This article was originally published by the Super Station 95 newsroom.
As economic turmoil worldwide becomes increasingly apparent, We have been receiving messages from readers expressing some concerns on the public “perception” of collapse. That is to say, there are questions on the average person’s concept of collapse versus the reality of collapse. This is a vital issue that I have discussed briefly in the past, but it deserves a more in-depth analysis.
What is collapse? How do we define it? And, are some of the notions of collapse in the public consciousness completely wrong?
It’s funny, because skeptics opposed to the idea of a U.S. collapse in particular will most often retort with a question they think we cannot or will not answer – “So, Mr. Smith, when specifically is this supposed collapse going to take place? What day and time?”
Our response has always been – “We’re in the middle of a collapse right now; you really can’t see it right in front of your sneering face?”
The reason these people are incapable of grasping this kind of answer is in large part due to the popular mainstream conceptions of systemic collapse. These are conceptions that are for the most part delusional and not in line with the facts. The public idea of collapse comes predominantly from Hollywood, and not from personal experience. For the masses (and some preppers, unfortunately), a collapse is an “event” that happens visibly and usually swiftly. You wake up one morning and behold; the television and phones don’t work anymore and zombies are at your doorstep! Yes, it’s childish and cartoonish, but anything less than a Walking Dead/Mad Max scenario and many people act as if all other threats are benign.
This is the driving reason why many Americans are absolutely oblivious to the economic instability that is rampant and blatant within our system the past few months. They might see the same signals that alternative analysts see, but these signals do not register in their brains as dangers.
Look at it this way; say you told a person their whole life that a tiger is a 10-foot tall behemoth with four heads that breath fire while urinating flesh-rending acid. Say you make movies and TV shows about it and they never have any experience to the contrary. When they finally come across a real tiger, they might try to pet the damn thing instead of running in terror or searching for a means of defense.
To use another vicious animal analogy, when we encounter skeptics with false assumptions of what a collapse actually is, we are often reminded of that woman in Anchorage, Alaska who jumped an enclosure fence at the zoo to get a closer picture of Binky the polar bear. These people have been made so inept when it comes to identifying threats that they will continue arguing with you as the animal takes a football-sized bite out of their meaty thigh.
So what is the root of the problem beyond Hollywood fantasies? Well, the problem is that social and economic collapse is not a singular event, it is a PROCESS. Collapse is a series of events that sometimes span years. Each event increases in volatility over the last event, but as time goes on these events tend to condition the masses. The public develops a normalcy bias towards crisis (like the old “frog in a boiling pot” analogy). They lose all sense of what a healthy system looks like.
It is not uncommon for a society to wade through almost a decade or more of violent decline before finally acknowledging the system is imploding on a fundamental level. It is also not uncommon for societies to endure years of abuse by corrupt governments before either organizing effectively to rebel, or caving in and submitting to totalitarianism.
But how does one recognize a failing system? How does a person know if they are in the middle of a collapse rather than on the “verge” of collapse? Here are some signals I have derived from research of various breakdowns in modern nations and why they indicate we are experiencing collapse right now…
The Criminals Openly Admit To Their Crimes
The surest way to know if your society is in the midst of disintegration is to see if the criminals who created the instability in the first place are openly discussing a collapse scenario or warning that one is imminent.
A year ago, central bankers presented little more than a chorus of recovery propaganda. Today, not so much. The Royal Bank of Scotland is now warning investors to “sell everything” ahead of a “cataclysmic” year in markets.
The Federal Reserve’s Richard Fisher has admitted that the Fed “frontloaded” (manipulated) stock markets into a bubble and that payment is about to come due in the form of severe economic volatility (up to 20% crash in equities).
The Bank for International Settlements, the central bank of central banks, has a track record of warning the public about collapse conditions – right before they happen, leaving little or no time for people to prepare. They have followed their habit by warning in September and December that a Fed rate hike would “shatter” the uneasy calm in markets.
The former Chief Economist of the BIS now says the economy is in worse shape than it was in 2008 and is headed for a larger fall.
