Burn The Boats

Note: Behind the green door is a post about the Super Tuesday results and a post about my thoughts about moving from Lagos. The Sunday podcast was posted late, as I was tied up on some projects. Subscribe here or here.


One of the things the paleos missed when they began to flesh out managerialism in the last century is how it assumes the qualities of democracy. This is something Robert Dahl picked up in his analysis of American government against the standard of democracy he developed. While the institutions of America were not democratic and could never be democratic, the people in these institutions were motivated by a democratic sense in that they wanted to act according to public will.

This explains, in part, how our institutions have grown increasingly authoritarian over the last three decades, while the people running them have become obsessed with defending what they call “our democracy.” They do not view democracy as a process, but rather as a goal. The truly democratic society is open, and the people freely exchange the right ideas. Defending democracy in this sense means dragging the people to this place, by force if necessary.

This democratic sensibility within democracy is important in understanding the reckless behavior of the people running the institutions. If one were to pick a single word to describe the cause of the current crisis it would be “reckless”. Whether it is reckless foreign policy adventures or poorly conceived domestic fads, the ruling class seems to take pleasure in reckless projects. They operate like gamblers with unlimited credit that they assume will be repaid by others.

The Ukraine war is the latest example. When the Russians threatened war, it was over the Minsk agreements not having been followed. They had a specific set of claims against Ukraine, and they wanted help from the West to enforce those claims, but instead they got bellicose threats from Washington. In retrospect, we now know that the West wanted war with Russia. Deliberately picking a fight with the world’s biggest nuclear power is about as reckless as it gets.

For two years the West has steadfastly refused to have any dealings with the Russians, instead demanding total surrender. Every few months the West seeks some new “red line” to cross, hoping to provoke the Russians. Now the French are recruiting the micronations of NATO to send troops into Ukraine. The whole point of this is to bait the Russians into responding in a way that will then let NATO pretend they are being attacked by Russia so they can invoke Article 5.

Project Ukraine is a pointless and risky adventure, but even as the Russians gain the upper hand, the Western managerial elite remains addicted to it. Like drug addicts, they crave only the next hit of foolish risk in this thing. So much so that they look for new ways to make it so they cannot change course. There is a burn the boats mentality to this project, where they seek out policies that further commit the West to the project in such a way that no one can apply the brakes.

This burn the boats mentality is everywhere. The immigration crisis is not simply about border management, something that could be fixed. It is aimed at making it a permanent crisis, a permanent project for the managerial class. Tens of millions of illegals now roam the countryside, raping and killing Americans. Even if a new president wants to fix the problem, he will still be left with the tens of millions of criminal aliens unleashed on the cities and towns of America.

One of the defenses of aristocratic rule is that it is naturally cautious. The king has an investment in his country and people in that he directly benefits from them. Who he is as a king depends upon the health and welfare of the people and the land on which they live, so he is not going to be quick to risk either of those for novelty. In fact, he is going to be cautious of change, especially in domestic affairs, because he has everything to lose and little to gain.

This is not true in democratic systems where the rulers have no investment at all, as they can be replaced at the next election. Hans Hermann-Hoppe noted that in democratic systems, the people holding office often despise the office they hold, as they gained it only as a steppingstone toward some other goal. The people have nothing but their vote, so they are willing to take great risks. The result is a system that is willing to take enormous risk for theoretical and ephemeral gains.

America is not a democracy, but a sense of democracy is there in the institutions controlled by the managerial class. What we have is a managerial polyarchy, where the elites use the institutions to chase the mirage of the democratic society. Because the goal is not real, it is maximally alluring. This is why the elites are willing to trample the democratic process to defend “our democracy.” What they are defending is not a real thing but the imagined end point of history.

It is that democratic spirit that makes them so risk happy. This burn the boats approach to public policy comes from the sense that this condition of society is temporary and therefore the positions held by the elite are temporary. In a real sense, those positions are temporary, as all managers keep their resume up to date for a reason. Throw in the fact that failure never comes with consequences and the result is a ruling elite that operates like a desperate gambler looking for a score.

The great lesson in democratic risk taking is Athens in the Peloponnesian War where the Athenians were determined to spark war with Sparta. It was the Athenian decision to roll the dice on an invasion of Syracuse that led not only to the end of the war but the destruction of Athens. Given the similarity between America and Athens, it is fair to assume the same fate awaits the American empire. Democratic empire will turn out to be a suicide pact crafted by people addicted to risk taking.


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8 months ago

[…] ZMan peeks behind the curtain. […]

miforest
miforest
8 months ago

here is a great zerohedge that goes pertty well with this article .
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/societal-self-regulation
as a grandfather to small children and a father to adult children , I look arround and wonder how we let them take away all of our control. We used to have at least a little. now voting desn’t matter at all, clearly rigged . they own both parties so they put enough of each in to fool normie into thinking he still matters. . probably memick thinking .

