wheelbarrow full of money couldn’t buy you a newspaper in the Weimar Republic. As a result shopkeepers couldn’t replenish their stock to keep up with prices, farmers refused to sell their produce for worthless money, and food riots started to break out across the countryside.
As a result the “order” of things started to give way to the chaos. This led to extreme political views and wild conspiracy theories which eventually resulted in the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Basically the Weimar Republic is a great lesson to learn about the incredibly dangerous and destructive nature of inflation that results from a centralized government that can control the currency of its citizenry.
The Eternal Recurrence
The German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche had an interesting theory that was known as the Eternal Recurrence. (Source: Frederich Nietzsche-Wikipedia)
In context the theory can be taken literally as how things are within the universe as the universe consists of a thing where there is perpetual struggle as he describes it with force that continues on in a cycle until it completes its cycle and returns to its beginning.
Now without digging too deep into this theory on the surface we can easily see this similar pattern throughout the world’s history in our physical world. Time and time again civilizations have started, risen to power, and then collapsed as a result of the abuse of that power.
This cycle does, in fact, seem to be a recurring theme in the real world. I wanted to point to Nietzsche’s theory here to illustrate this point that we can observe in reality within the pages of our own history books. You may argue that Nietzsche’s theory was really only referring to the cycle of the universe and how the Eternal Recurrence would involve the repetition of all of us going through what we’ve already gone through in another cycle of the same run of life. ,
However I would contend that this pattern is without question a prevalent cycle throughout history and continues to run its course even though the players may be different as the years go by.
As I mentioned earlier, the allure of convenience, particularly with our reliance on the banking system and the Federal Reserve, ultimately results in a harrowing and deadly encounter not all that different from the men that encountered Medusa.
The Wrap Up
Given what was discussed here I believe that as a society we can turn the tables on the centralized growth and authority of the federal reserve, the banks, and our currency. To me this comparison of convenience vs inconvenience is the same formation of a problem that we can describe as centralization vs. decentralization.
Where convenience feeds more centralized control and authority the small burden of what we may perceive as being a bit of inconvenience feeds more decentralization which results in more freedom for individuals.
Perhaps we can play out our own version of taking the head of Medusa. However, instead of utilizing a polished shield and a sharp sword the way Perseus did with Medusa perhaps we can simply start paying for goods and services in cash.
Perhaps more business owners can figure out creative ways to move away from the majority volume of accepting card payments by accepting more cash payments if that is a possible fit for their business model.
The idea is that we must continue to seek the perfect combination to work for us the way Perseus figured out using the perfect combination of his shield, sword, and the bag he used to store Medusa’s head so that he could use it against his own enemies.
After all, the last thing we want is a Banking Medusa to paralyze us with a centralized digital currency by enabling them the capability of monitoring and controlling every single dollar we make and spend throughout our lives.
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