What happened between last year and this year and why are these internationalists suddenly so forthcoming about our economic reality? The fact that central bankers are the cause of our current collapse leads me to believe that such admissions are designed to deflect guilt. If they put out a few warnings now, they can then later claim they are prognosticators rather than culprits, and that they were trying to “help us.” Beyond that, the reality is that our situation was just as dire in 2014/2015 as it is today; the difference is that now we are about to enter a new phase in the ongoing collapse, a much more detrimental phase, but still a phase of a breakdown that has been progressing since at least 2008.
The Fundamentals Break Through The Manipulation Barrier
Governments and central banks do not have the capacity to artificially create demand for goods or a supply of well-paying jobs in a crashing economy. What they can do, though, is hide the visible problems in supply and demand with false numbers.
Experts examined such false economic statistics in great detail last year in a six-part series titled “One Last Look At The Real Economy Before It Implodes.” We will not cover them all again here. We would only point out that recently the fundamentals of supply and demand have begun to break through the deceit of manipulated numbers, and this is a sign that the collapse is about to move from one stage to the next.
With global shipping and trucking freight in steep decline, with retail inventories in stasis and current oil consumption falling to levels not seen since 1997 despite a larger population, the mainstream can no longer deny that consumer demand is crumbling. If demand is falling dramatically, then the financial system is in the middle of falling dramatically; there is simply no way around this truth.
Stocks And Commodities Become Violently Erratic
Let’s be clear, if stock markets represent anything at all, they are merely lagging indicators of economic instability. Stock markets are NOT predictive indicators of anything useful. Therefore, any person who does nothing but track equities each day is going to be completely oblivious to the bigger picture behind the economy until it is too late. They will be so mesmerized by the green numbers and red numbers and lines on minute-to-minute graphs that they will lose all sense of reality.
Violent swings in stocks are a sign of a financial system that is at the middle or end of the collapse process, not the beginning.
It is also important to note that extreme shifts in stocks and commodity values to the upside are just as much a signal of instability as shifts to the downside. For instance, if you witnessed the recent 9% explosion in oil markets and thought to yourself “Ah, the markets are being stabilized again and nothing is different this time…”, then you are an idiot.
Of course, the next day oil markets lost almost all of the gains they made the day before. And this is how markets behave when they are about to die; they expand and implode chaotically each day on nothing more that meaningless news headlines rather than hard data. This heart attack in equities inevitably trends downwards as the weeks and months pass. Keep in mind, equities are down nearly 10% from their recent highs, and oil is down approximately 50% in the past six months. Every time there is a dead cat bounce in stocks skeptics come out of the woodwork to call alternative analysts “doomers”, yet they are nowhere to be found when markets come crashing back down. They are not looking at the overall trend because their short attention spans hinder them. Again, extreme swings in markets, whether up or down, are a sign of progressing collapse.
Deterioration Of Cultural Values, Heritage And Identity
Many have written extensively over the years about the Cloward-Piven strategy; a strategy used by collectivists to destabilize social systems by dumping overt numbers of foreign immigrants into the population without demand for integration. This process has been obvious in the U.S. and Europe for quite some time, but only now is it peaking to the point that collapse is seen as an inevitable result by the public. Europe is worse off than the U.S. in this regard as millions upon millions of Muslim immigrants are injected into the EU’s already dying body; immigrants that intend to transplant their culture from their own failed societies rather than adopting the values and principles of the societies that have invited them in.
Natural-born Americans and legal immigrants with aspiration of integration appear to be fighting back against the Cloward-Piven strategy with some success by holding onto traditional American values despite being labeled “barbarians” and “racists.” Illegal immigration, though, is still completely unchecked.
In the EU, the long campaign of cultural Marxism has made natural-born Europeans perhaps the most self-hating people on the planet as well as the most passive and weak. Organized opposition to massive immigration programs in the EU should have taken place years ago. Now it is far too late, and the European system is finishing a social implosion which should have already been obvious to average citizens.
Open Discussion Of Totalitarian Measures
When corrupt leadership moves from quiet totalitarianism to more open totalitarianism, your society is in the FINAL stages of collapse, not the beginning of a collapse. The U.S. in particular has been slowly strangled with subversive legal directives and political policies ever since the so called “War on Terror” began. However, there are now multiple signals of a much deeper and open tyranny in the works.
