Saturday was the return half of the Not So Great Canadian Adventure (see (N)O Canada! for the first half). I was a little worried about it being the Independence Day weekend and traffic being nuts but quite the contrary, it was virtually non-existent. I hit the road around 7 AM and buzzed right along for three hours to Port Huron, Michigan to meet my Amish friends who were shuttled to the American side by a different driver who has Canadian citizenship. Turned around and put the hammer down on the way back. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
On the way up I listed to a recent podcast by the Zman and as a bonus it was a doubly long two hour episode that covered a wide range of ideas….
The episode deals with the areas where The Zman believes we need real reforms, from libel reform to contracts to household voting. It was all interesting stuff if you are into that and I am but it might not be everyone’s cup o’ tea.
While the discussion was very interesting and touched on some areas I hadn’t thought much about it, it also reminded me that true reforms are impossible now and have been for most of my lifetime. Neither Trump nor Reagan were especially radical and neither accomplished much of significance other than slightly slowing down the pace of the destruction. Both of the Bush administrations were as bad as Obama and Clinton, and in the case of W did more to set the table toward wrecking the last vestiges of our civil liberties than anyone since LBJ.
Looking to the 2022 midterms, even if the Republicans achieve the big “red wave” we are assured is coming, what will they do? Maybe hold some hearings about Hunter Biden, maybe symbolically impeach Sniffy Joe, certainly pass some toothless legislation that Biden will veto by signing his name with pudding or perhaps his own feces. They won’t do anything to stem the tide because most of them support what is happening, they just find it expedient to pretend they don’t because of where they run for office.
There won’t be any reform of the system, not without burning the current system to the ground, but the blackest of black pills when it comes to reform is that the main reason it is impossible….almost everyone in this country who can vote is really not someone who can or should be trusted with the franchise.
Despite the disaster we see unfolding all around us, most people are stubbornly, desperately trying to pretend it can be fixed. They grumble and the whine but they still Trust The System. We can get caught up in our own echo chamber and think that more people Get It than really do. They don’t get it and they won’t get it, not without so much more pain and suffering that it tips the whole thing over.
Most of our fellow White Americans are still sort of doing OK. There is food on the table, although it is much more expensive. The lights come on when you flip the switch. You can get gas, even though it too is far more expensive. Jobs are plentiful right now.
The truth is, almost all of them just want to be told what to do. They want a strongman of some sort, whether a literally strongman or a Federal government Uncle Sam strongman. Sure they make noises about their rights and individuality but all they really need is the illusion of self-determination. In practical terms they are fine with being told what to do. It often seems that having too much control of their lives kinda scares them.
This actually gives me some hope. While the real number is likely higher than the oft-quoted 3%, it is without question that in the American Revolutionary War most of the less than 3 million people living in the colonies were on the sidelines. The active Colonial armies were at any given time maybe 40-50 thousand men, although that doesn’t count the various ways people aided them in non-combatant support roles.
Reform now will come like reform then: at the end of a gun. We will not see a mass political movement of any sort. Most people will sit on the sidelines and wait to see what happens, welcoming their new overlords whichever way it blows. We can have these discussions about reforming the system now and they are interesting but ultimately reform is going to follow blood and fire.
Well said and accurate. But you will get plenty of "It's time to take our country back" or "This old vet is read to do 'x'" comments insisting that this or that law or course of action will right all the wrong turns of the past 150 years. Endlessly rearranging the deck chairs. It's why I constantly hark back to the basics. If you truly believe in any sort of human equality – racial, religious, group, or individual – you are dead wrong and nothing you propose will work. Start with a false assumption unsupported by reality, and end up back where you started. And most people are idiots, and they all know a good one. And the magic melting pot used to work! But hey, I'm just an evil nihilist rayciss.
The BIG difference between 1776 and today is the people here in north America all had trades or farmed and were basically self sustaining. This time when the big ball goes up the elites will flee with their pilfered wealth leaving behind 100-200 million useless eaters that have no idea or intent to work or provide for themselves. There will be very limited ways in which to deal with them. The worst of them will become warlords. We would be better off if an adversary opened many kilo tons of sunshine on our major cities to cull the herds.
Either there is economic collapse of some kind, or there is not.
If there is not, then we will continue to "reform" into a 21st century police state, with enough comfort and illusions of freedom to keep the masses in line. We are already there, but we will go more there. There will not be a widespread or meaningful armed revolt against the government. That is a fantasy. On the bright side we may see a continued assertion of states' rights. These things, the police state with the illusion of freedom, and the assertion of states' rights, are already happening.
But if there is a true economic collapse, one that deprives the regime of its finances, then all bets are off. As long as the regime can afford to buy power, it will. Successfully. Since money is what this society worships above all. When the regime no longer has the money to buy the power it wields, then you'll see real change. But not before.
The good news is that globohomo, for the first time since 2014 as far as I can tell, has taken a de-escalation step in their campaign against Russia. So the chances of things being decided by WW3 in the near term just diminished.
The other side of this is that Biden is doing his best to redpill the normies. I put together the "Biden Misery Index" and it's telling. He has ruined the economy.
Very good post!
And by what avenues did "The Z Man" propose we obtain these reforms? I'm not going to listen to the podcast because, as you say, true reform is impossible and has been for a very, very long time.
Systemic disfunction is extremely easy to identify these days but the remedies are either naive or patently unobtainable – especially in a country inhabited by so many cowards and deadheads.
The only big red wave capable of precipitating any change is the blood that will flow when the bread and circuses come to an abrupt (and much needed) halt.