Artists / John Bratby/ Courtyard with Washing
We are living in a time of decline. We pretend to be progressing (whatever that means) and make every effort to carve out some local distortion in the overall field of entropy that makes our day to day experience, but the truth of the matter is that the center did not hold and we are formally in decline.
I admit that this is a singularly unpopular point of view. I usually don’t vocalize it around people because it “gets their dander up” and makes it so that a rational discussion isn’t really possible. Without the camouflage of unstoppable progress, our self images will necessarily take a beating and our life’s goals which we internalized during the glory days of unwise growth (1911ce to 2020ce) that molded our current mindset here and elsewhere will most certainly need a drastic overhaul.
We tend to think of American exceptionalism as a disease that is unique to the USA. I argue just the opposite. Anyone who has spent time in France or Germany or Britain or any of the other countries of the world know for a fact that other countries worship themselves and their way of thinking every bit as much as Americans ever thought of. I suppose that they object to the “in-your-face” style that we adopt on this side of the pond. But I laugh hysterically whenever I hear a Frenchman complaining about American exceptionalism.
But know that the base idea of exceptionalism is just as strong in other countries as it is here in ‘Murca. Even worse, being in a climate of decline and decadence as we are now tends to make things worse. Peoples get angry and aggressive when they feel their “specialness” being erased by events.
Now for the part that will annoy people. The idea that you can look at something that you find to be in conflict with the basic belief systems of exceptionalism and entitlement that have created the current operating system that is “you”.
Now we get to the nubbins of this article. The WEF.
Klaus and Billy-boy are to me the two biggest ass-douches on the planet. An aristocratic twit and a thieving little prick who deserve every bit of contempt that I can heap on their sorry asses. But the truth of the matter is that they could care less that I hold them in contempt. The harsher truth is that they may be correct in doing so.
The WEF and their poster children Klausie and Billie are saying openly that the current system is dying and that changes need to be made. Their discussion on the place for consumerism, private property, and trade are built around the current oligarchic system that the world uses and that I refer to jokingly as “Democratic Capitalism”.
But what Klaus and Billy and their buddies are really saying is best considered by their money and their power. They are a real and true paradox. They represent the current oligarchy with its desperate desire to retain their wealth and their privilege. They also are harbingers aware of the massive changes that will need to take place in order for a remnant of the current population to navigate the not-too-attractive options we have remaining to us.