The End Anticipated...

It’s been fashionable of late—and certainly over the last three years—to denounce and denigrate the financial sector generally and bankers particularly. It’s a fair reaction in most respects, given the circumstances, but frequently I hear some of the same dire prophecies announced by the loudest and most persistent of these detractors, prophecies that seem to me to be so much frustration and resentment but not very heavy on honest circumspection and a broad appreciation of the real state of affairs.

I can give some easy examples of what I’m talking about. Washington’s Blog, for instance(http://washingtonsblog.com/), though very good at peeling away all of the awful layers of official and corporate greed and corruption, tends to end some his analysis with the familiar dire fate that awaits the “bankers” responsible for destroying the economy. It’s a reasonable accusation, but a poor conclusion. I am reminded of the many conspiracy theorists who conclude passages about specific, heroic figures who were mysteriously killed or disappeared just before they were about to blow it wide open! Of course! And the usual point about “if the American people knew what they were planning…” All very familiar, all very nice, neat , and tidy, all the ducks in a row from problem, injustice, culprit, and the path to justice clearly outlined.

Mind you, I am not calling into question at all the crimes of the accused, and for me the accused represents the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. And likewise I am not saying that these scoundrels don’t deserve their due—I am saying they will never get their due, is all. These ideas of the people rising up and taking down their oppressor are cute little tirades, sometimes polite and other times downright crude. Take a recent example I pulled from Naked Capitalism, but originally posted on Market Ticker:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/video-the-bankers-as-the-enemy-of-humanity.html

Why intelligent critics of the status quo think this mass uprising could occur, or that the “bankers” are going to somehow roll over and die, is beyond me. What is missing, and consistently missing in my opinion, is the facts as we surmise them;

• the largest financial institutions in this country donate generously to the campaigns of our elected representatives—they have done so for decades and they do so because it is simply good business(http://www.opencongress.org/)
• these representatives shape law and policy from all three branches of the United States Federal Government—the idea that they are so easily “duped”, “deceived”, or “corrupted” independent of their own free will is a juvenile fiction at best and a willfully blind ignorance at worst. Trust me, folks, they know exactly what they’re doing
• the government of the United States under the Constitution(whether actually in force, in whole or in part, or not) is defended by the most advanced and most powerful military machine the world has ever seen. It is highly trained in combat operations of every kind and has, of late, been training specifically to deal with “domestic disturbances”(http://the-classic-liberal.com/pentagon-war-gaming-large-scale-economic-breakdown/). Again, the notion that a rabble of concerned citizens will one day, under extreme duress, overthrow “the bankers” that have driven them to poverty, when these same “bankers” are basically helping to run the table, is a lucid fantasy.
• Nothing of this sort happened in 1929, 1933, or 1937, all times when the very fabric of the nation seemed to be getting torn to pieces from every side. During the Great Depression the “bankers” were making out about as well they are now—which would be very good. There was unrest, there were strikes, the Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists saw swelling ranks, but the mass of the populace just kept on keepin’ on…
• this pervasive matrix we are all in has nine lives, and as soon you expose one or two tentacles and cut them off, six or seven more—having been seething in the underbelly waiting for air—take their place. It is all smoke and mirrors, parlor tricks, and sleight of hand(http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed). They have the media, the bread, the circuses, the left, the right, the center, and all points in between. Everything happens for a reason, and generally the reason is bad for common folks. They know how to steer the herd, people, they’ve been doing it for quite some time!
• any actual attempt to physically oppose the policies of the institution will be met with savage violence, incarceration, and/or murder outright(http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/24/G20-protests-turn-violent-in-Pittsburgh/UPI-46751253805260/). Let’s not forget that this government knows how to deal with dissidents, no matter how large their number. People in the streets is exactly what they want to happen! This only serves to accelerate the process we are in right now, which is….
• the process of creating the new world, pruning the excess population, and using the depressed energies and angers of an entire generation for the mass production of war goods and the military takeover of vast patches of a recalcitrant Earth—this nation included(http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/08/military-keynesianism-gone-haywire-paul.html)! For there to be global parity, there must be sacrifice in the West. You want industry? Be a slave! You want jobs? Sell away your rights! You want to keep your children from starving? Sign right here to become wards of the state where you will be housed, fed, and protected(from whom? that rabble in the streets of course, who are threatening “democracy”)

There will be another crash. I don’t argue that. It is obvious that the situation in Europe is not only unsustainable, but irretrievable as well. The situation in the US is much worse, but we are not as pressured by outside influences—yet. Nonetheless, expect the market crash to occur some time in October of this year. This will complete the pillage of all the pensions, the health care benefits, the stock portfolios, the Medicare and Social Security funds, EVERYTHING!

Don’t get too upset, though, because you will be begging them to do it, just like you will be begging them to raise taxes, to curtail or eliminate so many clean air, clean water, and environmental regulations. When the majority of the population is starving and the government can do little or nothing to “save” them, drastic measures will be taken to save the economy, save the nation, and save the future---and the beauty of it all is that the bankers become the saviors, the politicians become the saints, and we all grovel at their feet begging for what little scraps we plead from them. Why? Because it will just be that bad.

Not the endgame you were expecting? Sorry. But if you think these clever folks haven’t worked this all out in their heads already, if you think the mass media is suddenly going to report Truth and demand Justice the way the guardians of liberty should, and if you think the largest corporations and special interest foundations that have manipulated laws and regulations for private profit for over one hundred years are simply going to pack up and go home, then you are sadly mistaken!

Ponder it.

Understand it.

Prepare for it.

Things don't always happen the way the experts expect them to, especially premature announcements about the demise of the status quo. The powers that be are way too clever for that!