Dustwallow suggested a thread on when people woke up and realized our economic and political system was corrupt, rigged, dysfunctional, and designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many. I’ll start it off.
I turned 40 in 2003. I knew the world had changed after 9/11 but I was still a diehard Republican. I had voted for Bush in 2000. I was outraged by the 9/11 terrorist attack and fully supported the invasion of Afghanistan. I didn’t question the rapid passage of the Patriot Act. I had never even heard of Ron Paul. I also believed the rhetoric from the Bush administration leading up to the Iraq War. I particularly trusted Colin Powell, so when he went before the world showing pictures of weapons sites and mobile labs, I was convinced.
As the Iraq War got under way and no weapons of mass destruction were found, I began to question the entire story. This coincided with my personal disillusionment with the company I had helped go from $80 million in revenue to $1 billion in revenue. My fourteen years of dedicated service was ending badly as a clueless CEO ruined the company and people I thought were friends threw me under the bus.
After leaving IKEA and being so angry at Bush’s lies that I actually voted for Kerry in 2004, I began to read the writings of Bill Bonner, John Mauldin, Richard Russell, John Hussman, Robert Shiller, Doug Casey, and many of the websites listed on the side of this page. These people opened my eyes to the evils of the Federal Reserve, inflation and debt financed “prosperity”. I began following Ron Paul and reading his articles. I questioned everything I had been taught and everything being spewed at me by the MSM.
When I witnessed the scorn and ridicule heaped upon Ron Paul by the Republican Party establishment during the 2007/2008 debates I was infuriated and decided to write an article. Lew Rockwell published Why We Need Ron Paul in the spring of 2008. I found an outlet for my new found passion at the Seeking Alpha website. My first article on the site in early August of 2008 was Is the Banking System Safe?. I wrote an article per week all through the 2008/2009 crash. I was the third most popular writer on Seeking Alpha, but as they got bigger they tried to censor and edit my articles.
That was when I started TBP version 1 with Crazy Jason. That ended in a scene remiscient of a Quentan Tarantino movie. For the last two years I’ve been running my own site with the help of some good friends at my university.
That is the story of my awakening. Let’s hear everyone’s story, even those who normally don’t post.
@No Field Five
It was definitely tough going for me. I had to read it a couple more time over the next several years. It was such a paradigm shift I just couldn’t absorb all that was said and, even more, the implications.
The thing that still stands out for me is the USS Maine, the Lusitania, Pear Harbor, Gulf of Tonkin and then 9/11 WMD. Good God! What’s coming next???
This has been fascinating, enough so to keep me coming back to check for new comments. I’d like to add one thing to what i wrote before. My mother and father raised us with their Depression-era values, and while I thought I was being a rebel by being a Reagan supporter back in 1980, the really (counter)revolutionary things were what I learned at home. My mother taught us about the gold standard, for example, and 30 years before I read 4T, she told us that something happened ca. 1965 and that we’d entered a new era. Their old-school, pre-Moral Majority Christian values were seeds planted just waiting for the right time to ripen. Neither one is around now, but I expect that they know.
The creature from Obama Island
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The creature from Jekyll Island:
Great video
Even a book
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jmarz, your life and mine would improve dramatically if you learned how to make paragraph breaks.
Sorry to be such a blabber-mouth, but my reference to a “paradigm shift” reminded me of a book by Thomas Kuhn – The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Early in the book he focuses on the paradigm shift concept, and, perhaps, is the one who popularized it. I don’t know.
For those of us who are awakening and would like to help others to awaken, his observations of what causes a shift and what one goes through during the shift are stunning. As all of you can probably confirm, great emotional stress is one of the characteristics. There’s more to it and I highly recommend at least the first few chapters. It gets pretty heavy after that, but is still worth the read.
llpoh
I tend to randomly ramble on here when I comment so excuse the lack of grammar.
Here are your paragraph breaks:
This is a very interesting thread. I was blessed to have been exposed to Austrian economics and Ron Paul at the age of 18 by one of my accounting professors in 2006. Yes, I’m also shocked that a professor in the college education system personally studied and promoted Austrian economics and Ron Paul. He was a rare gem. He had a strong interest in finance as well and had posted a commentary on his website on gold. At this time, I didn’t know anything about gold, Austrian economics, Ron Paul, or independent thinking in general but I read that entire commentary and was absolutely blown away by the data he laid out. Prior to reading this commentary, I would watch CNBC or read from MSM websites to get educated on the markets. I quickly realized that something didn’t add up here. I emailed him a hundred times at least with question after question; he took the time to thoroughly answer everyone. I believe I had an enlightening moment after reading that commentary. My way of thinking was transformed since that experience and my journey for discovering the truth in everything began at this point. I began reading everything I could get my hands on related to Austrian economics and Ron Paul. My professor passed along some financial websites to explore such as financial sense, goldseek, Ron Paul’s website, and other related sites. I quickly became a loyal follower of Peter Schiff, John Embry, Jim Sinclair, Bill Bonner, and others. I probably spent 2 hours a day at least studying Austrian economics and finance. I still do. I learned quickly at the age of 18 that you will never make BIG money as an investor following the herd.