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  miforest
8 months ago

TV was always a big part of it. Augmented (that’s an insufficient word for the gravity of it) by cell phones about 15 years ago. It is not coincidental that I was never much of a TV watcher, and that I am also a dissident. It’s also not a coincidence that I have almost never used my cell phone to access the internet, and am a dissident. I can’t say I planned it that way, back when smart phones first came out, that I was repelled from them for ideological reasons or saw them as the nefarious objects that they… Read more »

Spingerah
Spingerah
Reply to  miforest
8 months ago

I can relate. I gave up my last glimmer of hope very recently.
I have been pushing the Boulder uphill for a while now. I can get my children and grandchildren to shelter now but am still woefully short of being able to sustain them for more than a month at best. I will not stop pushing as long as I breath but I no longer feel that time is on my side.
What I have been afraid of is coming much too fast now
I am a peasant who fell short.

miforest
miforest
Reply to  Spingerah
8 months ago

best of luck with it .

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
8 months ago

If I disregard Z Man’s learned but somewhat convoluted examination of pathological managerialism, and instead just say, “It’s just anti-traditional white!” what mistakes will I make?

If I say, “All this talk about cultural marxism is foolish and missing the point!” what mistakes will I make?

Hi-ya!
Hi-ya!
Reply to  LineInTheSand
8 months ago

This system is designed to destroy white civilization and whites .

Whiskey
Whiskey
8 months ago

There was an interview and transcript on Zerohedge of Tucker Carlson interviewing some dude, his point was that “Our Democracy” really did apply, only to leaders of various institutions. And that they spend a lot of time at the WEF, Aspen Institute (a CIA op), various other places hammering out between leaders agreements. The leaders are business oligarchs: Zuck, Bill Gates, Soros, it includes the Euroweenies such as Van Der Leyen, Borrell, Lagarde, Macron, managers like Fink and Dimon, various NGOs, the military and defense contractors, Mary Barra at GM, the intel leaders, etc. For those people, a collegial, negotiated… Read more »

Geo. Orwell
Geo. Orwell
8 months ago

OT, but I just listened to the Robots and Retards podcast and wanted to put this out there today. The changes Zman describes appear even in businesses that are not “right answer” ones. I’ve mentioned I have been in advertising for over thirty years. One change that stands out is the proliferation of people that have to be involved in work that previously only required one or two. When an ad agency hires me, it used to be that I would get a briefing from just one creative, usually an art director. He would tell me what he needed, and… Read more »

Pozymandias
Reply to  Geo. Orwell
8 months ago

In my job search I see the same thing with respect to interviews and the HR monster. The hiring *process* has become a way for useless wymmin and various sexual deviants to drain off income from a process they shouldn’t be anywhere near. These are the people responsible for competent people not getting jobs because they aren’t a “culture fit”. This is in companies with an average employee tenure sometimes measured in MONTHS. There is no fucking “culture” to fit into. It’s a random bunch of strangers most of whom will be replaced within 2 years.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Geo. Orwell
8 months ago

Another thing has become more pronounced over the years. Advertising people have always put in long hours…

It’s not just advertising. And it’s not particularly new, either. It’s just that it might be cutting a little deeper. Instead of being mostly a “requirement” for advancement into the type-A corner offices, it has in some cases become a “requirement” for continued employment.

Geo. Orwell
Geo. Orwell
Reply to  Steve
8 months ago

A common joke at one shop was “If you don’t come in for work on Saturday, don’t bother coming in on Sunday.” As the years went by, what really got to me was the stupidity of it all. It’s just freaking advertising, not critical decisions for load-bearing structures or complex ladders of financial investments. There is no “right” answer, just an endless chase to get everyone to agree on some silly concept long enough to produce it and send in all the billing. For something that you will skip through on your DVR. Nevertheless everyone is expected to take all… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Geo. Orwell
8 months ago

As I worked through the weekend in software, I always assumed you advertising guys were poolside.

Geo. Orwell
Geo. Orwell
Reply to  LineInTheSand
8 months ago

No, but trust me… the difference in mental effort between writing software and writing a commercial for anal cream is a vast and gaping canyon. As it were.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Geo. Orwell
8 months ago

Well, come to think of it, I spose the anus is also a type of “software”…

DaBears
DaBears
Reply to  Geo. Orwell
8 months ago

We lawyers have always put in long hours and with a willingness to 24/7/365 if a client project requires it. But since women increased their numbers, the number of pointless consensus meetings has skyrocketed. I am requested to join at least a handful of meetings everyday. Fortunately I can login on Zoom or Webex with a fake me on mute and accomplish productive tasks on the side. Otherwise it would be impossible to bill 25 hours in a 24 hour day.

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  Geo. Orwell
8 months ago

I call this stuff “Death by committee.” What I mean is, Most products are now anodyne products produced by a multitude of people all pushing their specific quirk. Gone is the vision of a single art director or creator; instead, we have the proliferation of a variety of regurgitating pukes, leading to bloat and lack of singular vision. This is the difference between Nick Drake and whatever current hit is on the radio.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Eloi
8 months ago
RealityRules
RealityRules
8 months ago

Nice article. Is this a nod to Burn The Boats of Cortez and his grand band of warriors? If so, I don’t think this is appropriate. Those men burnt their own boats as a challenge to run the gauntlet – themselves. The people running the GAE are not this breed of men. If there is some other reference here I am curious as to what it is. While there are grand plans in play, I think a huge amount of what we see happening is spite and envy. This is true of the border invasion and of White Erasure. I… Read more »

Krustykurmudgeon
Krustykurmudgeon
8 months ago

I know this might hurt the feelings of people who supported Reagan and the year down the wall bit. Nonetheless I feel the entire cold war was a gayop.

