Think about how bad so many of us Americans have it, and then think about how we only have it as good as we do because we are massively exploiting labor across the globe, and you will have some idea of how messed up our system is. Once you realize we live as well as we do only because we are rapidly consuming our non-renewable resources, you will understand how unsustainable it all is. And just think that we’re living with whatever luxuries and even necessities we now have only because our nation has put it all on the credit card, to the tune of a $35 trillion debt. That we’ve let our public infrastructure slide, that we’ve failed to invest in educating our people as to what’s actually happening in the world. That we are only where we’re at on the global scene because of the reputation we once had but now have squandered, so that the world will never again look at us as it once did.
We’ve pushed our every advantage as far as it will go, let everything slide as far as we possibly could, lived off of our former reputation to the point where we have irreparably tarnished it. There are no good times that can be further extended, nor are there good old days to which we can return.
In 2022, President Biden dipped deeper into the U.S. petroleum reserves than anyone ever has, selling off 180 million barrels. Our current reserves of oil are good for about 17 days at 2019 consumption levels. We’ve blown up the Nord Stream pipeline that provided Europe with natural gas, meaning that we have to provide massive amounts of our gas to our principle allies. Russia still provides much of Europe’s fuel needs (through Ukraine pipelines, believe it or not), but they are under no obligation to do so forever. We’ve sanctioned the country with the largest oil reserves (Venezuela) so utterly that it would be incapable of providing for our oil needs should they desire to do so. Now we are providing everything Israel asks for so that they might contemplate attacking Iran’s oil fields. Iran is the world’s 7th largest oil producer, and the loss of their oil will create a significant strain on the world market. If this happens, Iran will surely shut down the Straits of Hormuz in response, blocking oil shipments from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and most of the world’s other major sources of oil. We will have 17 days to contemplate what to do after that happens before the whole system shuts down.
Russia and China have each other, so they should be more or less okay. Russia has resources and China has production capacity. They have been pushed into each other’s arms by a United States that thought it was its God-given right to subjugate each in its turn rather than finding some way to coexist with other nations. BRICS nations are looking to develop an alternative to the dollar standard that permits the U.S. to print money endlessly while placing sanctions on nearly a third of the people on the planet. Should the U.S. Dollar be dethroned as the de facto global currency, the dollar will not be worth the ink it is printed with. No one will need it, therefore no one will want it. As the dollar goes, so will go American influence.
None of this, none of this, is being discussed by either of our duopoly presidential candidates. You’re not going to vote your way out of this. Everything the mainstream media tells you to worry about doesn’t mean shit. They will never mention the fact that our system is not and has never been sustainable. Or just. Or sane. They’ve led us down a side street that has taken us to Looneyville, and we’ve been so conditioned by trips to Disneyworld that we don’t even recognize it for what it is. They parade Goofy and Cruela de Vil in front of us and we fight over which one is the serious presidential candidate. We argue over all the talking points the media gives us to prevent us from thinking about how the whole system is just an elaborate game of cards that was never going to last forever, which no one imagined would last as long as it has.
It’s no wonder we’re all playing along. We’re children who are ill-equipped for reality. We’re quite content to sit in front of the TV in our footie pajamas, letting the grownups deal with it all as we indulge in the fantasy worlds they’ve created for our amusement. Only there aren’t any grownups left. The one’s we’ve permitted to be in charge are the most deluded of us all. Take a good look at them sometime and see for yourself.
This is what happens when you relinquish your adult duties for too long. Things get worse. And they don’t get better until you reclaim your adult obligations, until you once again feel the power that grown, mature, human beings are capable of wielding. A child is incapable of imagining a way out of this. An adult rolls up their sleeves and gets to work changing things.
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