Taki Post: Watch Your Step

Societal decline is best imagined as a drunk man falling down a long flight of stairs, maybe a long spiral staircase. He begins at the top, the peak of the society, then carelessly makes the wrong steps and begins to tumble down the stairs. It is not a rapid or steady fall to the bottom. Instead, he hits a landing, rights himself for a bit, but regaining his confidence he makes another wrong step and takes another tumble.

Some of the landings are long and he is able to function at that level for a while, thinking he is still at the place he started. Maybe he takes a few tentative steps back to the old position higher up the stairs, but eventually it is another misstep, and he falls back down past that landing to another landing farther down. This is societal decline. It is periods of decline punctuated by periods in which it feels like the decline has been arrested.

This is useful to keep in mind as we watch the new regime come to grips with the new reality they face….link

39 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
SidVic
SidVic
Member
3 years ago

I keep coming back to south africa. When it went to black rule I gave it 5 yrs before the lights went off. 30yrs on and its is still crippling on. Surely, there is alot ruin in a nation. Incidentally the NJP is looking intersting. I bet certain corners are in a near panic.

Ripple
Ripple
Reply to  SidVic
3 years ago

What’s the NJP?

TomA
TomA
3 years ago

Liberal democracy (and its associated republican form of government) can only survive in a nation that possesses a majority productive population, a sound monetary policy, and a robust economy. As soon as you pass the tipping point where most of the population becomes parasitic, a vicious cycle begins in which politicians ensure incumbency by bribing voters with more government gravy, which is paid for by printing money, which incentivizes more parasitism, which causes rampant inflation, which wrecks the economy, which initiates protests, then conflict, then revolution. At this point, a rise of tyrannical authoritarian rule is the most probable outcome,… Read more »

Member
Reply to  TomA
3 years ago

America certainly does need a brain transplant at this point.

ABCer
ABCer
3 years ago

MOTIVE: “These people are not acting from virtue or a sense of moral duty, but from the selfish desire for privilege. They saw Nixon and Trump as vulgar bumpkins who had no right to be in their presence, much less the White House.“

That’s it. Their desire to be above others is all that motivates the elites.
They have now walled themselves off and surrounded themselves with Troops they fear and despise (wouldn’t even look at us as they walked by) to keep the loathed commons at bay.

Whitney
Member
3 years ago

It’s amazing with Biden that they can’t even get a picture of him that doesn’t look like a man with dementia. Eventually that drunk falling down the stairs is going to break his neck. Can’t be soon enough

I read The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius yesterday. highly recommend

WCivi...---...
WCivi...---...
3 years ago

What happens? Civilization collapse.

Crumbling is a gradual process. Like a farmer losing his good top soil, as our smart fraction shrinks, we see systems fail. Bridges fall down, pipes freeze, people freeze, electrical energy becomes unreliable, disease, famine, lawlessness, crime all increase. Our top soil is being replaced with sand and we return to hunting and gathering.

Durendal
Durendal
3 years ago

The big question is what happens now that the white population is nearing minority status? Weimar Germany was nearly 100% ethnic German and the Great depression here in America was also north of 90% white. What kind of hellscape is shaping up for us?

X Man
X Man
Reply to  Durendal
3 years ago

South Africa, maybe even shades of Zimbabwe. I know some people like to think that it won’t happen because “the demographics are different”, but that’s not necessarily the case. In a democracy (or constitutional republic), 50% + 1 carries the day. So, it doesn’t really matter if Whites are 49% of the population in future America or 10% — same result. Also, I expect the White share of the population to rapidly descend to less than 40% a la California (70% white in 1980, LA 62% White) which went from majority White to around 37% White since 2000. Infinite mass… Read more »

B125
B125
Reply to  Durendal
3 years ago

Yugoslavia X Rwanda X Rhodesia

Also, most whites are demographically unaware, while other groups are keenly demographically aware.

There is going to be a mass culling before the white population even knows what’s going on.