By the time I got in business school, I was light years ahead of other finance students. It wasn’t that I was smarter than everyone else but that I was informed with the truth and had a passion for business that was unusual for the typical business student. I remember having discussions with my finance professors on gold, silver, and mining equities. Of course, they refused to see the big picture that I tried to paint for them in regard to buying and holding gold, silver, and quality mining equities. Since 2006, by the grace of God, I stayed with my beliefs and convictions and didn’t let anyone change my ways or thoughts on finance, economics, and politics. It was lonely but I had this inner feeling that my views on the markets, politics, and thinking were sound. All along the way, I had family, friends, and colleagues try to tell me I was crazy or wrong or missing out on other opportunities. I was blessed to have made good money as a college student during those times and invested every extra dollar I saved into gold, silver, and mining equities and stay focused on my strategy. Last year, my dad called me and told me he should have listened to me on gold and that he wanted to invest in gold. The truth always prevails in the end but the hard part is staying true to yourself and you convictions.
It is important that we should always be thirsty for knowledge and wisdom but careful to the sources we use to gain the knowledge and wisdom. One who spends much time studying Keynesian economics, will never gain sound wisdom regardless, how many hours they spend studying and applying the principles.
jmarz
Grammer is not the problem.
Paragraph breaks are! It’s hard for me to read without them.
As you know I’m an old guy and my vision isn’t what it used to be. Although I’m not sure that has to do with age or my excessive masturbation.
You know that I have your best interests at heart. I have taken you under my wing. I have taken time to educate you with my wisdom. I am glad to see that you are a willing vessel. I do appreciate you reposting with paragraph breaks. If you ever need a job in my company as my secretary, just let me know.
@newsjunkie…
lmao!!!!!
Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!
Nothing like a big belly laugh to finish off my late lunch break.
Thanks, nj!!!
I’d tell a story about my “wake up” call — but since it stretched over a significant number of years, I’d bore everyone to tears..
The initial insight of a young man (20) and serious hypocrisy was in 1958 and that shook me to the core. I’ve generally been disappointed in most of the human race ever since (with some really good exceptions) and over the last 40 years (since Tricky Dick in 1971) all hope has been lost for a good outcome of freedom, peace, honesty, morality and prosperity.
The longer I live the more I tend to agree with Kuntsler. A large die off is coming and a world made by hand appears to be in the cards. Hopefully, it’ll go down after I’m gone but I still have a niggling desire to see what happens to this insane world before I exit stage left!
If anyone is interested, I’ll post a article of enlightenment – which one can read or skip as desired..
MA
@Mary Malone: Among all the fascinating and interesting personal posts on this thread, yours caught my attention the most. I, too, was watching live as the 2nd plane hit; my youngest daughter (40s) was visiting at the time and we both just stood there an cried.
Sadly, your story and the apparent disinterest of those you contacted tell a true (today as well) story of “can’t be bothered” attitude one always runs into in the interface between government drones and people who care.
Thank you for the story. It made 9/11 just that more real after all these years.
MA
I had it right in the beginning; read Generations right after it was published (during ’92 campaign; I just knew I didn’t like something about that boomer team the Dems nominated and the whole “generational shift” the media was shoving down our throats) and voted for Marrou in ’92 and Browne in ’96, my first two Presidential elections as a voter. After all that talk about third party candidates putting Bush in four years later, I swallowed the koolaid for a while and forgot about Strauss & Howe and got sucked into the MSM lies and buying into the left/right paradigm. It took TARP, the bogus explanations on how “the system was saved” by it, and Obama’s appointment of a Goldman Sachs cabinet after his election and all the bullshit bankster protection that followed to make me realize I was right to begin with back in the early 1990’s, that there’s only one major party, not two. Re-read Generations, voted a straight Libertarian ticket in ’10 (when there wasn’t one running, I left that “race” blank on the ballot) and discovered TBP through Zero Hedge in late ’10/early ’11. Been reading TBP daily ever since and actually prefer it to ZH.
I was very happy that Bush won in 2000, I thought finally the Republicans have the congress and the presidency. They will run a tight ship. They spent like drunken sailors using a credit card.
Then 9/11 I was pissed and I wanted some ass kicked – so we go to Iraq, wrong country I guess there was nothing to really bomb in Afghanistan.
I did love Rudy G, I thought he was a real leader, he was my guy. Then a funny thing happened at a debate in 2007 my guy was going toe to toe with this little Texas Congressman
Dr Paul gave me the red pill on that day. I did my own research after that but he did open my eyes to look for other alternatives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKITUOl0NBc
Muck About
I am not interested in a seperate thread about your particular enlightenment. Either post it in this thread or not at all. Sometimes you can be a real maroon.
I set out on a journey to gain financial idependence through investing, found that I was a LOUSY investor, with a temperment totally unsuited for successful trading, and settled for being a long-term-oriented ‘investor’ waiting for the collapse to net me a reasonable nut to survive on.
