The Panic of 1873 is one of those events that was important at the time, but gets little discussion today. One reason is it does not fit modern narratives, as the villains and victims are not familiar today. It is one of those events that just seemed to happen and all of these years later it is not clear why it happened. There are lots of possible causes, but not one obvious cause. The resulting decades long depression, however, setup the 20th century and the two great industrial wars.
Another important event that gets little attention these days is the Great Fear that preceded the French Revolution. This was a period of panic, fear and conspiracy theories that swept rural France. Rumors circulated about various plots by the King and the aristocratic classes. For reasons no one has been able to explain, the peasants became increasingly sure the First Estate was about to overthrow the Third Estate, which eventually led to the revolution.
One of the many interesting things about the Bolshevik Resolution is the parallels between it and the French Revolution. Lenin was supposedly a student of the latter, so the lessons of it informed his decisions. Whether this is true or not is like so much else about our history. No one can say for sure now. One clear parallel, however, was the fear and panic preceding the February revolution. Suddenly, no one could trust anyone, so everyone was willing to believe the most outlandish tales.
The one thread that runs through economic panics, periods of civil unrest and great social upheavals like revolutions is the collapse in trust. It is not just the trust in individuals like a king or rich people. Human societies have been dealing with dishonest rulers for a long time. Monarchs come and go and people quickly adjust. When everyone knows the problem is a man or group of men, the solution to the problem is always at hand. No man, no more problems.
Panics are different. The fear is driven by the sense that nothing can be trusted, even one’s own assessment of events. In the case of economic panics, when a big powerful bank fails, impoverishing its clients, how can one trust anything about the financial system at that point? If all of a sudden the currency loses a big chunk of its value, how can anyone trust the economic system itself? In times when the foundations of the system lose credibility, no one can trust anything in the system.
A simple example makes this clear. If in your place of work, the software system used by the company suddenly produces errors, everyone raises an alarm. Work stops until the people in charge of the software either explain why the unexpected result is, in fact, correct or they find the cause and repair it. The software system holds the business rules of the company, so when those rules appear to be to failing, the logic of the business is called into question. The users begin to panic.
The reason people panic is that trust is built on predictability and predictability relies on rules and the orderly enforcement of those rules. When the rules stop making sense or their enforcement becomes arbitrary, it becomes impossible to predict the outcome of one’s actions. When you cannot trust the rules, you cannot trust the results of your own decisions, which means you cannot trust even yourself. When people can trust nothing they are willing to believe anything.
America appears to be in one of those moments when the people are suddenly thrust into a world in which they can no longer trust anything. The extraordinary events of the last election have caused tens of millions to question the system itself. Even those who voted for Biden are coming around to the idea that it was not on the level. Now we are seeing wild claims rocketing around the internet about what is happening to various people and what is happening behind the scenes.
The new rumors and claims are a bit nutty, but the fact is this has been building for a while, going back to before the prior election. Think back and there were all sorts of rumors about Hillary Clinton. People were willing to believe them because she is a terribly corrupt person and a notorious liar. You cannot trust anything that is said by her, her associates or anyone aligned with her. Today, everyone views the system the same way we have viewed Hillary Clinton for decades.
Another interesting aspect to this time of rumor and panic is the fact that the political class has not learned from the economic class. The lesson the bankers learned from the depression of 1929 is that one tool in their arsenal had to be a form of shock and awe as they addressed the crisis. The display of power by the central bank would fill the void of trust and quell the panic. This has proven to be highly effective, as we saw with the mortgage crisis in 2008. Everyone trusted the Fed.
Looking back at the French and Russian revolutions, there were points when the ruling class could have restored some trust in themselves and the system. They had opportunities to change the dynamic and bring people back into a political process they could trust. They failed to do so, often choosing a path that further eroded what little trust the people had in them. We’re seeing similar failures today, as the ruling class carries on as if nothing is happening outside their mansions.
This is how suspicious minds become radical minds. When people get suspicious over something like the election anomalies, they are looking for an explanation from a source they want to trust. When that natural authority mocks or dismisses their suspicion, that becomes part of a new narrative to explain both the anomalies and the unexpected reaction to it. That why the rumors are flying. Suddenly, tens of millions are in the market for a new narrative to explain what they are seeing.
Just as important, tens of millions of American are moving from a mode where they think the government has bad elements to a mode where the suspect the government itself is the bad element. When public trust in the system sharply declined a generation ago, the system had a solution. Reagan channeled that distrust into a reform effort that restored trust in the system. Today, the Pretender Biden and his coterie of flunkies and door holders is channeling that distrust into conspiracies.