Like is the managerial polyarchy that much better than the Soviet Union? Better than the lenin/stalin era yes but the jury is out on post stalin ussr

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
8 months ago

Ultimately the Cold War was a civil war, and neither side was ours. The reality just wasn’t apparent in the moment. We lost, and would have lost either way. I still think the side better for us won, but I no longer believe that with the same conviction I once did and could be persuaded otherwise.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Jack Dobson
8 months ago

Communism isn’t our thing. Open society is the logic of our thing without limits. The commies never had the chance to loose their theories, but I’m sure it would’ve made Clown World look good.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
8 months ago

The GAE didn’t become clown world until after the wall came down. It’s kind of disingenuous to pretend the GAE regime that faced off the Soviets is the same one as today. It was slouching in that direction but it was not the same. And to answer the question, yes, that regime was much better than the Soviet one. Today’s regime, morally not at all better, but still materially better (for now).

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
8 months ago

Loads of difference between America 1984 and AINO 2024. I know because I was there and remember it well.

Krustykurmudgeon
Krustykurmudgeon
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
8 months ago

Aren’t the people running the US largely the same people 40 years ago?

Major Hoople
Major Hoople
Member
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
8 months ago

Hell no. To repeat …..

Hell no.

george 1
george 1
8 months ago

Well here we are. It is being reported that Donald Trump is now saying that we should give the aid to Ukraine as proposed by the administration but call it a loan instead of aid.

The convergence is complete. Together with his support for the Gazacaust and we can safely conclude that Trump has made a deal. Or they outright got his mind right without any deal.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  george 1
8 months ago

A deal with the devil known as the uniparty. Perhaps the lawfare will be called off now.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  george 1
8 months ago

We’ll know for sure they have made a deal with him to be potus if the stock market crashes this spring or summer (like I think it will.) They won’t let that happen if they plan to hang onto Biden for another 4.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
8 months ago

Bitcoin is said to be halved (double), that is, split in April.
Wall Street and Fink’s Fed are set jump in, beginning the process of conversion to Bretton Woods II.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
8 months ago

Are there ANY sane people in government west of the Dnieper River and east of the Pacific these days??

george 1
george 1
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
8 months ago

Doesn’t seem like it.

Maxda
Maxda
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
8 months ago

The system seems to be actively filtering them out. People as moderate as Trump and Tucker are considered radicals.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
8 months ago

In this post, Z Man is puzzled by the recklessness of our elites and explains it by examining the dynamics of managerialism. His explanation draws from his impressive knowledge of history and ideas. When I see what Z Man sees, I just say that our elite are simply anti-traditional-white, especially anti-traditional-white-men, and they are just executing their mission. (Why our elites are fundamentally anti-traditional-white is a separate discussion.) What looks like recklessness to Z Man is just the steps taken on an agenda that almost all elites agree with. I feel like the anti-traditional-white explanation accounts for what we see… Read more »

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  LineInTheSand
8 months ago

I agree with you. I find a glaring blind spot for those who object to our viewpoint is the elites’ 1) Clear declaration of anti-white hatred and 2) The clear achievement of their aims in their pogroms. We are marching so clearly towards a totalitarian vision of the future that I cannot see emergent incompetency coincidentally and perfectly creating this vision. I believe the leap we make, and that others shy away from, is a belief that there is a supranational ruling elite that is above the pay grade of the neocons or whatever putative rulership of the GAE. I… Read more »

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Eloi
8 months ago

It’s the bankers. One thing that’s notable is just how little attention the people who own the banks get while the tech ceos, politicians, and NGO people seem to crave attention like a kid on the playground eating worms so that the other kids will look at him. All of those people are controlled and used to enact the will of the financiers so that in case of a mob with pitchforks its idiots like Biden or Musk who get burned at the stake.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  LineInTheSand
8 months ago

It IS a genocide of the traditional West

george 1
george 1
Reply to  LineInTheSand
8 months ago

Almost like the elites have a very swift time preference psychological makeup coupled with a very high inhibition threshold.

Now who can we think of that fits that profile?

Disruptor
Disruptor
Reply to  LineInTheSand
8 months ago

Awhkkkk! Beakie-beakie bird want a cracker!

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Disruptor
8 months ago
Steve
Steve
Reply to  LineInTheSand
8 months ago

Managerialism from the historical perspective is a different thing than what currently goes by that name. Kinda like “liberal”. Consider that just a half-century ago, a board of directors was selected with a desire to have a steering committee of successful businessmen. As in white, largely 60+ YO males. It took lots of time and effort to get to the boardroom. That was the archetype of corporate management. Now, you program or steal a media player, sell it to Yahoo or Google, and you become a billionaire at age 23. You have never had to take out a third mortgage… Read more »

usNthem
usNthem
8 months ago

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s some libshit pos blabbering about “our democracy”. F them.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  usNthem
8 months ago

Yeah that is getting very hard to stomach

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
8 months ago

On the other hand, it’s an easy and convenient way to identify who should go against the wall when/if the time comes.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  Outdoorspro
8 months ago

You have a point. We’re way past amicable solutions

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
8 months ago

Seems on topic https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/03/from-isolation-to-containment-washingtons-economic-war-against-russia-gets-a-rebrand.html

After spending the last few decades denigrating and eradicating nationalism (speaking of chasing mirages), the west now finds itself needing nationalism (not that it can admit this out loud). How can one wage a “containment” strategy against the “foe” without nationalism? Rally around the rainbow banner western man!