My educational background was social psychology, and I gravitated over time toward the school of thought that markets and many features of life were influenced or even driven by changes in social mood. I have studied Kondratiev cycles, Elliott waves and related ideas such as the Fourth Turning because I believe they contain a central truth about collective human behavior.
I became very interested in the inflation/deflation debate. I started reading everything I could find. The most compelling writer on the subject I have found is Robert Prechter. Prechter is most famous for championing the Elliott Wave Principle, but his interpretations of it to the markets have blown hot and cold. I find I only make money from his advice during bear trends, but that might just be me (others have the same complaint, though). But the guy has come up with a compelling concept — Socionomics. Socionomics is purported to be the study of economics mated to it primary causal factor — social mood. It makes a lot of sense.
One of the reasons I have not expounded in detail on TBP myself about the deflation argument is that Prechter in his newsletter has covered it exhaustively better than I ever could. It has inspired me to scour the internet looking for arguments on both sides of the issue — that’t how I found TBP. I believe this is the burning question of our times, and one that is crucial to get right as early in the game as possible
For me, it was the Kennedy assassination and the subsequent whitewash masquerading as the Warren Commission Report. I mean, for Chrissakes! The news networks were broadcasting footage that clearly showed Kennedy being hit from the front on national TV! And then the Warren Commission comes down in favor over the “lone gunman” — Lee Harvey Oswald shooting Kennedy from behind?
It was utter bullshit and everyone knew it — though half the people couldn’t accept what had happened and so denied it anyway. Probably because of the disturbing questions it raised: Why the whitewashing by a comission appointed by the US Government? Complicity seems like the likeliest explanation. And exactly how is a person of Earl Warren’s integrity and intelligence “persuaded” to lend his name and reputation to such a transparent and tawdry charade?
And where was the outrage? Where was the demand for answers by the media and the legal professions? One miserable New Orleans attorney left to soldier on alone, ridiculed by the press and stigmatized by the public, hampered in every way possible by officialdom and the public alike? And what about that public? Where were the pitchforks and Molotov cocktails flying through Earl Warren’s window at the Supreme Court? Where was that public in the next election, when it didn’t turn out every last one of those motherf__kers and installed candidates who vowed to get to the bottom of it? And where has that public been since then, as it has voted in ever more ludicrous buffoons to positions of “leadership”. No wonder we’re screwed. We helped them do it to us!
And then came the laughable “Gulf of Tonkin” incident and the totally messed up Vietnam war. Why were we becoming embroiled in someone else’s civil war? A civil war that was fomented by seven ugly decades of French colonialism. It was as if we just couldn’t resist sticking it to the gooks one last time before letting them have their country back.
Not that what come after was any less sick. Iran-Contra anyone? Where the office of the President was caught explicitly flouting an Act of Congress — by shipping arms to our enemies? Isn’t that treason? And funding the return trip from Central America by spawing a crack epidemic in Los Angeles! And why in the hell were we giving support to both sides in that conflict? Doing what we could to maximize the death toll?
And then, of course, my recent favorite — the demolition of WTC7 on 9/11. For Gods sake, every news network on the planet had their cameras rolling! Do they think we can’t tell the difference between a building destroyed by fire and a building being demolished? Or are they so contemptuous of us that they really don’t care? It makes the whole 9/11 story more than a little suspect. Especially since the story was used to justify two wars and numerous “police actions” perpetrated on people who seem to have had little to do with the events of that terrible day.
These men — and women — are monsters. And until we recognize them as such and put them in cages where they belong, nothing is going to change.
Very interesting thread.
For me it was 2007 – I had become more and more uneasy about many things and started doing some research. Found various information regarding peak oil, fiat money, economic collapse etc. Then discovered “Wolf at the Door” and the rest is history.
Age 54 – trying to prepare – no debts, own property, have been learning to grow food for past 5 years. Just about to purchase a very large poly tunnel and invest in some chickens.
Keep up the good work!
For me waking up “in full” took place roughly 5 years ago. I was a 29 year old idealistic and niave college senior taking a “social inequalities” class who had not been completely rattled awake by 9/11 or the severity of the Enron scandal or understood the monumental significance of the Patriot Act, the creation of the Dept. of Motherland Security and the unrelenting attack on personal unalienable, natural, rights. Not even outrageous gas prices and my brother being shipped off to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight “the enemy” could unplug me from the “Keeping up with the Joneses” Matrix of Distraction…or in the now hollow words, “chasing the American Dream.” . It wasn’t until I witnessed the housing bubble bursting, the newspapers decrying closed door meetings of heads of banks and elected officials , the banks getting bailed out and the public getting stiffed that I would fully consider myself awakened to the realities of the REAL WORLD. A sense of urgency to learn as much as I could about what had caused these problems invariably led me to research the causes of the Great Depression of the 1930s. I attribute much of my unplugging from the matrix to this desire to understand. The documentaries “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “The Corporation” helped me understand just how depraved and ruthless people can be when they are incentivized to do so while outlining the gross abuses and negligience of our government and of the people being vigilant in their watch against such abuses. Stumbling upon TBP through Raging Debate and then here now, as well as Max Keiser, Peter Schiff, Denninger, and Tyler Durden. Working in the public school system the past several years has also reinforced my belief that the system is Kaput and can no longer be salvaged from the inside.
