Papers Please!
By
Cognitive Dissonance
For those who may not know, Mrs. Cog and I live in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia, near the intersection of the three poorest counties in the Commonwealth. While that fact doesn’t directly affect us, either financially or physically, it does for many who live within our local community.
The area is basically poor farming country, with many locals still scratching out a living raising cows and calves on steep hilly terrain suitable mostly for livestock grazing and, occasionally, assorted cash crops such as cabbage, corn or even hay.
But for the most part, those who must pay the bills work for others outside the immediate area and for relatively low wages. Worse, they travel many miles to make their keep, often 30-50 miles one way on poorly maintained country back roads. This makes for very long days to match those rather short paychecks.
The point is, many who live here must travel long distances for meager wages. Take away their vehicle or impede their travel and many would quickly fall into abject poverty up here on the mountain. That said, it’s not much different from any other rural American community with an aging and declining population.
Last week the governor of Virginia escalated his two week earlier ‘stay-at-home’ declaration, moving it from voluntary to mandatory, with prejudice I might add. Meaning ‘official’ enforcement. As in at the point of a gun, if the ‘authority’ present at the scene of the infraction deems it necessary.
At the very least, there is the implied threat to use significant force if compliance is slow or missing entirely. That gun on his or her hip is not a non-functioning uniform decoration, but a lethal weapon wielded by the state to compel compliance and obedience.
In other words, if you are out and about doing whatever you feel the need to do, don’t be surprised if at some point you’re pulled over by local, state or federal ‘authorities’, or simply blocked from passing by a roadblock set up and garrisoned by these very same authorities. Of course, they will all be armed and intentionally dangerous. Only officially deemed ‘necessary’ travel is sanctioned as acceptable to the police state.
As you roll down your window and attempt to quell the growing fear and panic roiling your gut, expect to hear the following words.
(Travel) papers please!
Did you happen to notice the officer’s hand draped casually on his belt near his weapon? If you didn’t, you weren’t looking. Most people will avert their eyes and pretend not to see rather than confront the truth in all its obvious glory. Don’t look and I won’t rub your face in it, is the unspoken rule when applying barely subtle authoritarian force in America.
Of course, when viewed from the decidedly narrow perspective of a global ‘pandemic’ (there’s a reason they put blinders on a race horse) everything the authorities are doing now is perfectly justifiable if it will keep me and mine safe from the deadly virus boogieman.
After all, father knows best.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying COVID-19 is fake. Far from it, in fact. I think the corona-virus is very real, if for no other reason than we believe it to be real. Either we create our own reality or we live in someone else’s reality. Regardless if something is actually physically ‘real’ or not, our actions and reactions give whatever we believe is real quasi form and function. This quasi ‘reality’ exists for as long as we believe it is real.
Much of what we believe, essentially our worldview and belief system, is based upon unreal, but believed, ‘reality’. This concept, and the embodiment of this concept into reality, is so foreign to average Jane and Joe that it is immediately dismissed as nonsense, poppycock, or at best inconsequential.
This denial of the power of our minds to create ‘reality’ out of narrative is what actually fuels the creation of reality from a dominant narrative. A narrative, by the way, that is essentially created, promoted and validated by mainstream media who are essentially subservient to the corporate and political powers that be.
Anything we believe is real must be, for all intents and purposes, real. Therefore, anything not believed or ‘unbelievable’, is fake, regardless of how ‘real’ it might actually be. The mainstream media, in concert with ‘authorities’ (both of whom are self-declared official purveyors of truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, aka reality) is flogging this rented mule called COVID-19 for all it has.
Because we believe most of what we’re being told by authorities is factual, we act and react as if it is real, thereby making it real. This is not to say there are not dead bodies piling up in New York City’s morgues. But did this virus warrant the near total lock-down of an entire nation’s population and productive capacity, essentially propelling us into a deep recession and, more likely, a depression?
Here’s an alternative narrative. We were headed there anyway. And if the economy wasn’t guided down in a controlled demolition, it would have come crashing down willy-nilly and destabilized a frightened population into, at a minimum, demanding heads on pikes. And at worst, well, let your imagination be your guide. A nation of conditioned consumers denied consumption on demand makes for some pretty upset zombies.
Oh, and it would have also de-legitimized the ruling elite and made them significantly poorer to boot. That scenario was to be avoided at all cost by those with the power to do so.
So, knowing a devastating economic storm was just over the horizon and headed our way, what does one do to keep what one has (and possibly increase it if possible) even if it comes at the expense of everyone else?
That type of question, and all its ugly ramifications, is so completely foreign and repugnant to the vast majority of the population that it is dismissed outright as all but impossible.
After all, they would never do that…right?
But they would, they have and they will again and again for so long as we allow (evil) sociopaths to occupy positions of power and influence. Which is precisely what has occurred over the last two or three generations, and particularly the last 20 years.