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
8 months ago

Aha, I get Bretton Woods II, now.
What can the players behind the curtain offer the sovereign?

Why, Jubilee. A revaluing of all that sovereign debt and its accumulated derivatives.

Xman
Xman
8 months ago

“What we have is a managerial polyarchy, where the elites use the institutions to chase the mirage of the democratic society.” This is why I have been saying that these people are a lot closer to the communists of a century ago than we typically believe. I get the argument that they are not actual Marxists because they are not proletarian laborers rising up against the capitalists — but then again Lenin and Trotsky were not proletarians and Nicholas II’s Russia was not exactly capitalist, either. But Lenin and Trotsky WERE reckless intellectuals who “chased the mirage” of a classless,… Read more »

Guest
Guest
Reply to  Xman
8 months ago

They are Marxists in every meaningful respect. They control the means of production by controlling access to capital. If you want access to capital in the modern US, then you had damn well better be toeing the line. Why do you think Boeing cares not one whit about its planes falling apart in mid-air, but is passionate about DEI initiatives? The former presents no threat to Boeing’s ability to access capital, the latter does. Twitter had unlimited access to capital in spite of the fact it was losing approximately $4MM per day. By contrast, Gab was de-banked while it ran… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Guest
8 months ago

Free money is the lifeblood of this managerial class. Without it, the climate “industry” (for instance) collapses overnight, as it generates zero revenue of its own. But if things get bad enough where the climate cult isn’t getting any money, then that means things will be bad indeed for the rest of us.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Guest
8 months ago

You won’t find anything about the Power Structure controlling outlays of capital and applying DIE strings to it in Das Kapital. AINO’s rulers couldn’t tell you the difference between the labor theory of value and syndicalism. What they do know is how much they hate whitey and how to use capitalism to advance the hate-whitey agenda.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
8 months ago

I suppose that it’s not the end of the world if our people conceptualize that they are fighting marxism, communism, or cultural marxism.

But we’re really fighting anti-traditional-whiteness.

What energy will be wasted in the study of cultural Marxism instead of what is before us?

What will we overlook in searching for and screaming about examples of asians or the chosen being discriminated against?

Ostei is asking us to focus on the disquieting essentials, not the easy distractions.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Xman
8 months ago

The word everybody has danced around without using is utopianism. Whether utopia is conceived as a communal or a democratic society, both are ideals of perfection that cannot be reached are perfect only in the eyes of their pursuers. And there’s little more dangerous, incidentally, than utopian rulers because all, including immanentizing the infernum, is justified in the effort to immanentize the eschaton.

Xman
Xman
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
8 months ago

Correct. And democratic utopianism is not much different than communist utopianism when you get right down to it.

Both communism and democracy pronounce everybody equal. In communist utopian theory the proletariat is justified in using revolutionary means to achieve equality. In democratic utopianism, the people simply vote for equality. In both cases when the desired results are not achieved, the managerial elite claims that it is justified in using authoritarian means to impose the goal of equality on the polity.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Xman
8 months ago

Yes, the theory behind the two is very, very different, but the telos is similar.

Gespenst
Gespenst
Reply to  Xman
8 months ago

“Correct. And democratic utopianism is not much different than communist utopianism when you get right down to it.”

“The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies” by Ryszard Legutko argues at length to prove your assertion

OrangeFrog
OrangeFrog
8 months ago

This is not true in democratic systems where the rulers have no investment at all, as they can be replaced at the next election. For the higher-ups I guess. One of the things that I always found quite obvious about what I now know to be termed “managerialism” was that, even with a changing of the guard, most of the manager ended up shuffled about slightly – usually a net gain for themselves. These people just never seem to fall on their face, there is always a think-tank, or public relations outfit or corporation or other government office ready to… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Member
8 months ago

Between Russia and China, clownworld can lose the empire. They are just bound and determined to open a 2 front war it cannot possibly win. The combined forces of NATO may very well be able to defeat Russia, but not Russia and China and not China alone either. Not only does China have the ship building and heavy industry to outproduce NATO, it has 10 million young-ish extra men it would just love to rid itself of. Even if NATO could drag India into the war to help with the manpower problem, it simply cannot keep up with Chinese heavy… Read more »

OrangeFrog
OrangeFrog
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
8 months ago

it has 10 million young-ish extra men it would just love to rid itself of.

That’s always been it for me. The Chinese elite, I believe, can stomach losses in the hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions. Don’t think the US has the same mentality.

I’m also curious as to how the US would actually even be able to invade and occupy China. The geography doesn’t look to easy to navigate and “The Allies”” would be far, far, far away from home.

Then again, China definitely needs a few more statues of St. George to make them less racist.

Xman
Xman
Reply to  OrangeFrog
8 months ago

I’m sure that after the Negroes get their “reparations” millions of them will be happy to enlist in the Marines and invade China, LOL:

https://nypost.com/2024/03/10/us-news/black-new-yorkers-clash-over-who-should-get-reparations/

OrangeFrog
OrangeFrog
Reply to  Xman
8 months ago

Heh.