Shortly after JFK was killed I saw LBJ on TV. For some reason he was repulsive. Not nasty vomit repulsive, much more repulsive than that. I was about eight and light of distrust for authority
was lit. I was skeptical by instinct not because I knew anything. It was in my mid twenty’s after running my business for a few years that I stared to really get a better understanding of how things worked. I was probably in mid 30’s before I fully excepted the truth about how fucked up things really are. Turns out things are worse than I suspected. We are Doomed.
I have posted only one other comment on this article – that being to Harry. The others, to jmarz and Muck, are form some dirty doppelganger. If I find out the rotten culprit,
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Bruce – I knew the guy that used to fly Air Force 2 when LBJ was veep. He would tell stories about LBJ. You have no idea just how repulsive he was. He used to make his cronies come into the toilet with him when he was taking a dump. The guy was filth.
After 6 naps and 3 Alzheimer’s attacks, I think I’m capable of responding.
My wake-up call has been a lifelong experience, and it started at age 17 when I headed off to college, the Air Force Academy. At age 18, I had a Top Secret clearance, something I would keep for 45 years. Shortly after that clearance came through, I and some classmates went to Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska for a briefing by the Hqs staff of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). The year was 1963 and before JFK was assassinated. We had all enjoyed the presence of John Kennedy at the graduation ceremony of the Class of 1963.
SAC controlled 2 of the 3 legs (triad) of this country’s nuclear defense, specifically our long range bombers (B-52s, and now B-1s and B-2s) and our Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). The third leg is Sea Launched Ballistic Missiles, which can be launched today from Ohio-class nuclear submarines.
So, we are taken to SAC’s underground Command Post, which is REALLY deep underground and given a briefing on how SAC operates, which included some really stunning demonstrations on SAC’s global communications and command and control of its nuclear arsenal. Remember, this is 1963.
And then, a briefer raises a curtain, and there’s this really huge map of the Eastern Hemisphere on the wall. And I mean huge. At a dramatic point in the briefing, he said, “Here are our targets” and pushed a button which illuminated SAC’s targets. I won’t get into too many specifics, but I will say that the areas around Moscow and Leningrad lit up like a Christmas tree. Duh. But more important was the geographic scope and the sheer multitude of the targets, which went from eastern Europe to China.
I was stunned and shocked. SSS just met the real world. I thought, “This is insane. What are we doing here?” That briefing triggered an opposition to nuclear weapons which I hold to this day. If we could all agree to get all the nukes in the world right next to a black hole, I would be more than happy to say, “On my command. Ready. Set. Push.” And more importantly, it led me to an enduring healthy skepticism of everything the Defense Department does.
And that’s the seed of where I’m coming from on this site. I believe Admin was a mere babe in arms at the time.
NEVER AGAIN
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Hey Dad,
If you’re tired of being doppleganged, just sign in and get your own Avatar. If you need help just ask me. I learned how to do that in second grade.
Lovingy but with no respect
little llpoh
I was born to a couple of liberals in ’79 and pretty much took on their ideology with out really thinking about it. They didn’t really push me either way. In high school I became a conspiracy buff and learned all about the Fed, Illuminati, secret societies, lizard men, whatever. Politics seemed to be the instrument of these conspirators and I decided it was all bullshit. Called myself an anarchist. what I really was, was a nonparticipant.
I ignored politics all through my twenties but still saw myself as a liberal. I voted randomly, it wasn’t important. 2004 was the last time, I think, for the third party candidate. I was always able to see and understand both sides of an issue. Why either side wanted what it did. I honestly just didn’t care enough to form my own opinion.
I never had a school loan or car loan or credit card, I didn’t want to owe anything to anyone, had a couple of low wage service jobs after high school, never really able save much of anything. Then at the end of 2007 I quit my job and became self employed and paying attention to the news just sort of followed. Turned off the classic rock and started listening to talk radio. What got me into it was Dave Ramsey, the money guy, but I listened to other shows like Rush and Glenn Beck just to get a different perspective.
I saw bear sterns go down, then indymac and fannie and freddie. I shouldn’t have cared, I have no 401k. But I knew that these were HUGE names and there would be a real world impact from this “bankers recession”. Then Lehman went down and the stock market tanked and TARP was passed. I hit the internet with a vengeance. 3 or 4 hours a day I would read about MBS, CDS Austrian economics, finance, everything. Government sites, Blogs, Business sites, Bank sites.
I read articles on Marketoracle by James Quinn which were astounding. Pop culture themes with song lyrics and movie quotes, all about finance and economics and politics. I *might* have dropped by TBP #1 in late 2008 and thought the place was full of neocon assholes and promptly said so and left. Probably read some of Smokey’s comments…. Still, I read articles by the Admin and I came back a year later to find some people who I truly admire.