A few recent examples stand out, including Barack Obama’s insistence that the office of the president has the legal authority to issue executive orders that affect constitutional protections such as the 2nd Amendment. As many liberty movement activists are aware, there is absolutely no constitutional precedent for the use of executive orders and such powers are not mentioned anywhere in the document. They were simply created out of thin air to be used by the federal government and sometimes state governments to supersede normal checks and balances.
While numerous presidents have issued executive orders, including some that were outright tyrannical, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s unconstitutional internment of Japanese Americans into concentration camps, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have been the most subversive in their bypassing of the Constitution. Obama, in particular, has tried to hide the number of executive actions he has taken by issuing hundreds of“presidential memorandums,” which are basically the same dirty play by another name.
These actions have been progressively setting the stage for the removal of checks and balances entirely in the name of crisis management. They are so broad in their nature and vague in their definitions and applications that they could be interpreted by federal authorities to mean just about anything in any given situation.
If executive actions are not scary enough, corrupt politicians are now becoming blunt in their demands for dominance. Two Republican Senators, Mitch McConnel and Lindsay Graham, are calling for unlimited AUMF-style (authorization of use of military force) war powers to be given to the president. Such powers would allow the president to project U.S. military forces anywhere in the world for any reason without review or time limits. This includes the use of military forces on U.S. soil.
The rationale for this is, of course, the threat of ISIS. The same group of terrorists the U.S. government helped to create.
And finally, if you want perhaps the most nonchalant admission of future tyranny in recent days, check out former General Wesley Clark’s call for “disloyal” Americans to be placed in internment camps through the duration of the war on terror, a war that could ostensibly go on forever.
One could argue that all of these measures are meant only to deter “Islamic extremism.” I would point out that government officials could have stemmed that tide at any time by enforcing existing immigration laws, or, by stopping all immigration for a period of years until the problem is handled. Instead, they have allowed open borders to remain, and have even imported potential terrorists while focusing Department of Homeland Security efforts more on evil white guys with guns.
If we accept the violation of the constitutional rights of any group of citizens, if we allow the concept of “thought crime” to become commonplace, then we leave the door open to the violation of our own rights someday. And that is how tyrants trick populations through incremental collapse; by applying despotism to a claimed dangerous minority, then expanding it to everyone else.
America is sitting near the end of the spectrum in terms of economic collapse and in the middle of the spectrum in terms of social collapse. While more violent events are certainly gestating and are likely to be triggered in the near term, we should not overlook the reality that collapse is happening in stages all around us. This process gives us at least some time. All is not lost yet, and the steps we take to organize and prepare today will affect how the collapse process unfolds tomorrow. People who continue to ignore the outright evidence of collapse based on false assumptions of what collapse should look like are only preventing themselves from taking proper action until it is too late. Make no mistake, our system is dying. We cannot allow our false perceptions of this death to cloud the reality of it, or our response to it.
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Study demographics. It may shock you. Demography is your destiny. The standard of living in the US has gone down considerably due to the loss of jobs and wages. Those losses are directly due to the current business model here called globalism. You now have to compete against cheap labor. Sometimes even slave labor or prison labor. You also have to compete against unfavorable trade “agreements” enacted by our corrupt politicians. The collapse is in progress. It is going to get worse. Third World worse.
What a stupid question. Why silly, when Mac tells you……….Whaaat?
Just have to look around and observe, it has all been in motion since 2007-08 when America actually defaulted. Or what used to be called America ? We now live in a form of collective insanity as the BHO crew has put it all on steroids for 7 years and it is now collapsing as all illusions do eventually. Lies, distortions,and manipulations can only last so long and then they fail. There are many signs ?
Astute observation “Observer”, the USA has permanently changed. It is no longer locality competing with other localities for good paying jobs and benefits that provide for a stable middle class and real economic growth. It is now a global economy, we are competing against Pakistan, or Honduras, or Vietnam Nam, or a hundred other countries in the Third World. Not only is our standard of living falling, but most foreign economies will see only a tiny increase in their standard of living because the jobs that paid well here and moved there literally now pay pennies; and they have no environmental laws, no safety regulations, no worker’s rights, and no benefits or pensions.