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I’m definitely seeing a lot of people in comment sections “why vote?” but it actually happened live here in Georgia where the some Republican politico was talking about the importance of voting in the runoffs and someone got up in the audience and said “why. It’s obvious the election was stolen why should we vote ever again?” There was a lot of support among the plebs. And those ate the people that showed up to see that person talk. I think voter turn outs going to be really bad. It’s dogma and ritual falling away and something will have to… Read more »
The fact that the election was stolen means that it still matters.
White peoples’ tendency to stomp off at the first set back needs to be added to their pathological altruism and pathological honesty as reasons for their current and declining state.
You don’t concede a fight as soon as your opponent lands the first punch.
I think the problem that white voters in GA are having is that they know the democrats hate them and are their enemy, but they do not know if the republicans are on their side.
It doesn’t matter if the Republicans are on their side or not. What matters is defeating the Democommie party and it’s minions of POC’s, illegals, queers and anti Americans.
Unless they want a big fat black woman with an IQ of 80 as governor of Georgia they best VOTE.
Yep.
A lot of time in life, the lesser of two evils is our only option.
Petulant whiteys will jump into a fire rather than only get some of what they want.
But if you believe in the uniparty theory, then it doesn’t matter who wins. I believe the anti white stuff is all talk, for now… with a Republican Senate they would “block it” – with a Dem Senate the people in control will just tell them to talk about it but eventually squash the bill. Reparations and explicit anti white laws are coming in a decade but not planned for right now.
I think what people are mad about is that the Republicans are either indifferent, or in on the steal, as appears to be the case with Kemp and Raffensberger.
I don’t believe that accelerationism is good; but at the same time, there’s no point voting for a party that won’t support your interests. If the options were either piss on my face (R) or shit on my face (D) I would just walk away and try something else, even though the piss is preferable to shit.
Don’t concede, but more voting in a rigged election is stupid on steroids and only reinforces the practice of election fraud. If the people propagating the fraud start having terrible accidents, then you will restore a healthy society in which a corrective feedback mechanism allows a return to normalcy. To date, the only casualty of massive election fraud is the death of the rule of law. All’s fair now, so make it a two-way street.
TomA has a point. Voting in a rigged system simply validates the legitimacy of the corrupt system. Your options are limited to two choices. You may continue voting in order to accumulate greater evidence of corrupt elections with the goal of persuading greater numbers to demand change. Or you may abstain in large numbers but must create alternative attacks against TPTB. Simply not voting plays into the system’s status quo and relieves them from the necessity of having to even rig elections. Pressure must be applied to those in charge running an ever increasing gamut from civil disobedience and economic… Read more »
I hope turnout for that runoff is very low for our team – that would be a sign people reject the legitimacy of the process. Why vote when the first election was stolen and the GOP doesn’t care to do anything about it? It isn’t much of a leap from there to tacit approval of various alternatives to electoral politics. We’ll see.
Yep putting black commies in power will show them reps.
except it won’t. They’re insulate from the damage that will be done – are you?
Beyond that the narrative will be that even Georgia loves communism and rejects white identity politics – which is the exact opposite of the message you want to send.
Wonderful summary. That’s a meme that many an article will be hung on, whether the writers realize it or not
I get it because they see the Republicans doing nothing about the presidential election. OTOH as a Pennsylvanian, we did our part and got robbed (Biden overcomes 3/4 mil deficit overnight yeah right), but the fact we did our job and people are still upset about it has forced the legislature to move.
Who knows if it succeeds but it wouldn’t be happening if we didn’t vote in the first place. Honestly I’m ambivalent about the whole thing. Either elections are rigged or the lawyers decide them. Either way democracy as we know it looks dead to me.
The problem is that a majority of Republicans are clueless cowards and/or fools. Thus we see “the Republicans doing nothing about the presidential election.” The solution is replacing GOP idiots with fighters. But there’s no time for that: It’s now or never. You got to war with the army you have.
If Trump manages a victory through lawfare he cannot do the old “let’s heal” thing. He must continue the attack. People have to go to jail. A few puppet masters and as many plebe vote stuffers as possible. I doubt he has it in him to do so, but allowing such flagrant and massive corruption to go unpunished will only postpone the Leftists until the next go round. They must truly know fear, not the faux fear they’ve utilized to beat us into submission. Either way Trump needs to accept his legacy will be as tyrant. He loses and the… Read more »
A large drop in voter turnout might be the first step in getting people to realize that voting is the problem and that the system is virtually impervious to our votes or what we want.