By an informed process of elimination I arrived at Libertarianism, until they start to piss me off too.
Great. Now he’s gonna think it was me…
In 1953, I was born the son of a WWII Special Forces sergeant who had to leave military due to arthritis contracted while serving in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and a college-educated mother. Both parents were liberal Democrats active in local politics (father actually ran for US Congress in 1957 but lost).
I protested Vietnam war by participating in the 1971 DC May-Day, and threw rocks at Nixon’s inaugural limo in 1972. Missed the draft when it switched to the lottery system as I turned 18 (man did I get chewed out at the induction office when I turned in my signed notice 6 months after turning 18!). Voted for John Anderson in 1980, non-voter in ’84 and ’88, voted for Clinton in ’92 but then starting following the givemeliberty.org anti-income tax group in ’96 and voted Constitution party since then. When one learns aboutt the admiralty courts and the true meanings of many law terms/words, it dawns on you that things are never what you thought they were (listen to Jordan Maxwell for an education on that!). Stopped believing in anything “guberment” says ever since.
Just finishing reading “Fourth Turning”–only wish I could have discovered it before my dad passed in 2009–he ended up being a history professor and I think he would have liked that book.
Punk – I hoped it was you. Where you been, anyway? Take some time off your business occassionally and log in!
I don’t remember! It happened. I would say it was gradual, but that’s not possible. Somewhere in the span of 12 months I went from renewing my mortgage to breaking it and selling our house. Obviously I would never have renewed the mortgage if I was suspicious about the state of the system. Since then, we’ve moved to the South Pacific, rely on rain water collection and built a chicken coop! This was truly NOT in the plan 2.5 years ago. But I can’t honestly remember the moment the penny dropped. I know I was totally freaked about by 2008, and promised my partner that if things “got back to normal” I would never beso paranoid again…and then things did apparenly “get back to normal”. Some time after that I changed completely. What made the penny drop? It had something to do with reading online, I know that. One blog led to another and another until I devoured everything I could about finance and economics 12 hours a day. I have swallowed a whole bottle of red pills since, and there’s no going back.
Not me, friend. But I did give them a thumbs up for toasting muckabout.
Been wading through a mountain of shit.
Divorced.
Living in “our” house till it can be sold.
Working days, nights, weekends, weekend nights.
Trying to develop a drinking habit.
Saving money.
When I am not working, sleeping, playing minecraft or jerking off I am lurking around TBP.
Fuck!
That was me.
Punk – so sorry to hear about your divorce. Been there, done that, and it truly sucks. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
If you need an ear, we are here. I have always had a soft spot for you, and always find in you, Colma, Jmarz, et all hope for the future. You young-uns with good heads on your shoulders are going to have to carry a huge burden, not of your making, and I am pleased to know there are folks of your caliber out there.
Its a friendly one, which is still weird. we were together for nearly all of our adult lives, I wasn’t the only one to change.
Ultimately it came down to kids. They exist in my future. Not in hers. We are both sure and confident enough in that knowledge that there was no other option. Truly a “if you love them let them go” kind of split up.
Mother fucking storybook.
SSS
Great story, part 1. Awaiting part 2. It’s a long way from SAC to Langley.
Awesome stories – thanks for posting Admin! My time came soon after my son was born, been thinking about his future and how his life would turn out. Always had a strange feeling that things were screwed up since the 9/11 incident, but TARP did it for me ultimately. Another ah ha moment came too when I realized my dad made about twice what I made (adjusted for inflation) at the same age of 35 even though I had a degree and he didn’t. So carrying that logic forward, my son will have to have an MBA+ to make half what I make today at 35 – ouch. Anyway, love this site and glad to know others out there are awake to this crazy reality. Keep up the good work!
Muck
I await your enlightenment — hoping someone could yap longer’n me.
My awakening began in 2008, as I was heavily leveraged in real estate and got crushed!! As I never was stock guy, I always did well in real estate and didn’t realize that Wall Street could collapse real estate too. As I lost all my wealth, but thankfully not the ability to earn a good living and saw what was happening, I simply “googled”, “what happens if the economy collapses and clicked on an article about the Argentinian collapse in 2001 that was posted on the Silver Bear Cafe. After reading it, I started looking at other articles on “The Bear” and it led me all these other sites (many that you mentioned & including yours), that explained about the evils of the Fed, about what Ron Paul stood for and how both parties are absolutely full of shit and run by the same “puppetmasters”. After “taking the Red Pill” and having my eyes opened, it’s been VERY frustrating hearing all the propaganda and continuous lies on a daily basis, but at least my family and I are awake and know what we’re heading for…even if the majority of the “sheeple” at large don’t. However, it is good to see more and more awaken daily, even though it’s not nearly the amount that it should be. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!
Great thread here.
Jim my story is very similar to your own. Forced to leave a Corporation when business slowed down in 2003. No pension, no severence, just shown door after 18 years of service making money for this company.