Trade is supposed to be a two-way street that benefits all parties. What could possibly most of these countries offer our economy. But that’s not really the point, it’s not to benefit the working class, it’s for the corporate class. The middle class is rapidly shrinking and continues to do so because the jobs necessary to build and maintain a middle class are gone.
The jobs will never be back either. In order for industry and manufacturing to go overseas, and other countries are guaranteed trade surpluses, with little to no tariffs, means that government has to collude with the corporations. The very politicians who want you vote for them are absolutely responsible for the decaying condition of our economy. Why would any politician want to do that to their citizens. They received “incentives” specifically money, power, and favors. This plainly shows how they really view the voters.
In reality, TPTB despise the working people, we are truly seen as disposable. Why would anyone vote; this is all a farce. We are producing very little wealth; therefore the next item to expect is diminishing pensions, retirement plans, and social security. Social and welfare programs will eventually dry up, you can likely guess what happens after that.
None of this will end well, our nation and society will be like most other nations. Our children and grandchildren will have a dramatically lower quality of life.
Billy: You ask: “Why would anyone vote?” That is the only question that matters. Politicians destroyed America, while enriching themselves. And it is happening in every country, every day. America is not alone in self enslaving themselves to TPTB. It is a global sickness, a myth that a ruling elite is needed to protect us from foreigners/our neighbors/ourselves. That superstition is destroying humanity. But it need not. All that is needed is for the people to start self governing, to take responsibility for themselves, to keep their wealth, and stop believing authorities have any rights or deserve to control us. It starts with each of us, as individuals, to ignore govt., and live our lives for ourselves, as sovereign individuals, respecting the sovereignty of our friends/neighbors.
Or we can continue to do what we have always done, and reap the whirlwind.
Don Duncan
well said
population density plays a factor, cities go big on regulation.
Observer
but but but Apple provides suicide nets in its slave factories in China to prevent suicides!
As I stated previously Free Trade is the right to compete with labor that lives in a mud hut and dreams of one day moving into a tin shed.
Kevin2
Clearly dormitories no longer suit Chinese workers.
But yes, globalization comes with a big price for us.
Observer
Once again you observe and reason well. I don’t think 3rd world worse as TPTB need enough political stability to maintain their enforcement arm the US military. We’re going to drop more and if it wasn’t for the unsustainable debt we would be about at about a 1937 lifestyle now. Not exactly 3rd world mud hut but not too damn good either.
When the Consumer out number the Producers.
Like I would say when the Zombie and Leaches= EBT card holders out number the worker bees.
When wrong is right and right is wrong. When it is worng to be a White, Christian, and Male.
Sgt.
Sarge, 11 states now have more people getting welfare than are working. Our Illinois is one of them.
CT is laying off 47 thousand city workers
That should paint a picture
Where I live 2/3rs of the people work for government of some type.
I know several people that have worked for (or still do) city, country, state or federal entities and they never seem to be bothered about where the funds come from that they are paid in salaries, etc.
In my mind, it is quite simple: City, county, state and federal employees do not “earn” a salary in the overall scheme of things but rather received a cut of the taxes collected or the debt incurred by their “employer”.
Agree it is all a monster feeding off the tax base which is always increased and is well past out of control. What most people cannot wrap their heads around is that government creates NOTHING except spending your tax dollars. So it is never an asset and always a debit and everything they touch has turned to shit ! The behemoth is well past out of control.
One more reason to move out of the city, just to remove another layer of blod-suckers…
The “city manager” of my local city got $535000 in 2014 for salary+bonuses… I can’t wait for the figures for 2015 to be released to see how he faired compared to my declining standard-of-living…
Next time you need a fireman you will not think about how he is paid.
You are absolutely correct in your assessment about us responsible Americans. As for my situation, the all volunteer fire department is only 4 miles down the road from me. But more than likely I wouldn’t even bother them. Being that I am a responsible American and I installed a large water cistern and 23 HP Wisconsin centrifugal pump just in case I do have a fire. Again, you are right, I won’t be thinking about how much money those over-paid tax ticks we call city fire fighters are making.
Uhhhh how the “F” can you fire that many “workers??”