Ryan Faulk did an article and video on the correlation between what the plebs vote for or want and the actual policy and found none. Meanwhile, what the alleged “elite” want and policy is a close match.
So it will be a pyrrhic victory for Biden and team sedition then? Of course it is as it’s going to be a rough ride even with a corrupt media helping him. The HR department has taken over the country, what could go wrong with that?
As in the Godfather, it is time to go to the mattresses.
Biden would be such an unmitigated disaster I wouldn’t feel terribly about him getting in. Not machiavellian enough to want it, but it would be good for us in the end.
It’s past time, but better late than never.
Driving along the other day, it suddenly occurred to me that there was nothing left to place trust in. Organized religion? Sorry, that ship sailed off into politically correct waters decades ago. The medical/industrial complex has become arrogant and intrusive…and expensive. Fat, stupid nurses are not an encouraging sign. I wrote off education back in the eighties when I saw what government involvement was leading to. We all understand modern media and the fanatical Media Class that runs it. The military has become a catch basin for estrogen run amok and perverts in need of a support group. Bureaucracy is… Read more »
go stoic, or epicurean…
Zen, stoic, for my money the only viable philosophical positions in today’s world. Zen also has metaphysics for those who take the practice seriously.
You can trust:
Dissident podcasts, videos, & alt-media, alt-Christians, books written before 1980, hopefully all your friends, and some family. Yeah, that stuff isn’t exactly blaring through your television screen, but I think our situation is far better than what the dissident Soviets did, for example. They only had samizdat and maybe some comrades they happened upon. There are a lot of alt-media sites popping up (and older ones getting stronger like Gab and BitChute) and communities are fairly easy to find if you know where to look. And all the J-lawyers in the world can’t stop it.
This AM, I was listening to the local radio station that plays Xmas music for the next month – you know, to try to get into the spirit of the season or at least try to lift my spirit. In between sets, the two dj’s were laughing about some sort of survey regarding the new work habits of the remoters. Such as 6 of 10 (or some such) work in whatever they slept in, if not worse. Showering every few days, not wearing deodorant, makeup etc. It’s not freaking funny, it’s freaking outrageous that this is what our insane, evil… Read more »
This is what disturbs me the most. Make us weaker, deprive us of socialization, reduce us to data. It’s a horrible, horrible travesty that should never be forgotten. It amounts to a concentrated attack on our personhood — completely antithetical to the spirit of the founding fathers.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Northern European whites have been entirely too trusting for generations – hell it may be their defining characteristic. That trust opens them up to a never ending series of confidence frauds.
Here’s the history of the last half century in one sentence.
The characteristics that make White societies so successful- Honesty, openness, trust, forbearance etc make them vulnerable to those who do not share them.
Certain churches are trustworthy but they are few and far between. The Southern Baptist Convention is totally controlled by Soros.
The only people I trust are those that I’ve met organically at various places, and developed trust with over time. ie. church might be kind of cucked but you still might run into one of our guys there…
Very true. I should really look around for a decent church.
This brings to mind William James’s “Will to Believe” in which some propositions require belief before any evidence can be revealed for or against that proposition. The primary example used in that work relates to train car robberies. If everyone in the train believed first that all or most of the passengers would assist each other in thwarting the train robbers, then train robberies would cease to occur. But one can only believe such a thing if he reasonably believes in the system of mutual trust that underpins it. Nowadays, you cannot trust even your neighbor, for it is likely… Read more »
Thanks, Mr. Z-Man. Now I’ll have Elvis crooning in my head all day… “We can’t go on together…”
Well thanks for passing THAT one on, Moe.
Gawddammit….
Haha—yes! Same here. I was singing in my head the entire time I was reading the post.
Dwight Yoakam’s version is one way to get Elvis’ out of your mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiKo-BhkpyQ&app=desktop&persist_app=1
Never heard that song. I just feel like we’re caught in a trap and I can’t walk out. Dunno why that is.
stop children whats that sound, evrabody look whats goin’ down, theres battle lines bein’ drawn, nobody’s right if evrabodys wrong,
damnit, I hadn’t thought of it till you mentioned it and now….it will be there all day….