My financial awakening came around the 2007 time frame. I started out with the simple objective of trying to do a better job investing my IRA (after 7 years of zero growth). At some point early on I watched the “what is money?” video and the floodgates opened.
My on-line journey took me to all the “alternative” financial websites and thinkers mentioned by others here (e.g., Jesse, Zerohedge, Financial Sense, Kuntsler, Charles Hugh Smith, Casey Research, Bill Bonner, TBP, and more recently Turd Ferguson’s site, among others).
It is an on-going awakening, and the most astounding thing for me was that I had lived my first 50 odd years (I’m now 52) in such a state of blissful ignorance. Perhaps that is for the better.
The main thing I’d like to share: this has been an incredibly difficult journey, both in terms of my own emotions and my relationships with a family and friends. It has definitely been the 5 stages of grief for me.
When I first became awakened 5 years ago, I was like chicken little running around trying to wake others up. Sent out numerous blanket email messages with links to all sorts of relevant articles, including many authored by AWD. Tried to steer every conversation toward expressing my alarm and outrage.
Sadly, what I soon realized is that people either thought I had gone nuts, did not have the time or inclination to read long dry articles about financial matters, or just wanted to remain in denial. In retrospect I was probably coming on too strong, but it was based on good intentions and a real sense of urgency.
So I have now stopped trying to get folks to come around, except in the most gentle and non-threatening way, and only if the opportunity presents itself in the normal course of interaction.
What remains most difficult for me is the cognitive dissonance – seeing others around me remaining so strident in defending the positions and ideas fed to them by the MSM. I’ve stopped even trying to argue or at least convince them to consider other points of view.
I live in a town in GA with a significant military presence. It’s all about God and country and more money for the death machine. God and the death machine – quite a combo!
Anyway, thank you for this site AWD and for the bravery and honesty displayed in your writing. You truly have a gift, and we can only hope this will all lead to something better down the road for this once great country.
Ig
I became fairly well versed in conventional/main stream economics in college in the late 80’s. I accepted Keynsianism and conventional econ theory. There was just one weird thing: one day in a microeconomics class the professor suddenly and out of the blue went on a rant about gold. Just out of nowhere he starts ranting not just about the stupidity of gold, but the stupidity of anyone who owned gold. It was so out of character for this prof and so out of nowhere that it shocked me and stuck in my mind, even all these years later. For reasons I’ll mention later, I’m really pissed at this prof and am tempted to publish his name.
Sadly, I couldn’t figure this incident out, so I “went back to sleep” and remained conventional in my thinking.
Years later, I experienced the dotcom bubble, the apparant causes of which never made any sense to me. Then the housing bubble started and this made even less sense than the dotcom bubble. Since I had made (and lost) money in the dotcom bubble, I needed to figure this out pronto.
So I went to a bookstore and wandered through the business/ financial section. There I saw a book called “The Dollar Crisis” by Richard Duncan and I “was like Whaaaa?” It had never occurred to me to think about, let alone question the Dollar. The Dollar was just a fact, like life, death and taxes.
I bought the book, read it, and the pieces fell together like the scene at the end of “The Matrix” where Neo can suddenly see the computer code that was creating his world. I suddenly understood why that damn prof was so against gold. I have continually expanded my knowledge of reality ever since.
Sadly, the words of that damn professor stuck with me and I couldn’t bring myself to buy gold until it was almost $500/oz., and even then I didn’t buy enough! Moral: never trust a college professor!
Happened for me after I returned to school to learn CAD drafting in 2000. I had spent the first 35 years of my life not even knowing how to use a computer. I discovered the internet and one day watched the twin towers collapse live on TV while at school. I then started to read about causes of this tragedy and found myself learning about Peak Oil and the corrupt financial system. Anyway love coming this site to read latest post from Jim. I applaud the effort he puts into every piece he does.
For me the first straw was the 2000 elections, the irony of the State that decided the election being run by one of the candidate’s brother was alarming. I could not believe Gore gave in so easily, but like others here once 9/11 happened I stood in support of Bush. After reading about the tremendous waste of taxpayers dollars for the war effort, and that Halliburton / KBR (Cheney) were the beneficiaries, I smelled a rat.
That same rat stank when Cheney held a closed-door meeting on energy with the heads of all Big Oil, again raising my doubts of our political process. Then Abramoff, the list is endless.
From 2000 on, I have built a strong distrust of our political and corporate leaders. Funny how they win, we lose, it’s pretty obvious this Country has turned her back on Democracy. Sad
The assasination of JFK was the seminal event for me but it took Ramparts articles and Rush To Judgment to open my eyes to who was behind it all. The police riot at the Democrat convention in Chicago in 1968, shown on television, was another milestone in my mistrust of authority. Paul Craig Roberts sparked my suspicions of 911 as one of the great crimes against America as have Jesse Ventura and Dr. Judy Wood. As for the banksters and the FED, my hat’s off to Ron Paul for his awakening revelations. He’s been a beacon of light to expose, admire, and follow.
