Mish has two posts in a row that sum up world history. In the first, he talks about French elite escaping to Belgian anarchy (relatively speaking). In the second he talks about how Obamaconomics are making the rich richer and poor poorer (a point that should surprise no one.)
When in the course of human events, matters get unbearable, people act. In one way, people escape to anarchy, and if not, they welcome anarchy upon them. Recently, talking about anarchy, Belgium went almost two years with no government. Panic resulted among other governments, because there was no discernible difference to the Belgium people: government, no government... what is the difference? Belgium literally had anarchy, and no attendant problems.
Now, as a Swiss-like collection of natural enemies living together in harmony, the "Belgians" (French and Dutch with a few tribes thrown in) have no sense of the national pride that leads to wars or "salvation through government" that brings a people down internally.
French politicians have invited the French speakers in Belgium to secede to France, hahaha. What is more likely is for Belgium to declare war on France for the crime of "interference in internal affairs" and Belgium take over France. Why not? Cortez with some 500 men took down Montezuma's million man army, by means of an alliance with a tax-dodging group of natives. Would not the French people welcome the Belgium liberators? If the Belgians can be trusted with the little they have, might they be trusted with greater things? Especially since the French are making a deflated souffle of their economy?
The story of Cortez and Montezuma and taxes can be found in this delightful volume by Charles Adams, Flight, Fight and Fraud, which I recommend as a remedial history book. Delightful.
AS to the US program of enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor, like Montezuma, there is no logical limit to the idea that the state can be an agent of good. Eventually the powers that be lose control of the leviathan, and it turns on the powers. So we had the scene of the Ming soldiers opening the Great Wall to allow in the Manchu pony-soldier hordes to wipe out the Ming dynasty and start over. A repeat of 500 years earlier when the Chinese welcomed the Mongol hordes to bring their anarchy to China in the form of the Yuan dynasty. We have the irony of our profligate borrowing for defense spending will necessarily end in our defeat from a quarter that was never a threat. And our profligate spending on "social welfare" will result in the masses welcoming the invaders. This is inevitable, we just cannot know "when."
I'd say the USA is spending money on defense like a drunken sailor, except a drunken sailor once corrected me by noting a drunken sailors quits spending when he runs out of cash. No barkeeper in history has extended credit to a sailor. So on some unknown scale, the USA spend money on defense against other superpowers, when in fact we'll fall to some anarchic group. Who? Jamaicans? Puerta Vallartans? How about the Vietnamese? If Cortez 500 years ago could come from the recently liberated Spain to overthrow what was certainly a world superpower at the time, why couldn't the Vietnamese conquer USA? (Wait, they already did, with home court advantage. Uh-oh!)
The Vietnamese have beat every invader since Genghis Khan, and apparently got more from the French than the French ever got (along with the fact that having been "colonized" be the French, Vietnam was free from UK, US and other major power colonization... smart politics.)
I can see it now: The Vietnamese land in New Orleans, the long suffering cajuns welcome the Vietnamese and drive up the undefended Mississippi river and dividing the USA in half. West of the Mississippi surrenders and East of the Mississippi capitulates. Ho Chi Minh becomes the most popular baby name in USA.
Ludicrous of course, but history is always stranger. For thousands of years the black gunk oozing from the ground was known to burn, and no one cared, except the few who collected and burned it. But for the last 100 years it has been the center of all human history. Who saw that coming?
We cannot prepare, we can only position ourselves. And the very best position is the one that best showcases your unique talents, and that is self-employment, better expressed as customer-employment.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
When in the course of human events, matters get unbearable, people act. In one way, people escape to anarchy, and if not, they welcome anarchy upon them. Recently, talking about anarchy, Belgium went almost two years with no government. Panic resulted among other governments, because there was no discernible difference to the Belgium people: government, no government... what is the difference? Belgium literally had anarchy, and no attendant problems.
Now, as a Swiss-like collection of natural enemies living together in harmony, the "Belgians" (French and Dutch with a few tribes thrown in) have no sense of the national pride that leads to wars or "salvation through government" that brings a people down internally.
French politicians have invited the French speakers in Belgium to secede to France, hahaha. What is more likely is for Belgium to declare war on France for the crime of "interference in internal affairs" and Belgium take over France. Why not? Cortez with some 500 men took down Montezuma's million man army, by means of an alliance with a tax-dodging group of natives. Would not the French people welcome the Belgium liberators? If the Belgians can be trusted with the little they have, might they be trusted with greater things? Especially since the French are making a deflated souffle of their economy?
The story of Cortez and Montezuma and taxes can be found in this delightful volume by Charles Adams, Flight, Fight and Fraud, which I recommend as a remedial history book. Delightful.
AS to the US program of enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor, like Montezuma, there is no logical limit to the idea that the state can be an agent of good. Eventually the powers that be lose control of the leviathan, and it turns on the powers. So we had the scene of the Ming soldiers opening the Great Wall to allow in the Manchu pony-soldier hordes to wipe out the Ming dynasty and start over. A repeat of 500 years earlier when the Chinese welcomed the Mongol hordes to bring their anarchy to China in the form of the Yuan dynasty. We have the irony of our profligate borrowing for defense spending will necessarily end in our defeat from a quarter that was never a threat. And our profligate spending on "social welfare" will result in the masses welcoming the invaders. This is inevitable, we just cannot know "when."
I'd say the USA is spending money on defense like a drunken sailor, except a drunken sailor once corrected me by noting a drunken sailors quits spending when he runs out of cash. No barkeeper in history has extended credit to a sailor. So on some unknown scale, the USA spend money on defense against other superpowers, when in fact we'll fall to some anarchic group. Who? Jamaicans? Puerta Vallartans? How about the Vietnamese? If Cortez 500 years ago could come from the recently liberated Spain to overthrow what was certainly a world superpower at the time, why couldn't the Vietnamese conquer USA? (Wait, they already did, with home court advantage. Uh-oh!)
The Vietnamese have beat every invader since Genghis Khan, and apparently got more from the French than the French ever got (along with the fact that having been "colonized" be the French, Vietnam was free from UK, US and other major power colonization... smart politics.)
I can see it now: The Vietnamese land in New Orleans, the long suffering cajuns welcome the Vietnamese and drive up the undefended Mississippi river and dividing the USA in half. West of the Mississippi surrenders and East of the Mississippi capitulates. Ho Chi Minh becomes the most popular baby name in USA.
Ludicrous of course, but history is always stranger. For thousands of years the black gunk oozing from the ground was known to burn, and no one cared, except the few who collected and burned it. But for the last 100 years it has been the center of all human history. Who saw that coming?
We cannot prepare, we can only position ourselves. And the very best position is the one that best showcases your unique talents, and that is self-employment, better expressed as customer-employment.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
0 comments:
Post a Comment