Let the infighting between Satan’s charred minions begin. Sometimes, I’m simply not convinced that evil is anywhere near as competent as I thought it was.

george 1
george 1
Reply to  Xman
8 months ago

Ha. That would be a funny meme. Negros going off to fight the Chinese.

As they say in the special forces, “Lots a Luck.”

Steve
Steve
Reply to  george 1
8 months ago

Maybe more appropriately for going to fight the chinks, “Rots a ruck.”

george 1
george 1
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
8 months ago

Iran would probably also get involved if Russia is attacked. Russia, China and Iran now have an alliance based on the existential threats to one another.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
8 months ago

Dangerous times indeed. I don’t particularly have any respect for NATO or the Europeans, but defeat of Russia means NATO stepping upon Russian soil. Russia, via Putin, restated its nuclear use doctrine due to the Ukraine conflict. IIR, basically two parts. Russia will use nukes if nukes used against them (imminent use will suffice). Russia will use nukes if an invading force steps upon Russian soil. Pretty simple to understand. So how does one conduct a war to defeat Russia under those conditions, i.e., MAD doctrine.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Compsci
8 months ago

“Russia will use nukes if nukes used against them (imminent use will suffice).”

That’s because the US idiots have never eschewed the first strike option. No-one can blame the Russians for being a little edgy and trigger-happy under these circumstances.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  Compsci
8 months ago

Wars are lost before they’re fought. In early 2017, to demonstrate to Putin that “Brexit & Trump”—the will of the Western people—would have no effect on the West’s plan to conquer Russia, the UK and US staged a practice invasion at (and electronically beyond) the Russian border in Estonia. That was the day to push the biggest red button and “behead” NATO. Now it’s too late. The invasion of Russia will happen and succeed—in its goal of maximum citizen death without grazing a hair on any ruling class head. Future nukes can only further that goal, and the threat of… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Member
Reply to  Hemid
8 months ago

“That was the day to push the biggest red button and “behead” NATO. Now it’s too late. The invasion of Russia will happen and succeed—in its goal of maximum citizen death without grazing a hair on any ruling class head.” It seems to me that if such a scenario happened, it would go nuclear and ruling class would be the first to go. NYC, DC, London and Berlin would probably be in the first rounds. Far away islands to escape to are only useful in a foreseeable tragedy that takes days to play out, like a CME. Unless they have… Read more »

Gespenst
Gespenst
Reply to  Hemid
8 months ago

Imagine Clown World / AINO trying to govern a defeated Russia. If you think Serbia/Kosovo was a mess, just wait until American bugmen and the EU weenies try to govern a territory that spans 11 time zones with a hundred plus ethnic languages spoken, 35 of them official in one area or another.

Nothing short of nuclear war would allow the West to beat Russia, and MAD would make victory a losing proposition.

anon
anon
Reply to  Hemid
8 months ago

“in its goal of maximum citizen death without grazing a hair on any ruling class head.”

Putin made it clear that the first lot to be nuked would be the decision makers. London would be amongst the early receivers of his canned sunlight.

This was after the leak of the German Generals’ attack plan.

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Reply to  Compsci
8 months ago

Compsci – I live in SC. I’ll go ask Lindsey and Nikki and let you know what they advise.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Stranger in a Strange Land
8 months ago

Nikki Haley is to the left of Nikki Khrushchev, incidentally.

george 1
george 1
8 months ago

The Rothchilds want this war and by extension the other oligarchs. The now deceased Jacob Rothchild said in 2023: “We cannot lose the Ukraine War. Many of our most important projects will be impossible if the war is lost.” Or something to that effect. Couple that with the insane ratings of guys like Macron and a few other so called leaders in Europe and we can see who runs the show. If clown world goes to war with Russia it will not end well for clown world. The U.S. and NATO will not be able to defeat Russia in a… Read more »

Sanity
Sanity
Reply to  george 1
8 months ago

What are those “projects”?
Have those had any exposure to or discussion by any of the impacted citizens in Ukraine, Russia, EU, UK, USA or elsewhere?
Or are they pipe dreams and delusions by out-of-touch oligarchs who play at moving around humans on game boards?
DEI and other mental illness-denial programs pushed by many of those oligarchs?

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Sanity
8 months ago

Full Spectrum Dominance as outlined by PNAC, “The Next 100 Years”, Patraeus’ imperial speaking tours … … It would not shock me if FSD, (not to be confused with Full Self Driving ;-), includes near total control of the world’s food supply. The ESG revolution does have independent farmers under attack all over the West and Ukraine has massive wheat and grain growing capacity. Russia does as well, but they think they will take Russia out, or partition away Russia commodity zone by commodity zone. They want complete global dominance. Our job is to ensure they don’t have the white… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  george 1
8 months ago

I think NATO is starting to look at Ukraine as the new Korea, with a NATO “tripwire” force deployed somewhere between where the Russians are now and Keeeev/Odessa. A new DMZ. Not attacking the Russians directly, with the Russians probably reluctant to attack them either. This assumes some cooler heads, which could be asking too much. The alternatives to this are letting Russia conquer Ukraine, which is unacceptable to the west, or outright open war with Russia, probably equally unacceptable. So they will try to split the baby, save some face. The MIC should be ok with a new cold… Read more »

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
8 months ago

I was wondering that too, that instead of deploying NATO troops discretely (and Russia finding them and blowing them up) they deploy them overtly into what they think should be non-combat zones and dare the Russians to do something to them. So it might be less some master plan to “Article 5” into war than a desperate scheme to try and keep their people in Ukraine from getting blown up.

