A while back, I wrote verbosely about a concept that’s better described in one word: Endgame.
Justin Raimondo got me thinking about Endgame again this week when he opened one of his sterling rants with a reference to the final stages of the American empire.
The article he linked with the words “final stages” would seem like a little nothing to most people. The link takes the reader to a news item about the South Korean government buying gold. Only awarefolk would grok why Raimondo considers South Korea’s purchase of gold to be a sign of final stages of anything — a sign that Endgame is already underway.
In my ramble, I speculated that we might never see an “it” moment — a dramatic day when we can say, “Thar she blows!” and know Endgame has begun. Commentator Old Printer said he thought 9-11 was that moment. My gut said no, but I couldn’t articulate why.
I think it’s because big, dramatic events that come from the outside generally serve more as excuses than anything else. World War I didn’t really begin because some mad kid killed an archduke. The U.S. didn’t get into WWII because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. And the fedgov didn’t go on a mad dash into perpetual war and police-state security because angry young men chose a horrific way of declaring their hatred.
Those events just gave rulers public permission to do what they were inclined to do, anyway. If we’re in Endgame now, it’s not because of those 19 murderous hijackers of 10 years ago. It’s because neocons (just the latest word for war-mad empire builders) were already waiting in the wings with their plans.
Barring some truly monumental catastrophe — eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano, a full-scale nuclear attack, or a supersized Atlantic tsunami triggered by a landslide on the other side of the world — Endgame doesn’t come from outside, but from the actions of insiders.
Endgame isn’t initiated by opponents, but by the response of the “home team,” so to speak.
If Endgame for the U.S. empire is financial, the trigger event was more likely to have been the August 15, 1971 Nixon Surprise. Something hardly anybody noticed at the time.
If Endgame for the U.S. empire is military … well, the trigger could still have been Nixon’s unpleasant little zinger. Or even the creation of the Federal Reserve, since the combination of both events ultimately allowed the federal government to expand endlessly and without accountability, financing welfare and warfare with funny money and ultimately flaming out from the excess. In which case, Endgame began nearly 100 years ago, again unnoticed.
But that’s unsatisfying. In that sense, Endgame is nothing more than the eternal process of creation and destruction. We are always in it. And always at the beginning of the game, too.
Assuming it’s true, though, that the American empire is in Endgame, what are the specific signs? Not the trigger event(s), which we may never see, or may see only in retrospect. When you look around you every day, what events or attitudes do you see that say “It’s over”?
Or, if you don’t see Endgame underway for empire, what signs do you see that the current fall is more likely to be just another bump in a long road?
This is one of those times where I have to say I just don’t know.
What I do know is that until there is pretty much general war in the streets, with government employees on one side and the productive people on the other (each joined by parasites who side with them, or against the others, for whatever reason), I’m not too concerned. I’ll continue to do what I can to scratch out a living and avoid being eaten. If I survive until “The Event”, I’ll deal with it at that time.
Success is always the trigger event. The US has had many since 1929, all being a matter of luck more than brilliance… which always leads the successful into sin. Imagine helping destroy the most advanced countries in the world in WW II and being so broke that we were forced to dump the military machine on the streets and shut down wartime industries, hoping for the best. There we sat with all these factories and industrial know how, a huge labor force, and the rest of the productive world litterally in ruins and a government so broke it couldn’t interfere. We built up our economy without competing and lived on foolish decisions until the Japanese arrived on the scene in the late 1970s. In the end I think you have this part dead on!
“Endgame is nothing more than the eternal process of creation and destruction. We are always in it.”