America appears to be in one of those moments when the people are suddenly thrust into a world in which they can no longer trust anything. The extraordinary events of the last election have caused tens of millions to question the system itself. I think the mainstream Left trusts the system. They own it, after all. They may sputter about systemic racism, but they have faith it’ll purge the bad elements because of the arc of history etc. etc. The mainstream right has quibbles with it, but they still believe in “voting harder, praying harder” next time round, as Z… Read more »
“The fear is driven by the sense that nothing can be trusted, even one’s own assessment of events.” That latter clause gets me every time I’m conversing with my ex-military buddies still clinging to Constitution and political reform. I respect those guys so I circle back to my “assessment of events”. But my reassessments run headlong into demographic reality, the governmental mafia, catastrophic failure of institutions (from academia to churches), the massive decline in productive capacity, and the ongoing cultural tornado. The reassessments are further refined by historical parallels, cataclysmic failures of the GOP to reform New Deal and Great… Read more »
They’re scared
It’s hard for boomercons to admit that their whole life has basically been a lie. Boomers still don’t understand why Tyrone and Rajesh hate them even though they’re nice to them, and even invites them over to watch football. For young people like myself it’s easier.
However I’m seeing more old guys who are “woke” now, still rare but some white guys just have a twinkle in their eye and that’s how I know they might “know” a bit more than they’re supposed to… I’ve often wondered if i have the same twinkle.
Everywhere we have looked since Trump is one event after another filled with obvious corruption than no one in the system does anything about. Russian collusion, Ukraine bullshit, Kavanaugh bullshit, BLM riots, Antifa riots, attacks on statues….Now election bullshit and more anti white bullshit incoming. No one in any institution seems to be able to step forward and give an answer on any of it nor could they stop any of it at the time it was happening. So many of us are beginning to think like Joe DiGenova. Let’s start drawing and quartering. Lets wait for that guy. Why… Read more »
Also, I should say that getting people to distrust one’s own sensory faculties is an even more insidious campaign. And it always tickles me to think how our rulers somehow believe they are themselves immune to this.
what rumors? can you give us the juiciest one or two?
Supposedly the cia director died of natural causes.
…..
How about the one about Gina Hasple, supposedly getting shot during the server raid and arrested for treason? High-test, juicy /pol grade stuff right there.
Good column.
<i>shock and all</i>
Shock and awe.
Also going to be very hard for people to put their trust in a guy who wears a black mask
Was there ever a time you COULD trust the gov’t…?
Hello, I’m from the government and I’m here to help…
Complaints about corrupt government & ineffectual congress are as old as the hills.
Wrong question, sir. The correct question is:
Was there ever a time when the government consisted of reasonable, competent white men who didn’t believe that there were 1,838 different genders?
We have entered quite the period of wokist lunacy. Whilst I think times are going to get tougher for YT, I do think that being so far removed from reality has costs that will make themselves known. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Talk about synchronicity.. I was thinking very much along the same lines, how the public trust is waning… then I though what if the COVID vaccines turn out to be either fakes or to have serious side effects… that would really kill any remaining trust there might be left…
PS: A fake vaccin would be a vaccin that does not really help at all. Either through vaccination effects being worse than covid effects (for most people) and/or because it only prevents mild cases which would not be deadly anyhow. I.e does not reduce the body count.
Draconian measures by the private and public sectors in enforcing receiving the vaccine will further the paranoia and distrust, and who can blame them? The trust will collapse regardless of effectiveness.
From the looks of trials, the vaccine will probably be moderately useful for the COVID-19 strain, only to be useless for future Coronavirus strains, like the flu vaccine.
The vaccine is going to be the next major front in the public-private tyranny war. The government won’t have to roll out health passports because they’re going to get private companies to do it for them. Want to fly? Want to attend a concert? Want to set foot in your bank? Show us your papers. And the “muh private enterprise!” wing of Con Inc. will back this 100%.
Heh. Not particularly. Cramped seating, masks, fat stewardesses (and homoseckshalls). Treated like a criminal by mystery meat border enforcement.
Heh. Not particularly. Leftwing sympathies/ Globalist shill band members. Lecturing the audience. Boring me with new material when I just want to hear the classics. Extortionate ticket prices.
Heh. Actually, yes. You may have a point there, old son.
So, if an old friend I know
Stops by to say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes?
Of course that is the intent, Z-Man.
The 2020 shitshow is part of a plan by the Deep State Govt and Outside Force (i.e globalists/Reds/CCP) to collapse the western order. They will do everything they can to sow distrust.
