Stupidity, Evil and the Decline of the US

Guest Post by Doug Casey

It used to be that America was a country of free thinkers.

“Say what you think, and think what you say.” That’s an expression you don’t hear much anymore.

It’s much more like the world of 1984 where everything is “double think.” You need to think twice before you say something in public. You think three times before you say something when you’re standing in an airport line.

Regrettably, the US is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. It’s become the land of whipped and whimpering dogs that roll over on their backs and wet themselves when confronted with authority.

Now, why are Americans this way? Let me give you two reasons—though there are many more.

First, there’s a simple absence of virtue. Let’s look at the word virtue. It comes from the Latin vir, which means manly, even heroic. To the Romans, virtues were things like fortitude, nobility and courage. Those virtues are true to the root of the word.

When people think of virtues today they think of faith, hope, charity—which are not related to the word’s root meaning. These may pass as virtues in a religious sense. But, outside a Sunday school, they’re actually actually vices. This deserves a discussion, because I know it will shock many. But I’ll save that for another time.

An absence of virtues and the presence of subtle vices is insinuated throughout society. Worse, overt vices like avarice and especially envy are encouraged. Envy, in particular will become a big vice in the years to come. It’s similar to jealousy, but worse. Jealousy says “You have something I want; I’ll try to take it from you”. Envy says “You have something I want. If I can’t take it from you, I’ll destroy it, and hurt you if I can.” Jealousy and envy seem to motivate most Democratic Party presidential candidates. No wonder America is in rapid decline.

A second reason is unsound philosophy. The reigning philosophy in the US used to be based on individualism and personal freedom. It’s now statism and collectivism. But most people don’t think about philosophy—or even have a consistent worldview. More than ever, they do what seems like a good idea at the time.

The average American has problems. But his rulers are something else again. Most of the people running the US are either knaves or fools. How do we know if we are dealing with a knave or a fool? In other words, are you dealing with somebody who is evil or just stupid? To give a recent, but classic, example, are you dealing with a Dick Cheney or a George W. Bush? Do you prefer the knavish Obama, or the knavish Biden? The foolish Trump, or the foolish Pence. Not much of a real choice anywhere…

At this point, the US resembles the planet Mars, which is circled by two moons, Phobos and Deimos, fear and terror in Greek. The US is also being circled by two moons, Kakos and Chazos, evil and stupidity in Greek. It’s hard to imagine the Founding Fathers having seen that as a possibility.

One of the relatively few laws I believe in is Pareto’s Law. Most people are familiar with it as the 80-20 rule—20% of the people do 80% of the work, 20% commit 80% of the crime, and so forth. It also applies to character and ethics. Most people—80%—are basically decent. What about that other 20%? Let’s call them potential trouble sources because they can go either way. But 20% of that 20%—4%—are the sociopaths; they consistently have bad intentions. They’re usually hiding under rocks. But they like to emerge at election time.

In normal times when everything’s going along well, they can look normal. They’ll deliver the mail, or sell shoes or stocks. They’ll pet the dog, and play softball on weekends. But when circumstances in society get ugly, and reach a certain point, they start evidencing themselves. The rest of the 20% start swinging along with them. That’s the place where we are right now in the US. It’s Pareto’s Law in operation.

A lot of people believe in American Exceptionalism. A good argument can be made for America having been exceptional in the past. It’s factually correct that America is the only country founded on the principles of individualism and personal freedom. It was actually different. It was special, even unique. But I don’t think it’s true anymore.

Of course all the world’s countries like to believe they’re special or better than the rest. But they’re only different on the surface, in trivial ways. None—other than America—value individualism and personal freedom as founding virtues. Look at Russia throughout the 20th century. It was a phenomenal nightmarish disaster in Soviet times.

Look at Germany during the ‘30s and ‘40s. China, under Mao for 30 years, was the home of institutionalized, industrial scale mass murder. The same is true in lots of other countries… Cambodia, Rwanda, the Congo. There are dozens of other countries where bloody chaos reigned over the last century. But not the US. It was different.

But what if America has ceased to exist? What if it’s been transformed into just another nation state called the United States, with very different ideals and values? Why should it have a different fate than those other countries? I don’t see any reason why that would be the case.

But if 80% of Americans are basically decent, well-intentioned people, what is going wrong and why?

Let me give you three reasons… although there are many others.

Number one, as I indicated earlier, Americans no longer have any philosophical anchor. They no longer share a national mythos—individualism, personal freedom, free minds, and free markets are now mocked. They may have some nebulous ideas about ethics that they picked up from the Boy Scouts. But they think all political and economic systems—and certainly all cultures—are equally good. The reigning philosophy is a mixture of cultural Marxism, identity politics, anti-male feminism, and anti-white racism.

