I’d like to thank society for (barely) holding it’s shit together. I took a week and a half (mostly) off grid holiday. The word was already on fire. It wasn’t completely reduced to ash while I was gone. Yay.
A silly but true story:
I no longer take for granted that I can step away from society and it’ll manage to stay sane while I’m gone. Back in 2007 I was shocked when everything true went to false and vice versa in a single week.
I paddled away from a constitutional Republic with a nominally capitalist economic system. Nothing is perfect but it was at least more or less stable.
I spent a week fishing and canoe camping. I had no contact with the outside world for a week. I returned to a nation that had totally rejected markets. It had shut down the stock exchange to thwart markets changing prices lower. It was busily hurling money at entities that had profited for many years but might otherwise lose money during the current “crisis”.
I remember thinking “I was gone a week and the stock exchange is down? How can that be?” I tried to figure out what was happening and the discussions were like this:
AC: “WTF is going on?”
Everyone (trying to explain): “You see some people didn’t pay their subprime loans…”
AC: “Yes, that’s why they’re subprime.”
Everyone: “… so anyway everyone thought shitty risky loans would get paid back in full. When they weren’t, this company you’ve never heard of was out of money.”
AC: “When you give money to people who are risky you take on risk. It gets expensive to deny risk.”
Everyone: “…stop talking Poindexter! So there was a bailout of this company.”
AC: “That seems unwise.”
Everyone: “…and so everyone calmed down. But then this other company also wanted a bailout but it didn’t get a bailout.”
AC: “You can’t always get what you want. Mick Jagger says so.”
Everyone: “…so everyone’s stock price went to shit.”
AC: “The stock prices adjusted to reflect the financial health of the underlying company.”
Everyone: “NO! Shut up, this is serious. When prices go down it’s bad. So they shut down the stock market to keep the prices from dropping.”
AC: “Like closing your eyes so you become invisible?”
Everyone: “Don’t make jokes! It’s real. Everything was horrible. When the company nobody cares about went belly up, suddenly all the banks were fucked. So now the government is giving money to banks.”
AC: “Um…”
Everyone: “You don’t understand, you had to be there. According to the people on TV it was the end of the world.”
AC: “I was on the world. It’s still there. The fishing is great.”
Everyone: “Don’t be an asshole. Anyone who disagrees is a jerk.”
AC: “So, in addition to shutting down the stock market. What else did they do. Are there tanks on the streets?”
Everyone: “Right now they’re negotiating an incredibly unpopular banking bailout. It will be bigger than anything ever before. They’re trying to decide if it’ll be monumentally large or stupendously large.”
AC: “That would encourage bad decisions in the future.”
Everyone: “No, using government debt to invent money to give it to banks is the only possible thing to to. It makes sense if you were in the middle of it.”
AC: “I have a telegram from the future. In 2021 the Federal Debt will be 28 trillion.”
Everyone: “It’s necessary.”
AC: “The debt now is 8 trillion.”
Everyone: “If we don’t do it the banks will be screwed.”
AC: “The debt will increase by 350%.”
Everyone: “I’m telling you. Everything was destroyed!”
AC: “Buildings? Roads? What was destroyed?”
Everyone: “Everything. The value that doesn’t exist was found to not exist. We had to do this!”
AC (Backing away slowly): “Ok, well I’ve got to go now. I’m sure this will all work out fine and we won’t be facing inflation and shortages of consumer goods 14 years from now.”
The point is, distance gives you perspective. Right now, the 23rd month of 2020 is just another step in cascading disasters that began long ago. Also, I’ve almost come to expect the jolt of checking off of and back onto society’s runaway train of decline can be jarring. The thing about society losing it’s shit, is that you don’t as easily see it if you never pull your head out of the matrix*.
Since things suck so bad lately, I’ve lowered my expectations. This means I’m delighted that the bare minimum has held up. The power grid is still running, President Potato and his Chinese Handlers haven’t created a war in Taiwan, and jack booted thugs beating unvaccinated people is still (mostly) limited a hazy future and far away places like Australia. Also, I think the McRib is still available!
Well done to one and all. Of course, the long decline is still evident. The giant miasma of stupidity snuffing out freedom everywhere hasn’t dissipated. The rule of law remains divided into two viewpoints with one being de facto illegal and the other being de facto exempt. The universal tendency of egomaniacs to grab the wheel remains unchecked.
More deeply rooted, perhaps the heart of the whole thing: great swaths of the population still see free will and self determination as a burden. They seek to shift the burden of life’s choices to someone else, who invariably fucks it all up. But it’s the 23rd month of 2020 and I can only hope for so much.
It wasn’t just nice to leave, it was necessary. I’m more or less happy to have returned. What more can one ask?
Here’s a neat video of an iceberg flipping over.
*Perhaps “the matrix” isn’t a simulation? Maybe it’s the ass end of social media?