TomA
TomA
8 months ago

One of the least appreciated aspects of our current dysfunctional and degenerate low-trust society is the pressure cooker effect. A non-trivial cohort of the population is seething mad about the destruction being foisted upon us by the invasion of illegal mercenaries, fentanyl death pandemic, sanctioned perversion and child gender flip-flopping, runaway spending, endless wars, and unrestrained election fraud. This anger will eventually be released; likely be some innocuous trigger that no one can anticipate. And normie will go from couch potato to rage-head in a heartbeat. Cities will burn, violence will run amok, and inconsequential innocents will largely pay the… Read more »

Winter
Winter
8 months ago

Today’s elites burn our boats, not THEIR boats. It’s an important distinction. Nearly all of them have escape plans for themselves and their families. New Zealand. Israel. Wherever. Many don’t even consider Western countries their real home. What do they care if bands of foreigners go on raping and killing sprees? They live in gated neighborhoods. Their kids go to private schools. Some even have their own police force. And if things get too rough, they can always move to a different country. Many already have dual citizenship, which makes it extra-convenient when they want to hop on their private… Read more »

manc
manc
Reply to  Winter
8 months ago

Our rulers have no sense of stewardship for the nation and no real connection to the nation. America is just a blank page to draw up insane bullshit.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Winter
8 months ago

I can verify Winter’s assertion about the boats from first hand accounts. Mountainside homes in Hungary, (despite hating Orban they want the safety of his redoubt), and Hungarian citizenship all set up for the kids. Others have similar plans. Undocumented rapists for thee and thine, lakeside mountain resorts that double as AirBnB revenue before TSHTF for me and mine. The ones I know are tens of millions to a couple hundred million. Those with 500M+ have the same with diamond crustings. They won’t be flying commercial either. But, we stay anchored while those who only care for the party and… Read more »

Hun
Hun
Reply to  RealityRules
8 months ago

Hungary is mostly flat land, so the hangry hordes should have no problems finding their mountainside homes in the few hills that exist there.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Hun
8 months ago

And a bloke named Hun should know!

george 1
george 1
Reply to  Winter
8 months ago

Goes to show how out of touch the elites really are. When the GAE crumbles there is no telling which areas of the earth will be safe if any.

They build a bunker in New Zealand so they are safe, so they think. If things go that sideways how long do they believe their security forces will take their orders? How long will the Chinese leave them to their devices?

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  george 1
8 months ago

It is utterly delusional but as I mentioned elsewhere they are crazy. Even now security increases each year at Burning Davos. That protection is afforded by the Swiss and the GAE. A rational person would realize that without that security, Davos would be immediately unsafe. SPECTRE is fictional, y’all.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  george 1
8 months ago

Whoah! Through this post I think you came up with their punishment. Imagine The Hunger Games but inverted and with a twist. It is The Hunger Games with that reality show about survivalism. The elites are dropped off in groups. One goes to New Guinea which I think is still in the stone ages so no need to take it back. One goes to an evacuated New Zealand that is taken back to pre-European days and the Maori restored to full vitality. One goes to a reserve in the Ohio Valley that has been restored to the stone ages and… Read more »

Steve
Steve
Reply to  george 1
8 months ago

How long will the Chinese leave them to their devices?

Might be a long time. At most they might think it worthwhile to seal the air ducts, but what would be gained by killing them that would’t be gained by just containing them and letting them die broken shells, unable to be the controlling assholes they have been accustomed to being?

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
8 months ago

While we can ascribe a wide range of motivations rational or otherwise to the madness, sometimes a madman is just a madman. The open border long term will accelerate the dissolution and fragmentation of the Banana Empire as localities move against the rapists and murderers and an autocratic but increasingly erratic central government seeks to protect them. What was probably seen as a way to increase and consolidate power almost certainly will prove the opposite. Note the “probably” because the motive also may have been too weird to apprehend. Ditto Ukraine. It likely will be remembered as the defining moment… Read more »

Hun
Hun
Reply to  Jack Dobson
8 months ago

“don’t ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to insanity.”

Hanlon’s razor says “incompetence”, not “insanity”. And it’s just a big cope.

There is definitely malice. The genocide in Gaza, the genocide of eastern Slavs in Ukraine, the organized ethnic replacement of Whites everywhere – this isn’t caused by mistakes, stupidity, nor “insanity”. It’s pure evil and it should be treated like that. Nothing will convince me that the people pushing, organizing and celebrating these things are not acting out of malice.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Hun
8 months ago

I intentionally substituted “insanity” for “incompetence.” And this level of irrationality may have roots in malice but it devolved long ago into insanity.

I am glad you mentioned Gaza, though, because it is of a piece with what is ongoing. Israel sees a degraded and declining GAE and is doing the unspeakable while it still can. You can even describe this as rational.

Hun
Hun
Reply to  Jack Dobson
8 months ago

“Incompetence” or “insanity”, it’s still a cope. They must be treated as malicious. If they want you dead, it doesn’t matter whether they are being rational or insane – they need to be stopped either way.