I suppose it was inevitable in a country where a large plurality of people are dumb enough to spend four years and several hundred thousand dollars to be indoctrinated with those values.

The second thing is fear. It’s a reigning emotion in this country among the diminishing middle class.

Desperation and apathy characterize the growing lower classes. No wonder they’re cemented to the bottom of society. It’s a rare person that rises from the lower class because of those attitudes.

How about the upper classes? Their dominant emotions are avarice and arrogance; they think they’re superior because they have more money. In many cases they’re rich not because they produce anything. But because they’re cronies, benefiting from the flood of money coming from the Fed, or the avalanche of laws and regulations coming from the Congress and the President.

America is still basically a middle-class country, although becoming less and less that way almost daily. And fear is the dominant emotion of the middle class. Fear of losing everything they have. Fear of losing their jobs. Fear they won’t be able to meet the credit card payments, the car payments, the mortgage payment. Fear they can’t afford to send their kids to college—which is a mistake incidentally. But that’s another story.

The whole country is driven by fear… and it’s not a good thing. Deimos and Phobos, those two moons circling Mars are now circling the US, along with Kakos and Chazos.

The third, and perhaps most critical reason the US is going downhill—beyond a lack of a philosophical anchor and an atmosphere of fear—is a reflexive belief in government.

The United States used to be more like Switzerland, which is by far the most prosperous country in Europe. When you ask the Swiss, “Who’s the president of Switzerland?”, It’s rare that anyone can tell you. It’s academic. However, nobody cares. He doesn’t do anything. Politics aren’t a big part of their lives.

But today in the US, people have come to view the government as a cornucopia. People expect it to solve all their problems. And that’s a real problem. Government is a genuine growth industry, and it attracts the worst type of people. Government is inevitably where sociopaths—the 4% and the 20%—are drawn. Washington draws sociopaths like a pile of dog droppings draws flies.

It’s perfectly predictable. And why is that? Mao said it best, “The power of the state comes out the barrel of a gun.” Government is about some people controlling other people. That’s what attracts sociopaths, and that’s why they go to Washington.

But enough bad news… what is it that makes things better in the world? Well, there are two things.

One is technology. The good news is there are more scientists and engineers alive today than have lived in all of earth’s history previously combined. And they’re continually increasing our control of nature. For most people, life is no longer “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”, as Hobbes said. Technology is advancing at the rate of Moore’s law. And that improves the standard of living.

The second thing is savings. Individuals, like squirrels, are genetically wired to produce more than they consume. The difference between production and consumption can be saved. That creates capital. And capital enables technology. That creation of wealth should continue, barring a world war. Or most of the world’s governments acting more like Venezuela or Zimbabwe…. Which is quite possible.

So, in conclusion, I have some good news, and some bad news.

In the looming Greater Depression, most of the real wealth in the world will still exist. It’s just going to change ownership.

Hopefully, you’ll be among those who aren’t adversely affected.

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately most people have no idea what really happens when a government goes out of control, let alone how to prepare…

The coming economic and political crisis is going to be much worse, much longer, and very different than what we’ve seen in the past.

That’s exactly why New York Times best-selling author Doug Casey and his team just released an urgent video. Click here to watch it now.

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The Duke of New York
The Duke of New York

For years I worked with kids in one of the largest public school districts in the country. Most were early to mid-teens. Every kid I talked to said there was no reason to do their work, because no one made them pass their classes in order to graduate. Every single one said they were getting “D’s”, and that neither they nor their teachers had any issue with that.

I used to ask every one of them what they liked to read. Not one had ever read a book other than what was required in school (and even then that was likely minimal skimming). When I was their age I read every single day, but that is dead for kids now. The activation of the parts of the brain that can only be achieved through reading is dead to them, and thus their intellect suffers even more than it would for the rudimentary “education” they are getting at the hands of teachers and administrators who could not care less if they graduated being able to think at all.
This is likely repeated all accross the country, the systemic dumbing down of an entire generation.

To think this is anything but purposeful is to fool yourself.

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams

Relatable and agree with that last sentence.

The dumbing down began with the Boomer generation…from what I can observe. And has become significantly worse over time.

I work with awesome kids. You know what my main obstacle is? Their parents.

rhs jr
rhs jr

It was not a “generational thing” per se but programmed Cultural Marxism (mostly by Democrats) government programs; it started with forced Integration (as academic equals which Blacks are not), with the 1964 Civil Riots Act that unConstitutionally Discriminates against White males (Double Talk: Affirmative Action), with the Great Society’s communism, with ZOG wars, and with SCOTUS liberal rulings (of course the CEOs, MSM, Journalist, Educators, Judges, etc are hand picked Useful Idiots). PS: I disagree with the article that most Americans (80%) naturally produce more than they consume; I think it would be more like 80% are slackers who would vote Democrat if they weren’t to lazy to vote and would prefer to receive $2,600/month Social Security Disability than work.

