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March
01
2018

The Slow Descent Into Reckless Hysteria – The Ends Justify the Means
Jesse's Café Américain

“To write the truth as I see it; to defend the weak against the strong; to fight for justice; and to seek, as best I can to bring healing perspectives to bear on the terrible hates and fears of mankind, in the hope of someday bringing about a world in which men and women will enjoy the differences of the human garden instead of killing each other over them.”  - I.F. Stone

I cannot believe some of the things that I am hearing on the mainstream media and reading on the internet these days. Well, shame on me if I am shocked, because I forecast that this was coming. A period of hysteria and a general disregard for reality follow on a long period of lies and corruption, like night follows day. First comes the loss of a regard for virtue of almost any sort, and then the embrace of the darkness.

If the economic hardships had been more rigorous I have little doubt that the killing would have come closer to home by now. 

“In reading The History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.” - Charles Mackay

What does shock me I suppose is how blithely seemingly well-educated people of relative privilege, who certainly know better, are willing to embrace the Big Lie, and run with it without a second glance back. Bizarre untruths and gross hyperbole are not just for the fringes anymore.

I was greatly disappointed by the ‘debate’ between James Risen and Glenn Greenwald, moderated by Jeremy Scahill. I include a video from Jimmy Dore below in which he discusses it, and I have posted the original debate here before.

But this is hardly the worst example, not at all. That was all over the airwaves and in the print media this weekend. The propaganda being spun out with regularity about dire threats and declarations of war make me wonder where this is all going.

Some feel perfectly happy picking and choosing among the lies that suit them, that promote their own biases and purposes. After all, ‘everyone is doing it now.’

“At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is “not done” to say it… Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals.” - George Orwell

Try to resist the temptation to join in on this dalliance into this mesmerizing dance of deceit, and the sickness unto death that follows with it.

Stocks were rallying today, so all is good. We may soon recover the levels of our blow off top. It is not surprise since the mania is still alive and well. I considered the plunge we had the other week as likely a ‘market break.’

I do think this presages a decline, most likely in the neighborhood of 20%. But timing that sort of thing is extremely difficult. Unless you are a legend of the punditry, remarkable as long as you can keep your own scorecard with other people’s money.

Gold and silver were moving up quite nicely on the overnight, and were then pushed back down when the Dollar recovered its declines, finishing weakly higher.

We’ve been here before. It rarely ends well.

“Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” - John 8:43-44

 

 

Interests: Economics, Film, Drama, Music, Opera, Technology, Literature, History, Christian Humanism, Aging Gracefully

 

 

 

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