About 30 years ago I got a cap with a logo that read, “Question Authority.” That was and has been my approach to government and those in power. Like “Cui Bono” (Who benefits), “Question Authority” should be a watchword for all in our Republic, if we want to keep it.
“SSS. Great story, part 1. Awaiting part 2. It’s a long way from SAC to Langley.”
—-AWD
Ok, one more story, then I’ll shut up.
1978. West Germany, where I was stationed for 3 years. I went to the Hqs of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) for a ground orientation briefing by the regiment’s commander plus take a trip to the East/West German border. The 11th ACR’s mission was to confront and blunt, as a FIRST RESPONDER, any attack by the Soviet Group of Forces in East Germany through the Fulda Gap, a natural east-west invasion route suitable for armored units.
It was one of the key, critical missions of all the NATO forces stationed in Germany. Failure meant a Soviet dash to the city of Frankfurt and beyond.
At the end of the briefing, I asked the commander a question. “Sir, it is a given in land warfare that offensive forces should outnumber defensive forces guarding their territory by a ratio of 4 to 1. In fact, I’ve heard at least one Army general officer state he could handle being outnumbered 6 to 1. Would you care to comment on that.”
His answer? “Sure, I’ll kick their asses even if it’s 10 to 1.” Then he proceeded to tell me how he would do it. And no, the commander was not the son of George Patton.
Here’s the point. NATO never had any intention of initiating an attack against the Warsaw Pact, at least to my knowledge, and I worked for 3 years on NATO’s war planning staff. While the Warsaw Pact may have had an offensive plan to attack NATO, it KNEW beyond a shadow of doubt that it would have been suicidal to attempt to do so.
No matter how many men, tanks, armored personnel carriers, field artillery pieces, and aircraft the Soviet Union and East Germany stuffed into Pact territory, it still fell far short of what was needed to insure success. Yet for decades, the American public was fed stories of the bloodthirsty, 10-foot tall Ivan. And a lot of tax dollars went into the effort of confronting Ivan, who turned out to be a 3-foot tall midget.
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SSS
Tactical nukes?
SSS
Great story, part 2. Awaiting part 3. It’s a long way from Germany and NATO to Langley. We haven’t even heard the cool spy story yet.
My father (b.1942) has, to the best of my knowledge, always followed the news. He had an epiphany regarding what he saw as the upcoming war in Vietnam. He decided that there was no future in being a grunt or a ground pounder in the jungle so he enlisted in the Air Force prior to the draft. I was born a few years later in ’66. After the war, dad decided to make a career in the Air Force.
I grew up all over the place as a military brat and as someone else posted, learning that Santa Claus was not real at age five caused me to develop a pretty healthy distrust for just about anything. Growing up around the military, you quickly learn that things are not always what they seem to be. That being said, I have a tremendous affinity for military people, military hardware and the tremendous sense of community that was always present at every base we were ever stationed. No matter where we lived, we were always “home”. It was an amazing experience. I miss it very much.
Anyway, we ended up at Torrejon AB just outside Madrid, Spain just in time for my Freshman year and stayed just long enough for me to graduate high school there as well. (a rare treat for a brat) I’ve always had an insatiable curiosity about……everything basically. My awakening began during those years. For reasons I can no longer recollect, I began to question why the USA was always loaning money to middle eastern countries (among others) and I wanted to know how and why the USA could carry so much debt. I bugged just about everyone I could think of for answers. I used the school and base library to learn about the Federal Reserve System but the whole dollar=debt thing confused me and not a single teacher could explain it to my satisfaction.
Prior to moving to Spain, a good friend and I decided that racing cars (Nascar in particular) was the life for us so we both learned as much as possible about suspensions, engines, transmissions etc until we both got out of school. Shortly after graduation, dad was assigned to Mountain Home AFB, ID so we hopped a plane to JFK where I “left the nest” by transferring to La Guardia airport and on to South Carolina. Four years of 18 hour workdays in pursuit of the American Dream caused me to hit the snooze alarm on my awakening process during that time. For many reasons, the car racing thing did not work out and I married a career Air Force woman in ’89.
More travel and American Dream chasing ensued until we ended our nomadic lifestyle with the Air Force and landed at our current home in 1993. I suppose it was due to my skeptical nature and military upbringing, but 9/11 and the subsequent and ongoing wars did not have the same effect on me as my “civilian” counterparts. I was certainly shocked and horrified by it all but not really surprised. I was incredulous that others were surprised because the 1993 attempt to blow up the North Tower seemed like a big warning flag in my mind. I wondered what the hell took so long. If smoking gun documents turned up today that proved beyond all doubt that it was an inside job by our govt, I would still not be surprised.
My final awakening resumed in 2006 and I began to discover economists, bloggers and ordinary citizens like Chris Martenson who seemed to have a pretty good handle on the truth. I set out to disprove every video in Martenson’s Crash Course but was unable to. The man was right! On my journey to debunk the Crash Course videos I ran into nearly every site linked to on TBP as well as the TBP itself.