Infectious
Infectious

Dumb people are far easier to manage. And, as an added bonus, tend to be happier too. America embodies and embraces bread and circuses like no other. Everything is going precisely as planned.

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams

‘…tend to be happier too.’

This is true. I have friend who is apolitical and doesn’t keep up with news or world events. She is vaxxed and will not let anything prevent her from living the life she wants to live. She travels the world and seems to live a fulfilling life. She is a very happy person and sees the best in ALL people. There are times that I think she has it right, and I have it wrong…about how to live life.

While she drives me crazy, I remain friends with her because she has a heart of gold and would do anything for you…including jumping in front of a speeding train to save your life.

Vigilant
Vigilant

tend to be happier

At times I think that I should quit paying attention to what is going on in our society and in our world in order to attain more peace of mind and happiness, but I just can’t seem to embrace ignorance. As a Bible believer, I
am told to watch and pray, and to “Occupy until I come.” My conscience won’t let me check out.

Dumb & happy people are the ones spoken of in the famous quote, all that it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.

AK John

They were like Adam and Eve in delusional bliss.

Anonymous
Anonymous

From the beginning

AK John

Really well said. A love of reading shows a love of life. My kids walked around with books in their hands pointing to read for them before they could talk. Yes, I played sports outside all the time and watched tv a plenty. But there was lots of time at school and home to read books. Thats how I developed that spirit of adventure to see the world. Every librarian at our library in Anchorage new me and my daughter by name. She would check out a big stack every Saturday, and I would check out movies. She introduced me to the Star Wars books. First the kids’ ones, and then the Adult ones. I would tell her to give me just the good ones as I did not have as much time as her. When she gave me the first adult one. She said read it, and tell me what you think. After reading, I told her these are the good ones. Don’t give me that kiddy crap. We ended up reading every Star wars book written, to that point. It made for a great bond, and she tells me about a new book every now and then. She finished a double major in College, and was the first of her friends to get a job right from college. Her job as an analyst is reading and writing. Unfortunately it’s for the deep state. But that is another story. She has my sense of adventure and love of freedom. She definitely doesn’t like it when I tell her I didn’t raise you to be a commie.

Guest
Guest

I met a girl my freshman year of college who was smart and pretty- started in accounting (was good at it), ended up in graphic art and made a go of it. It often works that way with creative people I think.
Anyway she had never owned a pair of tennis shoes!!!! (I gave her a pair of mine), or it turns out read a book for pleasure. I found this out when she was excited because they read ‘The Red Pony’ in a class. I was shocked by both.

At this stage of my life I think we may too influenced by reading, especially literature. I know that’s not a popular thought. There’s more that could be said about this, as in did the novel have more of an effect than TV in getting us here?

Jdog
Jdog

It has become apparent to me as I have gotten older, that people really do not like to think. Thinking, real thinking, requires critical analysis. It often requires admitting you do not know things and forcing you to study and learn the things you do not know. Often times it requires a knowledge of history, physics, phycology, and human nature.
In short, thinking takes effort, and sometimes a lot of it. The less knowledgeable you are, the harder it is to think critically, and to separate what is logical and more likely to be the truth, from what are lies and rhetoric.
One of the reasons people are so inept at thinking is that our government run schools discourage thinking. The rulers in government really do not want the masses to possess the ability to think critically, because they will then begin to question governmental actions and decisions. The rulers in government desire for the masses to be compliant and to simply accept their rule and authority. Government, and government schools are the enemy of the people, and yet most are unable to recognize that truth, because of their inability to think.

grace country pastor

“When people think of virtues today they think of faith, hope, charity—which are not related to the word’s root meaning. These may pass as virtues in a religious sense. But, outside a Sunday school, they’re actually actually vices. This deserves a discussion, because I know it will shock many. But I’ll save that for another time.”

Actually, this doesn’t shock me a bit. The core problem in the world today is that people are without faith, hope and (the correct word) charity, that we find ourselves in this current mess of a situation.

Faith, hope, charity are vices? DC is not a man to turn to for solutions. Faith, hope and charity are all we have left; and too few practice any at all; especially charity.