In Washington DC, when it rains it pours. Presently it is money monsoon season the likes of which we’ve never seen before. And it couldn’t be happening at a more desperately opportune time for those who control and enjoy the wealth of the nation.
Monsoon season in Washington, DC. This is what 'real' money looks like today.
Any politician (aka ‘authority’) worth his or her lobbyist campaign donations is making crony hay while the fiat dollars rain down from above in essentially unlimited quantities.
You see, despite everyone being told again and again ad nauseam that our socioeconomic system is (was) doing fabulously well (this lie in the face of observable truth is called ‘gaslighting’; look it up) the dirty little secret is that financial collapse was just around the corner. The great financial crisis of 2008-09 was never fixed, just papered over with ten times the debt used to create it in the first place.
And the ugly truth is that while individually, many were doing quite well during this blow off financial top, the vast majority of us were slowly sinking into a lower socioeconomic class while simultaneously going ever deeper into debt.
I owe, I owe, so off to work I go. Only now they won’t even let us do that anymore. Work that is. But boy, do we still owe.
The social contract between the haves and have nots was irreparably broken more than a generation ago. And the elites, knowing all too well the end was nigh, were hell bent on bleeding every last drop of blood from the American (and global) turnip, then collapsing the hollowed-out edifice to cover their monumental crimes against humanity.
The only question in my mind was how they were going to do it. Now I know.
How does a tiny group of people compel the majority of the American population to accept wage and debt slavery, or at the very least a lifetime of indentured servitude? Well, I’ll tell you how. They create the conditions upon which we will beg ‘them’ to deliver our slavery to us and we will be grateful for them having done so.
Sound familiar?
Probably not yet, though history is littered with hundreds of examples of this life and death game played out to the bitter end. We are still too early in the game for us to see how all the chess pieces are positioned on the board. Actually, a critical part of the game is obscuring precisely that. And if you can’t see it, it’s not real…right?
Most believe we are living ‘real’ life right now, with all of us just unfortunate victims swept away by uncontrollable social and political riptides. Like, say, a pandemic. Assuming that’s the case, how long can you hold your financial breath while underwater? Because for the vast majority of us, the answer is not long enough.
Most people who made it thru grade school history class may remember the lesson about ancient Rome being sacked by the barbarians, marking its decline and fall from regional dominance. What wasn’t explained was that long before Rome fell to the barbarian hordes, it had been looted from within by its privileged and entrenched elite.
Anything that wasn’t nailed down, including gold faucets and gilded cages, was with guile, subterfuge or force, removed and spirited away by those best positioned to do so. What remained was nothing more than a ghost in the shell, a convoluted narrative of the terrible and unfortunate tragedy that had befallen the surviving plebs.
Nothing could be further from the truth. And the reason we aren’t taught true and factual history is because if we were, we might just recognize history repeating itself today. Or at least rhyming.
Those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it. Or more accurately, to be pummeled by it.
With a modern digital economy, a press of the button facilitates the movement of large sums of money, securities, titles and deeds. All one needs to loot and pillage are servile government apparatchiks and strategically placed political cronies to paper your way out the door with the loot in hand, then slam it shut behind you to prevent the riff raff from following.
No one from the lower decks will be allowed to exit the USA Titanic. Nearly all must remain on the bilge pumps and boilers, or just as expendable ballast, to enable the elite to flee to their own safe spaces.
It’s as easy as taking candy from a baby.
Sorry...first class only. You may swim if you wish.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned while casting a critical eye upon the world’s socioeconomic stage for more than 20 years, it is this. There are no coincidences, at least not when it comes to large financial events, ‘terrorist’ attacks, wars, politics or mainstream media.
It was not a coincidence the financial world was teetering at the precipice by September of 2019, and those who would be hurt the most or blamed for the fall were desperate for the next ‘fix’ to be ushered in. And it was not a coincidence US stock markets were shooting for the moon, bestowing a sense of normalcy or even exuberance, precisely when the underlying economic news was growing worse by the day and financial ‘authorities’ were panicking.
But wait, there’s more.
First the Federal Reserve steps in (again) and begins to pump mad money into the financial system while claiming all is well; it’s just a little tweak to quell a minor disturbance. Other global central banks quickly followed suit. Then the mysterious corona-virus appears on the scene just in the nick of time, requiring population lock-downs, massive and unprecedented (global) government stimulus and unlimited Federal Reserve and international central bank digital money creation.
Nearly all of this created-out-of-thin-air ‘money’ is then promptly distributed directly to the multinational banking and corporate masters, with a few stale crumbs scattered about the floor to sate the hungry plebs.
Make no mistake about it, this is a Wall Street bailout and to hell with main street. Take your $1,200 stimulus, beneficently bestowed by a corrupt Congress, and be grateful you received that much. How dare you ask for more porridge. We have hungry bankers, shareholders and corporate CEO’s to feed.