Introduce strangers into your community
publish damnable lies in the media
censor the truth on social media
prevent law enforcement form arresting criminals
Pronounce the season’s flu as a great pandemic
Steal an election
Trust is gone. They are daring us to take them on. They may get their wish. Time will tell
What’s the end goal? After the collapse.
But I do agree that they’re egging us on, or testing our reaction. Something is strange right now and I feel like a Guinea Pig.
Ie. Many governors and mayors have been caught blatantly breaking their own lockdown rules. To me they’re fishing to see how people react, I don’t think they could be that stupid if they were actually trying to make people avoid the virus.
The goal after collapse is to rebuild society that conforms to intersectional neoliberalism. This is the only acceptable model. When antifa and BLM get too uppity, they will snuff them out like they did the alt right.
Typo alert: this one worth fixing
“a form of shock and all”
Ha. Fixed.
Also “Russian resolution” I think you meant revolution.
“…tens of millions of American are moving from a mode where they think the government has bad elements to a mode where the suspect the government itself is the bad element….” At this point, it’s hard to believe that anyone other than the most naive who are outside The Beltway System Inc., would not just ‘suspect’ the government itself is the bad element, but would be absolutely convinced that is the case. Furthermore, those inside the System must also know it’s corrupt, but are so invested in it that they’re highly motivated to perpetuate the scheme at any & all… Read more »
Very timely article. The reason I said that was, this morning, the rumor mill had it ,Gina Haspell was killed in a fire fight in Germany over an election server. The server was at a CIA facility. The Army special forces (aligned with Trump) went to seize the server as it was being used to flip votes from Trump to Biden. A firefight ensued and US army troops were killed. Everything is going to be revealed and Trump is going to win the election. The conspirators will be arrested and sent to Gitmo. Trust the plan. It’s like Q. All… Read more »
I just commented on those rumors – they’d all go away if Haspell just strolled down the street and into the the front door of the CIA building, but that apparently hasn’t happened for a while.
Right up there with the rumored 20,000+ current and ex military poll watchers who are part of a giant sting operation that has been planned for the last 2 years. And watermarks. Or something. It’s just nuts. I like Trump, but the guy isn’t exactly hyper-effective (wall, DACA expulsion, troop withdrawls, etc.). But somehow, on this? Nah. Ben Franklin comes to mind. “Three people can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” “Deus Ex Machina” is a classical Greek play writing technique. Basically, the story ends with loose ends that need tidying up..a god appears from nowhere and… Read more »
It seems that the Left has trusted the system as long as they have controlled and could redefine it, which has been a long time. “The system”, by their definition, is what they claim it is at any given moment. So under the pretext of legitimacy, the Left has been able to arbitrarily assert its will. Yes, there have been speed bumps here and there but mostly the Left has proceeded unabated. What has changed is the Right has caught onto the grift. The events leading up to November 3, and the obviously fraudulent nature of the election, has stripped… Read more »
When a plandemic destroys a multitude of small business, enriching techno oligarchs, people start to get a bit suspicious, especially when the meter on the deathometer stays stuck on the same average number.
People with critical thinking skills will prepare for what comes next, distancing themselves from the people tweeting hieroglyphs of the sound of their feelings on the surveillance tool of social media.
The kakistocracy lacks the IQ to win this one.
The macro and the micro. In a big picture sense, loss of societal trust breeds anxiety and awakens extreme amygdalin behaviors (fight or flight). And panic is just group hysteria, such as toilet paper hording and bank runs. At the individual level, some people whine for help, some people become preppers, and some people roll up their sleeves. At the root, prolonged affluence has made us soft and stupid, hence DC is a distillation of that dysfunction. The least painful solution to this vicious cycle of debasement is Simple, Secret, Solo, and Spontaneous. You can’t negotiate with a cancer cell.… Read more »
Actually, the Panic of 1873 was caused, in large part, by the Great Epizootic of 1872. During that year almost every horse in the US was infected with equine influenza. While not fatal, these horses were too sick to work and business in the country ground to a standstill. Groceries and beer couldn’t be delivered, fields weren’t plowed, fire engines couldn’t leave the station. Imagine if today no truck or tractor could be operational.
The truckers have been promising a nationwide strike since the so-called “election”, I have not heard much about that lately though. Imagine for a second a few hundred tractor-trailers blocking all traffic around the beltway, nobody going in or out.