I agree about Gaza. I hope the surrounding states take brutal revenge, once GAE is decapitated.

Winter
Winter
Reply to  Jack Dobson
8 months ago

“While we can ascribe a wide range of motivations rational or otherwise to the madness, sometimes a madman is just a madman.” And yet, they are never so crazy as to risk thousands of their own people. If it were their own tribespeople dying by Ukraine, this “madness” would end right-quick. And we all know which country is allowed not only a wall, but ultra-strict immigration policies. No. It can’t be only madness. At best, it’s malice tinged with madness. We’ll know it’s “only” madness when they risk their own countries or people, which oddly enough, they seldom do. Sure,… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Jack Dobson
8 months ago

During the Obama administration there were about half a million illegals a year coming in. During the Biden administration, more than 3 million a year. Over a 6x increase! What changed? TDS. You are right. Insanity.

Mr. Dark
8 months ago

It is amusing to watch elected officials step down to become lobbyists — and military generals retire to become defense contractor executives. There is a whole cornucopia of rewards awaiting you if you play ball while you’re in power. ____________________ The notion that the managerial class is risk takers is not quite right. They’re more like Hollywood players than anything else. In the movie biz, it is preferred to have a big flop than a piddling success of a movie. Their big Hollywood egos enjoys big things. They aim to swing the bat for it out of the park —… Read more »

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  Mr. Dark
8 months ago

I look at someone like Eric Cantor and think he is probably glad he lost in 2014. Makes more money now and probably works a lot fewer hours. There are many more like him.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Barnard
8 months ago

Do you ever get the sense Paul Ryan wishes he had won that election? I don’t

PubliusII
PubliusII
8 months ago

“… crafted by people addicted to risk taking.”

It’s not that they are addicted to risk taking, it’s that they pay no personal price for being wrong. That’s called “skin in the game” and when you have none of it, messing around with people’s lives and institutions is cost-free, to you at least.

Jack Dodson
Jack Dodson
Reply to  PubliusII
8 months ago

Correct. Without the possibility of adverse consequences, there really is no risk.

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Reply to  Jack Dodson
8 months ago

Absolutely, and as has been stated by others as well as myself before: privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
As an addendum: a problem will not be solved if ones job (profit) depends on not solving the problem.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
8 months ago

Ever since Trump came on the scene, our rulers seem to have been in the grips of a manic fever. As Z notes, they jump from one mad scheme to another. Trump is Hitler. Covid. BLM. White nationalists. Ukraine. They can’t seem to calm down on their own, which means that they’re going to keep jumping from one mad scheme to another until something breaks. Btw, I don’t know if Ukraine will go down as GAE’s Syracuse, but I do believe that it will be seen as a significant turning point in global affairs. The world doesn’t fear the US… Read more »

Maxda
Maxda
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
8 months ago

The dollar isn’t the weapon it used to be either. Russia’s resilience and Tucker’s shopping spree have demonstrated that fact. We have incentivized joining up with BRICS and avoiding western banks – taking away the ability of the American State Department to bully you in the future.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Maxda
8 months ago

To a degree, yes. But Russia wasn’t completely cut off from the dollar and global finance system. As to the BRICS, I wouldn’t hold your breath on them creating some alternative currency. The dollar will remain the global currency for a long time to come. There’s simply no alternative. Remember, there’s more dollar debt outside the US than in it. That alone will ensure that the dollar is desired for a long time to come. Central banks can do what they want, but banks and businesses are still firmly in Camp Dollar. The real question is whether they can set… Read more »

OrangeFrog
OrangeFrog
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
8 months ago

That leaves the US with one big weapon that puts real fear into other countries: the dollar.

Do you think that Russia fears this weapon? Seems to me that, despite the might of the dollar, The Bear is still doubling down and doing what it must.

Further, if it is a weapon as fearful as many think, is this a reason why a Russian victory can never be countenanced? i.e., it may encourage others to act more independently?

Not trying to rattle your chain, genuinely interested in your answers to these questions, sir.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  OrangeFrog
8 months ago

We hit Russia with a lot of sanctions, but we didn’t completely cut off all of its banks. We’ve also allowed other banks in other countries to maintain their operations in Russia and their work with Russian banks. In essence, we hurt Russia’s ability to access the global financial network and the dollar, but we didn’t completely cut them off. Now, one of the reasons that we didn’t cut them off was that it would disrupt the energy market. We figured that the sanctions package would be enough to bring Russia to its knees but keep the oil and nat… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
8 months ago

Who is this “we,” kemosabe?