I got out of CT last year. Not a right to work state and tax payers leaving in droves. Malloy should be….fill in the blank
Sgt Dale
“Like I would say when the Zombie and Leaches= EBT card holders out number the worker bees.”
That is unfair and inaccurate as many EBT card holders are working poor. The FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS eviscerated the wealth producing manufacturing in the US. Welfare is a symptom not a cause.
How Do You Know When Your Society Is In The Midst Of Collapse?
…
donald trump and hillary clinton are the choices they give you for president?
Amen to that!
With as large a population we have in this county and these idiots are our choices?
Stick a fork in us
I’ve said the same thing for the last dozen presidential elections.
George-can’t-read-a-teleprompter-Bush ?
Barrack-the-Keynan-Obama ?
Mitt-the-twit-Rommney ?
Teflon-Bill Clinton ?
John-the-closet-democrat-McCain ?
Heck, at least “The Donald” is entertaining, and more important, is the middle finger to the establishment.
At this late stage of the republic, that is about the best you can hope for.
I actually like the fact that Trump cant control his mouth. I think that politicians should say what they think. The president dosent have much power to create new law. However he does have the ultimate power to implement the law. Implementing existing law is what we desperately need these days done by someone who dosent mince words.
middle finger to the establishment. That’s a good one
Yeah, I’m considering having T-shirts made with a big middle finger in the center with “TRUMP” on the finger, pointing to a pic of DC.
Wow. That was a tour de force article. Simply brilliant in its argument and exposition. Thanks for sharing it Mac.
We are indeed in the throes of collapse. I just don’t know how much longer folks can keep kicking the can.
Morality determines much, including demography. And a country thrives on the foundation of a Judeo-Christian morality. No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace.
Ever since the 60’s or so, the country has been turning away from God, away from Jesus. Killing some 50 million unborn babies. Two men or two women marrying each other legally. Electing Obama in 2008. The nonsense going on right now in the election season. Unchecked illegal immigration. Some blacks telling whites to commit affirmative suicide.
This country is reaping what it’s sowing when it turned its back on God and His Son Jesus.
So does that mean when the shooting starts, kill everyone, let God sort them out–‘-”’like it.
So true. WTF has happened and how has it happened? MY GOD this place deserves to fail and fail hard!
Amen free slave
Does that question really need to be asked?
When it looks … Just like it does now
But wait it gets worse
Because of Globalism, businesses are transferring the cost of labor to the taxpayers. No more company health coverage, Obamacare paid by taxpayers. Not getting enough pay at your low paid part time job? Food stamps. At taxpayer expense. Earned income tax credit. It goes on and on. This is a journey that isn’t going to end well.
It’s just a bunch of greedy mofos who can’t get enough power and money to satisfy their insatiable appetites to plunder and imprison humanity.
When I was a teen, in the ’60’s, we had about 190 million people in the US. We now have about 340 million. The increase is due mostly to immigration and their kids. Demographers say we may have 1 billion people living here at the end of this century. How’s the parking near you?
You’ve hit on the why of what is coming.
The PTB know full well you can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet, and a whole lot of useless eaters (defined as NOT THEM or THEIRS) got to go. It can take place in several forms, but the bottom line is they intend to return the planet to a lot less folks….enough to keep them in a cushy lifestyle, but not enough to endanger them or their kids.
IF I was one of them, I’d be leading the charge. But I’m not, so I have to settle for doing what I can to hopefully ride the effects of what they hope to set in motion. Wife and I are old….lived a good life…made the decision early on not to have kids that clearly would bear the brunt of what’s coming. For those that aren’t in the same boat, lotsa luck.
Read Jerry Pournells ringworld series with the crazy eddy puppeteers.
“…but the bottom line is they intend to return the planet to a lot less folks…enough to keep them in a cushy lifestyle, but not enough to endanger them or their kids…”
With the dumbing down of everyone, people are not going to know how to do things, like growing food or tending food animals, especially when they want to get rid of those of us who do know how because they perceive us as a threat since we can take care of ourselves. I believe that the PTB aren’t looking at the whole picture including the future one. They want to decimate the population to a “sustainable” level. In their own twisted and short-sighted vision, sustainable means controllable. Those they cannot control, they destroy. What they fail to realize is that when you get rid of the farmers and the tradesmen, there’s no one left to do the work. Idiots who can’t find their butt with both hands are going to know what to do or how to do it. The PTB won’t have their cushy lifestyle very long when that happens. Or maybe they are hoping for a “Brave New World”-type of population to magically appear.