I’m trying to keep my blog posts to less than 50,000 words, but I have to add this. In 1939 all the Old “New Deal” dreams and methodology had failed and been put on hold out of necessity to fight the war. However, just as we saw today with Obama’s job programs, they were more than willing to continue with past failed programs and methods. The Keynesian/progressive ideology is rigid and unforgiving. “It couldn’t possibly have failed, we just didn’t do enough of it”, is there mantra. However, in 1945 there was simply no where, or no one, to borrow money from. The war had destroyed a huge pile of wealth (most of the world had those famous broken windows to fix… but not us). To put a fortuitous cherry on top, printing money was largely discredited and seen as the reason Germany looked to Hitler and the Nazis as a solution, so caution was in order on that score. Of course Truman still wanted to do it, but was soon brought to reason by the dire economic situation in the US government. The government couldn’t interfere. Luck, luck and more luck! But the dream never died and here we are, back to the same stupidity that we were saved from by the war. This has made idiots like Paul Krugman think that war is some kind of answer when in fact this time around there would be a lot of broken windows in the US and not just in Europe and Asia.
Well said….and the fact that “we” dont make anything.here anymore…
“Endgame” is a term first used in chess, I believe. Wikipedia has a good definition: The line between middlegame and endgame is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with the quick exchange of a few pairs of pieces. The endgame, however, tends to have different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have correspondingly different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important; endgames often revolve around attempting to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank. The king, which has to be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strong piece in the endgame. It can be brought to the center of the board and be a useful attacking piece.
To synopsize: little people become much more important, and the king is forced out of his lair to become a fighting piece. Most of the power-pieces are gone.
Using this analogy, then, we’re NOT in the endgame. We have quite a few pieces to remove from the board, first.
I have no idea what form the endgame signs might take, but I can tell you that there have been several times in the past year and a half that I’ve been skimming the news and my gut would twist, and suddenly my house and homestead plans took on a new sense of urgency. Which is why I’m going through the hoops of applying for a zoning variance for a tiny house rather than waiting until I have the funds set aside for a slightly bigger house.
(Before anyone picks on me for saying it’s only been a year and a half, I had some serious medical issues that hamstrung my brain for a while. Details are in another post.)
Maybe the increase in overt copitude is one of those signs: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/i-am-going-to-shoot-you-third-explosive-canton-cop-video-emerges/
“When you look around you every day, what events or attitudes do you see that say “It’s over”?”
Empires always spend themselves to death, most often via endless wars.
I look around and can’t count with certainty the number of wars the empire prosecutes on any given day. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yeman, Somalia, Libya. There are almost certainly others. The emperor openly defied Congress and the law on Libya, and there are no signs he will be called to account for that. One man can and does start wars whenever and wherever he pleases.
Then there is the debt. Here are a few figures released by the empire itself, for example start at http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/04frusg/04frusg.pdf
Using generally accepted accounting principles, which is how honest businesses keep track of their assets, liabilities, profits, and losses, the empire admitted that in 2004, the annual deficit grew by $11.1 trillion. That was largely due to the Medicare prescription drug benefit. It also represents nearly 100% of GDP for the year.
2005: add another $3.5 trillion, total empire debts exceed $50 trillion for the first time.
2006: add $4.6 trillion
2007: add $5.6 trillion
2008: add $5.1 trillion, total debt $66 trillion, fed doubles the monetary base
2009: add $4.3 trillion
2010: add $5.3 trillion, the empire admits it can no longer calculate the total, because the effects of the federal takeover of health care cannot be predicted. They admit that using an “Illustrative Alternative Scenario” with more realistic assumptions jumps the liabilities $12.4 trillion higher.
This year, with the new debt almost certain to exceed $5 trillion, Congress tears itself to pieces and ends up cutting $0.0385 trillion.
It’s most definitely over, and the attitudes about debt and spending are the proof.
I don’t think it will be the endgame until:
When the purchasing power of a middle-class salary falls by half relative to now. When the lower-middle class household budget completely breaks, and they have to live in their car to make an entirely aboveboard budget work.
When the normal, currently working middle class all has two jobs: the previous old one to keep them legally eligible for whatever (health insurance, permission to work, permission to reside, permission to buy food, demonstrated means of support), and the second to earn old American silver coins.
When that second job is entirely illegal, because it’s not possible to get the licenses to do it legally at a tolerable price, and that illegality is enforced with enough penalty that normal life is over if you’re caught.
When America starts resembling the Soviet Union.