We are talking trillions and trillions of dollars, pounds, yen, yuan and euros here. The totals so far (with much more to follow) are truly staggering. Most cannot begin to grasp what a billion dollars is, let alone a thousand billion aka a trillion.
Those of us who have been watching this slow-motion train wreck develop over the last 20 years predicted there would come a time when the financial masters would begin to massively create ‘money’ in unimaginable quantities in a desperate attempt to paper over the last train wreck they created.
That time has arrived.
Each time ‘they’ have been ‘forced’ to kick the socioeconomic can down the road, the ‘fake fiat fix’ required to do so was usually ten times larger than the time before. We are already at ten times the 2008-09 financial crisis ‘fix’ and they’ve only just begun. I suspect this time it will require one hundred times the prior amount just to squeeze out a few more years to rape, loot and pillage.
If nothing else, the coming wave of inflation caused by this unprecedented money creation will ultimately kill far more than the coronavirus ever will. The only way to kick this unpayable debt can further down the road is to rapidly inflate away that debt, most of which has piled up over the last two decades. And by inflate away, I mean make this massive pile of debt less valuable, thus less dangerous to the Ponzi financial system.
Of course, what’s left unsaid is all that unpayable debt is being replaced with exponentially even greater debt. But that kicked can probably won’t haunt us until tomorrow. And as we should all know by now, America (and the rest of the westernized world) is all about today and never about tomorrow.
A consumer’s only purpose in life is to consume, a here and now obsessive preoccupation.
If our wages and income don’t keep up with this massive wave of inflation, meaning if we aren’t able to increase our income to match the rising prices caused by this rapid inflation, then “We the Plebs” are all in very big trouble.
And wages won’t keep up based upon a simple supply and demand calculation. With tens of millions of people out of work (and tens of millions more to follow) we peons have no labor market leverage. We’ll take what we can get for whatever wages are offered, then scurry home to self-medicate via the modern-day version of ancient Rome’s bread and circuses.
With tens of millions of jobs disappearing overnight, when our keepers finally let us out of our cages, there will be so many people competing for so few remaining jobs that average Jane and Joe will work for slave wages rather than be left with no income at all.
This is a sociopath’s wet dream and a wage slave’s nightmare.
Is it safe to come out yet? Daddy will let us know when it's OK.
Soon enough, calls for some type of universal basic income or additional stimulus payments will ring thru the halls of Congress and off the lips of social justice warriors. And how will all this be paid for? With more debt of course. But again, that’s tomorrow’s problem, not today’s.
I understand many who read this will find it nearly impossible to believe 1) the economy was about to collapse catastrophically before the corona-virus lock-down and 2) the corona-virus outbreak was anything more than a ‘natural’ event or, possibly, a horrible mistake caused by careless (but well meaning) workers at some bio-lab in China or elsewhere.
To seriously consider any cause other than a natural occurrence, human carelessness or even stupidity would require a radical reassessment of our worldview and belief system. For the vast majority of “We the People”, this is a step too far and we won’t even begin to consider the possibility.
Consumers are not emotionally courageous or intellectually curious. Only hungry for more empty calories and comforting narratives.
Sadly, people who cannot or will not adjust to a rapidly changing reality, deliberately fast-tracked by our keepers to keep us off balance and fearful, will be overwhelmed by the rapidly approaching disaster barreling down the economic tracks.
We are witnessing the final implementation of the American police state. Soon enough everyone will be conditioned to produce ID and travel documents when we are randomly accosted by authorities for any reason, or for no reason at all other than to harass and fear monger. Unconstitutional and invasive surveillance is now a forgone conclusion. Like a scene change in a play, the surveillance structures were pre-built and waiting in the wings for the cue to be rolled out.
And all in the name of keeping us safe and contained.
Thank God for the police state. I feel better already. A little hungry though, but that’s to be expected. I’m sure they’ll get everything back on track momentarily. Just need to wait out this nasty pandemic.
The world as we knew it has already changed beyond most people’s comprehension. Because we are confined, alone and isolated, we view these changes solely thru our precious glowing screens. This is deliberate, for under these conditions the only things we can possibly ‘know’ are the carefully constructed and coordinated narratives produced and promoted by the mainstream media. Therefore, the full scope of the socioeconomic earthquake has not yet been fully realized or revealed.
Once we begin to fully grasp how our Brave New World directly affects us, great unrest will eventually follow. Hungry bellies and empty wallets create their own sense of compelling urgency. The powers that be fear us far more than they fear anything else. This explains why the police state was implemented years ago and now stands ready to compel compliance and obedience.
‘Papers please’ is the spoken demand signaling the loss of the last of our precious freedoms. The vast majority of the American population will applaud the loss, content to surrender any remaining freedom for the emotionally comforting illusion of safety enforced by government edict backed by police state force.
Pretty soon they won’t even say please or thank you when demanding our papers. Hopefully yours are in order.
Cognitive Dissonance
04-12-2020