1 Corinthians 13:13 KJB… “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

AK John

When I think of virtue. I think of its opposite sin: Lust, greed, anger, attachment, and vanity. The opposites are forgiveness and tolerance, contentment, detachment, discrimination, and humility. I would say they are all aspects of charity/love. I wouldn’t put faith and hope in as virtues. But they could be a part of contentment. So maybe. It’s a good contemplation.
The powers that be push that all faith and hope lie with the government instead of with God. This is the spiritual bankruptcy that is the world today.

Jdog
Jdog

Those things are vices. That is a fact, and the worst is charity. Charity not only robs the giver of needed resources, it robs the receiver of self respect and self confidence. Faith is belief in something for which there is little or no evidence or reason to believe, which is illogical and counterproductive. Hope more times than not takes the place of action and taking responsibility for your situation. None of these things are positive, and all serve to make people feeble and dependent.
These things are touted by religion, because religion like government desires the failure and dependency of the people in order to present itself as the solution.

AK John

There is real charity/love and fake charity. What is real charity. Real charity eases suffering and saves lives. You would deny starving or dying children charity? Of course not. It’s the most wonderful thing in the world to help people when there is real need.

Jdog
Jdog

Charity suggests something for nothing, and that is never a desirable objective. Those who use children or the disabled as a justification for charity are dishonest and attempting to use humanitarianism as a justification for their poor ethics.
No one capable of doing something to earn a meal, should ever be given a free one. The reason being is in order for people to have confidence in their own abilities and develop self respect, they must feel they are an asset and not a liability.
When you encourage anyone to accept charity, you are making them pay for that charity with their self respect and that is too high a price to pay.

AK John

You bring up good points when your anger doesn’t get in the way. The biggest lesson in life is learning to pay your own way. The nature of our planet is almost everyone needs help at one time or another. People with ethics know that you have to pay it back some way. This is what real charity is. But I agree. Charity can and is being used to enslave the masses. There is a balance there. Saying there is no place for charity is not it.

Jdog
Jdog

I never said there was not a place or reason for it, I said it is not as a rule beneficial to the recipient. There are cases when euthanasia also reasonable, but it would be a mistake to justify it as a mainstream practice.

Uncola

Personally, I would like to read the discussion on this from D.C. (i.e. the author of this article) as well.

Regardless of our personal perspectives, perhaps virtue could be considered as choices that adhere to an internal “standard”, or plumb line, if you will.

In my previous “Borg/anti-borg” articles as well as more recent posts like “Let Our Vision Overcome The Narratives“, “You Can’t Stop a Tidal Wave So You Might As Well Try“, and “Dear Remnant: The Best Things in Life are Free“, I discussed “values and core principles” and “the Long Perspective of Eternal Principles” that “transcend death”.

In the “Vision” article, it was stated thusly:

It takes courage to act rightly; to place principles above, even, survival. In that regard, then, faith could be considered as the evidence of principles unseen.

Of course, choices require discernment and it’s best to have our minds made up prior to entering into the breach or fray.

In this sense, it is like the proverbial cheerleader making out in the back of her boyfriend’s car – if she has decided upon chasity in advance, she will be less likely to get confused in the heat of the moment.

Ayn Rand claimed integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.

But what ideas? These are the questions that will determine our choices, and our friends, in the days ahead

daddy Joe
daddy Joe

Thanks to Doug; I’ve always enjoyed his perspectives on many topics. I only disagree with him about technology–it is at best a neutral and certainly not a savior. All technology is only as good as the person who controls it. All technology has been co-opted by evil folks to more efficiently kill and control others. From sticks and stones, fire, bronze, iron, machines, explosives, drugs/poisons, media, money, flying, nuclear, internet–all of it neutral, sometimes helping mankind if they can afford it, but always available to thugs and despots.

Uncola

Yo daddy,

As I’ve stated here before on these digital pages… technology is like fire: it can warm, or burn, you.

Signed,

The Other Doug

comment image

Call me Jack

My wife states that my lack of an appropriate filter between what i think and what i say is going to get me a cot in a FEMA Camp.I have been thinking that if you are going to be behind the wire anyway; Gitmo is a better deal.Great facilities and better food than i got in the Army.

AK John

A bunch of us Bpers will be right there with you. It will be like a family reunion. When you put two sticks of dynamite together. It gets at least 3 times as powerful. This will be their downfall.

rhs jr
rhs jr

Steel sharpens steel.

Time for blood
Time for blood

These arguments are weak at best. The communists/marxists have been busy breaking down our institutions for years. They destroyed the schools, courts, government, and the capitalistic economy. They are in a full court press now to change the government to totalitarian by destroying the economy and banking system.

Jdog
Jdog

History is never linear. History is a pendulum swinging back and forth, totalitarianism only gets so bad and then the people rise up against it, only to become complacent afterwards, and allow it to grow again. It is an endless cycle.

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