I still explore as many other sources of info as I can when time allows. I especially like to seek out intelligent, yet opposing points of view regarding govt and the economy but that shit is hard to find! TBP is now my daily go-to place and home for me now! I love the well thought out main posts, enormously varied comments, intelligent flame wars and the esoteric nature of this little community. I’m not really a people person at all. I’d rather throw a tennis ball for my dog that talk to most people but I’d really like to meet the regular posters and not so regular posters here sometime. You all seem to be grounded in reality, intelligent, half crazy and willing to confront life head on despite knowing the ugliness that is out there and the disaster that is looming. Rock on TBP’ers and keep raging against the machine. Most of all, a BIG thank you to admin/JQ. More fiat will be on the way to you next week.
I_S
Just read the rest of the comments here. What first brought me to TBP was an article that concluded that inflation would prevail and not deflation. Can’t recall if it was written by admin or a guest post. It was about the time of the Clint Eastwood themed articles that TBP fit like a glove.
SSS, your post about the nuclear targets triggered a very similar memory. We were living at Malmstrom AFB in MT and I was in the Boy Scouts in the mid to late seventies. I was choosing merit badges to tackle and settled on Disaster Preparedness. Malmstrom AFB was a Minuteman II nuclear missile base. On Malmstrom AFB there is a large nondescript concrete building that contained hundreds of RADAR scopes in a dark room which monitored an absolutely massive part of the northern hemisphere. I believe it was a detachment of NORAD I and a few other scouts were allowed to walk around this eery place and ask questions. My father worked for the Defense Systems Evaluation Squadron which equipped EB-57 Canberra bombers with equipment to try confuse or scramble signals and air traffic controllers were supposed to distinguish friend from foe. Electronic warfare they called it.
Later we were herded into an elevator which went down. It seemed to go down for a long time. (a minute or more at least) When the door opened we went into a big room with a wall sized map that displayed the location of all of our “offensive” silos as well as where each silo was aimed at. Just like you said, the sheer number of targets astounded me! I remember asking why so many missiles were aimed at Moscow considering that they had just explained to us the enormous destructive power of each warhead. I can no longer recall the response but suffice to say that Moscow and a large area around would be an enormous crater. I came away from that field trip knowing for certain that if nuclear war were to ever break out between the USSR and the USA, no part of the Earth would be untouched and most of it would be utterly destroyed.
I believe it was Offut AFB where they took Bush on 9/11.
I_S
Admin
Yes, tactical nukes were part of the defensive plan. You wily old fox, you.
I read all of Tom Clancy’s books. I loved Red Storm Rising.
harry p
All you need to do is put * email will not be posted, like many places do. As for the STMs. it might get raucous here but never out of hand. Heh. Look at the response to this post, Wowsers afraid of ‘language’ or robust debate probably don’t add much anyway.
You could use this: (if wordpress doesn’t screw it up:
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Post #100.
I win.
what do you get for a prize?
Excellent topic. I’m a lurker/reader of your blog. It’s great. It pushes my envelope.
With me it all started with Ayn Rand and Harry Browne. Remember Harry?
I was 23 years old. I’m 65 now. I’ve been expecting the corruption, fiscal and monetary profligacy in Washington to collapse upon itself for years. We’re not too far away from it now.
It took a few years but Harry Browne eventually lead me to Ludwig von Mises and I never looked back. I owe Mises my intellectual sanity and any success I’ve had as an entrepreneur over the past thirty years. I can also say with a clean conscience that I owe Obama’s “roads and bridges” not one damn iota.
My first intelligent vote for President was for Ed Clark in 1980. However, I soon became disillusioned with Libertarian politics and Libertarian anarchism, so I voted for Reagan in 1984. But then, after Reagan’s own brand of profligacy, it wasn’t long before I was back voting for Ron Paul and Harry Browne, the Libertarian candidates. In fact, I met Ron Paul at a party once way back when. The man is genuinely and permanently fired up.
Although I was an activist in local politics, helping to elect Libertarians to our town council, my national loyalties began to swing back to the Republicans, as a check on the Democrat nominees for President who were becoming more and more outright Marxists. Then again, how often must you be bitch-slapped by the likes of George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain and now Mitt Romney before you finally abandon the GOP and begin stockpiling food, water and ammunition?
Now I’m too old to campaign for any of these parasites, too smart to want to, too wise to become an anarchist but too stubborn to go away quietly. So I rant and rave on my blog which is dedicated to the thought and classical liberal tradition of von Mises: Property…Freedom…Peace.
Sherman
Do you have a link to your blog? I’m an entrepreneur as well but right now I’m being patient and working for a company until the economic and political landscape provides more certainty. I rather my employer take the risk at this time while I continue to gain experience and build up capital for when the idea and time feels right. This decision has been a struggle since my entrepreneurial drive continues to pull at me everyday. I assume a wise man is a patient man.
Anyway, I also owe Mises my intellectual sanity and success for my investment profits. When I build my first successful business, I will owe him for that success as well since my understanding of the business cycle will be helpful in navigating my business one day. You sound like a fascinating man and I’m glad you shared a bit of your life with us.