Hal
Hal
Reply to  Durendal
3 years ago

A horrible blend of South Africa, Yugoslavia, and the Spanish Civil War if things go hot. Hordes of immigrants leading to nasty ethnic warfare and omnipresent atrocities, with all the major powers sending in “volunteers” to pick and choose winners, with the complete destruction of the infrastructure and economic basis of the country as a result.

Pratts
Pratts
Reply to  Hal
3 years ago

You inveterate optimist, you!

Hun
Hun
3 years ago

In Idiocracy, Mike Judge imagined a former wrestler and pornstar as your president. Instead, you will get a former shitty barmaid. It will happen. Maybe not in 2024, but definitely in 2030’s. And a final collapse and dissolution shortly after.

Then we will finally get some relief.

OrangeFrog
OrangeFrog
Reply to  Hun
3 years ago

I suspect that it is possible that you will see the first instance of ‘twerking in the Oval Office’ within the next four to five years.

nunnya bidnez, jr
nunnya bidnez, jr
Reply to  OrangeFrog
3 years ago
KGB
KGB
Reply to  nunnya bidnez, jr
3 years ago

The one interesting thing about AOC is that she presents herself, physically, as an old-school female, with the dresses, lipstick, and hair. Contrast that to pantsuits and mu-mus of the Hillary-types. There’s a definite reason for it and it’s admittedly effective. I wonder which (((Brian Epstein))) came up with it?

SidVic
SidVic
Member
Reply to  KGB
3 years ago

finkelstein spoke about the pant suit phenomena and may have originated it.

Vizzini
Reply to  nunnya bidnez, jr
3 years ago

I see the BBC perpetuates the myth that it was a “right wing account” that posted the video when it was a patently obvious fake-right account and the video was posted to gain her support and sympathy.

Hun
Hun
Reply to  OrangeFrog
3 years ago

Oh, I hope so! Kamala or AOC? Eh, doesn’t matter.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  OrangeFrog
3 years ago

You think Obama didn’t have Beyonce or some other slatternly negress do it, if for nothing else than to spit on the history of the office? And if that didn’t happen, then you know Michael snuck down there to do it herself.

Vizzini
Reply to  KGB
3 years ago

Himself. We don’t use “preferred pronouns.”

OrangeFrog
OrangeFrog
Reply to  KGB
3 years ago

“then you know Michael snuck down there to do it herself.”

Heh. This made me laugh out loud. I presume you’re referring to Michelle, but called it Michael on account of it’s powerful hind quarters and broad shoulders? Well played.

Durendal
Durendal
Reply to  Hun
3 years ago

Brawndos got what plants crave.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Hun
3 years ago

Many of us may live to experience the unusual but not historically unprecedented quality of finding ourselves in a foreign country, even though we have not moved out of our homes.

Juri
Juri
3 years ago

Why nobody want to talk about economy. Historical examples are great but take them out of context makes them worthless. When Nixon and Reagan went out, industry was still there and entire economy was not run on the decade long money printing. Europe is the same. Endless recue packages and QE are our only income sources left.

Yman
Yman
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

“Nixon and Reagan went out, industry was still there” Nope, it doesn’t Financial engineering and outright fraud replaced real engineering, the short-term replaced the medium to long-term, foreign outsourcing and closures replaced long-serving loyal employees. (The Closing Of The Zenith Assembly Plant In Sioux City, IA) that’s what really happened mid 70s to 80s, and that’s why white working class completely lost political influence rescue package and QE head to pirates pocket, I mean Stock market Right now, white people have nothing to left, but still great human resource themselves white people employed to white slavery permanently is their final… Read more »

Moe Noname
Moe Noname
Reply to  Yman
3 years ago

The Zenith global headquarters in Glenview Illinois was just torn down to make a parking lot for the retail electronics retailer next door (which doesn’t sell a single TV or radio made in the US).

Hal
Hal
Reply to  Juri
3 years ago

The economy is only tangentially related to politics these days, as we’ve transitioned from a real economy to some sorcerous Keynesian construct held together with duct tape, wishes, and mass ignorance. Money still means a lot to us dirt people, since we actually have to pay for it with goods or labor, but for the elite, money is essentially free so long as a sliver of economic growth happens. With practically unlimited money given out by central banks, the system only really needs to worry about politics and social issues. Infrastructure can degrade, businesses fail, and millions can lose their… Read more »

Whiskey
Whiskey
3 years ago

It looks like Sailer has been purged over at Unz. You can reach old articles but his page is gone.