Most of us, to include myself, will probably be totally shocked at the sudden speed of decline. At that point it might be easy to see “Endgame”. But not now. Let me go on record as saying if this mess lasts two more years, regardless of how the presidential elections go, it would be surprising.
“It would be some consolation for the feebleness of our selves and our works if all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is, increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid.” Lucius Anneaus Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, n. 91
Great post! Does it really just end in a bang or Eliot’s whimper? Once the sun never set on the British empire and now they are diminished but here. I think the current financial situation might slow us down some. Our commitment to permanent war was a big reason for Nixon to do his surprise. Guns & butter don’t go together without high taxes. JFK, LBJ and Nixon wanted war without paying for it and our monetary system was the biggest causality.
To my thinking, without an economic collapse nothing will stop our addiction to war. Conservatives used to be referred to as isolationists but what passes for conservatism has drank that kool-aid. I avoid TV news but I know people I refer to as Fox News Republicans. They are nothing but talking points. They say ‘Cut, Cut, Cut!” for general government but want to keep the military fully funded, even give more. It’s like they never heard of audits, waste and corruption. It says something that you have to go to a left wing site to get the history of conservatives and war.
While we focused on all this the government was captured. I guess you could call it the ‘Financial-Federal Complex’. The states are on their own. The players can go back and forth between public & private. Most people on this blog would admire a businessman who takes risk. If he wins he profits. If not he loses. How can you admire these TBTF entities? They do crazy bets and make billions if they win. If they lose the taxpayers subsidize it and they make billions. Banksters! As William Black says, “If you want to rob a bank – own it.”
I don’t know if there was a tipping point that can be pointed out. The cause of the fall of the Roman Empire is still being debated but probably when it went from a republic to an emperor was significant.
I think there could have been a turn around after WWII. Roosevelt wanted a war but wouldn’t have gotten it without the stupidity of the Japanese and Germans. (I am conflicted about this. Rarely are enemies so evil.) The country was essentially nationalized but when the men came home they just wanted to get it over. They even wanted to pay down the war debt. How many people really want to do that now? My Dad was a machine gunner for MacArthur. The day he came home was the last day he wore a uniform. It changed the soldiers. Many were sick of being pushed around. The Battle of Athens was just an extreme case. Truman started it all over again and it never stopped.
The current crisis might do something. There is real instability in the global economy and any sequence of events could blow it all up. Economy has proven that it is just a collection of theories. The more precise the more their models have to ignore reality. One thing that might tip things is what happens in massive downturns. The super rich have the money and they buy everything cheap. As the middle class realizes they are now poor we might pass that awkward stage. I’ve traveled in some 3rd world countries and it is ugly. Nothing but super rich and dirt poor. We’re moving there really fast.
I think we won’t be permitted to have a Republican candidate who will do any really change to this mess. I’ll still vote that way. At least it will be a pro gun tool so we’ll be armed if it the house of cards falls down.
Steve
Empire. Teddy Roosevelt and his Imperial Presidency and foreign conquests.
Of course, that is if one doesn’t consider the entire “Manifest Destiny” to have been an exercise in conquest from the very beginning.
I think the end game will occur when the general public realizes that not everyone is going to get their promised retirement/welfare/subsidy benefits. Currently, the voters basically agree and vote that nearly everyone should be paid as promised. Sooner or later they will recognize this can’t happen. I think at that point, each voter will conclude that he/she should be paid and not the other guy. I expect the old left/right alliances will then break down resulting in massive realignments and potentially a massive reorginization of society for good or ill. I think the trigger event is likely to be a State trying to declare bankruptcy.
You are right that 9/11 wasn’t the only catalyst for an endgame and that it’s an ongoing process, which is also suicidal. The psychological blow from 9/11 was in having to confront a real life and immediate example rather than the slow destruction of capitalism we are engaged in. It was like someone slapping us in the face and saying “this is where all your policies are leading.” To that it extent it was a watershed event. That we haven’t changed course in the last 10 years tells you all you need to know.