They don’t plan to get rid of all the farmers, tradesmen and tech people…..just those that are required to keep the useless billions alive.
If you cut out couple hundred million welfare suckers, (which includes us old folks, paper pushing govt weenies) how many farmers do you really need ?
TN Andy
them rich boogers need specialized goodie farms, hand operations, not the GMO/Roundup Ready toxins Bill Gates/Monsanto is feeding us.
WOW! I Decided to do the same thing! No children from me for the Rulers to eat. And, moved to the country eons ago and became a 20 year prepper. How do I like my view? Just fine, thank you!
@ TJ
Sooo, your way of “getting back” at the Ruling Elite is to terminate your bloodline?
I’m sure that will teach them…
“See how I’m NOT having kids? Take that, Soros!”
I wonder how he’ll ever sleep at night…
I am in my 60’s too. When i was a small kid of 12 i remember hearing that the world population was 3 billion. Now we are almost 7 billion. Wow. What a jump. So in another 50 yrs will it be 14 billion?
I think once we see curfews going into affect in our major cities you will know for sure it has began. By then the stores should have all been looted and people will start fending for themselves in whatever way possible. which mean taking from those that prepped.
How do you know when your society is in the midst of collapse?
The person you are having a conversation with, can not speak English.
When the person at the cash register can not make change for the purchase you made without a calculator.
They lower the standards of exam’s in order to place unqualified people in position of authority.
When people do not accept responsibility for their actions.
When people wrongfully blame others for their shortcomings.
When those elected and trusted by those who elected them, abuse their appointed position.
When the customs of invading refugee’s replace The Traditions of OUR HOMELAND.
When your schools become bilingual.
When 30% of our countries voters, vote for a Communist.
AND when Nabisco Vanilla Wafers that were 2/$4 a year/two ago are 2/$6 on special now……..
Whoa Andy!There is enuff going wrong with this country without making up outrageous lies that no one will believe!We post like that folks will never take us seriously!
When whistle-blowers have to run for their lives while the government tells the masses, “See something, say something.”
You mean today?
Guy built a deck. Did it without a permit or inspection. He didn’t use the right hardware or provide the correct supports under the decking. The family used the deck for years… it was perfectly functional and attractive to boot. One day a few more guests dropped in at one of their BBQs than was usual… and all of a sudden as the guests leaned against the railing looking off at the view spread before them, the whole structure leaned to the side and detached from its moorings. People were hurt, needless to say. The deck looked great- until it didn’t.
Who knows what straw will break this camel’s back? For those with eyes to see, we notice the rusty nail marks, the slight sway of the deck in the wind. The creaks… the bows in the wood. It is not our nature yo question structure, but tgat doesn’t mean its safe and won’t come down in a moment.
You know it’s a collapse when your life is flipped upside down and it’s the New Normal. When a fascist and a Socialist each get about 12% of the voters and people think it is a fascist landslide.
I like the article but isn’t this a Brandon Smith post from a few weeks back?
The Georgia Guide Stones says that a lot of people MUST die . About 6 billion or so .
Like the ol’ saying ” How did you go bankrupt ? Slow and first and then suddenly ! ”
The economy etc is like a days old fire,the coals smoldering until a tuft of wind gives it life and a ranging fire ensues .
If you’re down wind …you’re screwed . If you’re upwind…you have a chance…until the wind changes .
Like spring cleaning, you tend to forget the poor shape things are in until you make a list of what needs attention.
It can seem overwhelming but all it takes is to dig in. Start with the small tasks and before you know it the big ones don’t seem so hard to tackle. The important thing is to begin. And if everyone pitches in, it gets done faster.
Simplistic advice, I know. But just sitting back lets the garbage–at home or societal–build up. I fear that our country is more like Metro DC after a big snowfall: people sit back and wait to get dug out and whine when it takes a week but if the residents of whole block or street got out and worked a little extra they’d be out in a couple days.