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
8 months ago

It’s not just energy. Food, fertilizer, strategic minerals, etc. Over the short term, food and fertilizer are the biggies, even greater than energy. People can always turn the thermostat down to 50 or less (we do, and houses as little as a century ago would rise to frost not just on the windows, but also on the doors and interior walls if they didn’t bank the fires properly) wear warm clothes around the house, etc., but food is tough to go without unless you are going to quasi-hibernate, which is also only a little over a century in the past.… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Steve
8 months ago

Correct. It’s one thing to sanction Iran, it’s another to sanction Russia. Cutting them off from the dollar completely would have crushed them, but it also would have stopped the export of a huge number of incredibly important materials. The various commodity markets would have spiked hard. Inflation would have gone through the roof, which would cause the bond market to blow up. Now, if everyone just assumed that it would be quick and everything would get back to normal after Russia gave up, maybe we’d be alright, but if there was any doubt that the dramatic reduction in exports… Read more »

Montefrío
Member
8 months ago

A university course I remember well even after 50+ years was “History of the Origin of Wars”, taught by Donald Kagan, father of the Kagan clan everyone loves to hate. The first war studied was the Peloponnesian War and the required reading was of course Thucydides. The inevitability of the war, wrote Thucydides, was brought about by “[t]he growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon”. As Athens became an empire, Sparta tried to dissuade Athens from building a defensive wall, but Sparta’s initiative failed. Things went downhill from there and proud Athens eventually… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  thezman
8 months ago

I listened to one of his courses on iTunes U a good while back, and it was excellent, until the very end. Iirc, he was wistful about Greeks dying for a lost cause against the Macedonians. Maybe the crazy was always there but didn’t show itself until old age. Idk.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  thezman
8 months ago

Speaking of which, I watched an interview between Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan. It was fascinating. They really don’t try to hide how they view people outside their tribe. Frankly, it’s a chilling. Anyway, the interview was about ostensibly about US foreign policy between WWI and WWII, but the primary point that Kagan kept making is that the American people didn’t know what was good for them and needed to be tricked into getting into WWII for their own good. However, once the US was in the war, the American people rallied like no other and won the war, he… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  thezman
8 months ago

Yep.

The Conversations with Bill Kristol series is amazing. They’re brutal to get through for a variety of reasons, but they offer a window into their world and how they think.

As I said, I find it chilling. These people are insane and think nothing more of us than disposable and interchangeable children who need to be led around.

Indeed, they don’t seem to think about the general public at all, except as a nuisance that occasionally needs to be placated with some candy.

Guest
Guest
Reply to  Montefrío
8 months ago

Montefrio, I hope you are doing well with the recent changes and associated turmoil in Argentina. I would like to hear more from you, as Argentina is one of the destinations I contemplate when I leave the US. Ecuador was in the mix until the recent troubles there, but I suspect their troubles will pass.

Hun
Hun
Reply to  Guest
8 months ago

Consider Uruguay. It’s Argentina Light. More calm, more stable, a bit boring, but generally nice.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Hun
8 months ago

I for one, wouldn’t go a bear of a touch of boredom…

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
8 months ago

“The great lesson in democratic risk taking is Athens in the Peloponnesian War where the Athenians were determined to spark war with Sparta. It was the Athenian decision to roll the dice on an invasion of Syracuse that led not only to the end of the war but the destruction of Athens. Given the similarity between America and Athens, it is fair to assume the same fate awaits the American empire. Democratic empire will turn out to be a suicide pact crafted by people addicted to risk taking.” The ultimate irony here is that the definitive account of the Peloponnesian… Read more »

roo_ster
Member
Reply to  Captain Willard
8 months ago

“the definitive account of the Peloponnesian War was written by none other than Donald Kagan”

Thucydides might dispute that.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
Reply to  roo_ster
8 months ago

Lol yes. Kagan does an excellent job in the book of discussing Thucydides’ potential biases etc. Worth reading

Maxda
Maxda
Reply to  Captain Willard
8 months ago

At least Athens had charismatic orators like Alcibiades leading them into disaster. We have senile Joe Biden, nasty Victoria Nuland, and a legion of incompetents in Europe.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
8 months ago

“It is aimed at making it a permanent crisis, a permanent project for the managerial class.”

On a side note, this influx has been deliberately orchestrated. It didn’t just occur because of laxity and negligence at the border with Mexico. The Biden administration has been complicit in this but there have been other active and malevolent forces involved as well.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Arshad Ali
8 months ago

Hazelwood, Missouri, School District

15yo White Christian girl’s skull crushed by raging ch!mpanzees.

WARNING: NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART
https://tinyurl.com/mpp2tjfm

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Bourbon
8 months ago

The only white girl in the company of a pack of ferals. All those glowing TV commercials are doing their job.

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  KGB
8 months ago

Ain’t they though?

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Hoagie
8 months ago

TV = Talmud Vision

The Electric J00

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  KGB
8 months ago

KGB: But they have to go to government schools to be learn social skills.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  3g4me
8 months ago

….at the point of a gun.

Drive-By Shooter
Drive-By Shooter
Reply to  Bourbon
8 months ago

Friendly reminder: AWFL’s came from “White” Christian females. There’s a direct line from one to the next. Since the former reproduce so little, the latter are necessary to replentish their numbers.

May the humanzee be free to continue her eugenic work. Vice and stupidity have a final solution.

Maxda
Maxda
8 months ago

There seems to be a slimy film of propaganda over everything now -politics at every level, the news of course, corporate communications, even sports. I find my self wondering if it was there 40 years ago I wasn’t noticing.

I don’t think this many people were putting in more effort on the spin than the substance of their jobs.

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
8 months ago

“Chesterton’s Fence” is dead. My observations come from corporate world, but believe are applicable to government. In reality it’s a “barbell” approach. Utter inaction followed by “swing for the fences”. Acting when a reasonable, less risky solution is available is long gone.