Ripple
Ripple
Reply to  Whiskey
3 years ago

Seems fine to me

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Whiskey
3 years ago
Vizzini
Reply to  Whiskey
3 years ago

It’s still there for me, today.

Boris
3 years ago

9/11 was indeed the proverbial fork in the road IMO. The Bush admin. had two clear yet very different paths to choose from: Fortress America (seal the borders, racially profile young Muslim males, insulate the homeland from further transgressions), or…. well, we all know the path they took. To borrow Steve Sailer’s term – Invade the world, Invite the world. Sailer may be wrong about a lot of things now, but he was certainly correct on that one. What a disastrous policy that turned out to be and that’s not even counting the incredibly stupid housing bubble and subsequent recession… Read more »

Stair Master
Stair Master
3 years ago

One might characterize the adoption of Modernism by the ruling class elite in the 1920s as the first big misstep of the current age — particularly, the focus on self-actualization, consumerism, materialism, abandonment of identity, and adoption of egalitarianism. Then the Great Depression & WWII arrested things for a bit; the masses were bonded together. Then another huge misstep and tumble: the 1960s. The 1980s represented another arresting phase. Nothing was reversed, but at least it didn’t grow worse. Things got wobbly again in the 1990s, but those years were still fairly tolerable — paradise by today’s standards. Then 9/11… Read more »

Yman
Yman
Reply to  Stair Master
3 years ago

1920s Ellis islander took over the financial sector, started all kinds of scam, but the white men did nothing 1930s to 1960s, racial integration begins and homosexualism, feminism took the Mainstream, white men did nothing 1980s hedonistic consumerism poisoning the white population and made them defenseless lemmings it’s obviously a plot to distracting white people about mass immigration and the outcome of normalizing decaying society But white men did nothing now white children will experience that their existence is canceled because white men did nothing If only 10 million of white people said enough is enough and declared secession from… Read more »

X Man
X Man
Reply to  Yman
3 years ago

Most people are simple creatures. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve come across a person who grew up in the 1970s and didn’t know about the demographic changes that have occurred since then. It’s always 1975 for a large part of the population. That’s why so many falsely assumed there was still a silent majority able to put Trump back in office for another four years. They can’t cope with the reality (or even understand it) of the situation because they are still living in the past. Thus, they rationalize the world through conspiracy theories like Qanon — a… Read more »

Member
Reply to  X Man
3 years ago

All too true. I occasionally get to talk to old white people. I was arguing with one the other day, something about Covid. At one point the old woman said “well, I heard on the TAIL-A-VISION that…” and proceeded to recite the nonsense I had just refuted moments prior. The way she said TAIL-A-VISION made it clear that she really just meant God. You see, it was still 1980 and morning in America for her. Whatever degenerate walking hairstyle had told her this stuff on the news was Walter Cronkite and President Reagan reincarnated. These people are never going to… Read more »

Member
Reply to  pozymandias
3 years ago

and before someone points this out, yes I know Cronkite and Reagan were fakes themselves and didn’t deserve the reverence people held them in. Cronkite lent his support to virtually every Leftist cultural rampage of the mid 20th century and Reagan of course gave us the disastrous immigration reform of 1986 and began the financialization and de-industrialization process. I would have just edited my comment but that’s not available anymore.

Today’s older people have a worldview that resembles geologic strata with layers of later lies piled on the earlier ones by a mendacious and nowadays very evil mass media apparatus.

B125
B125
Reply to  Yman
3 years ago

Gen Z white males are getting raped in the job market. Unbelievable how many early-mid 20s guys are working minimum wage, living at home, despite having a college degree.

If only they had listened to B125 instead of calling him racist for pointing out the negative effects of mass immigration + woke hysteria.

I wish I could say that they are getting pissed off, but weed + porn + videogames seems to keep them content.