Honest Question

submitted by smart_jackal from (self.technology)

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

If you are talking about the concept of a "grey champion"

I ain't got no idea what you're talking bout.

There isn't a lot of freedom for any leader to make the radical changes

That's because the leaders we've got have all been puppets of the bankers and billionaires — they have not the willpower to do what must be done.

there is nothing bright in the future either, not under large federal systems

That's why we need to reorganize into a confederation and return power to the states.

I know of no example where a civilization so advanced in it's decline has come back from the brink?

The American century is over. The Yankee Empire will fall, but I hope its destruction shall give rise to a new Republic.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

A Grey champion is a strong political figure who arises in a time of great need and brings order to a nation, he/she sees it through a great crisis. You have had a few in your history, Lincoln, FDR. It's a concept put forward by Strauss and Howe in their book generational turnings.

Howe sees a top-down, institutional solution to the problems we face, but was optimistic about the prospects for strong leadership in the U.S. With two 70-year olds contesting for the U.S. presidency, Howe said that Trump is not a fourth-turning leader. He is stuck in the third turning, unable to adapt the persona of the “grey champion” who galvanizes younger generations to act.

The alternative is “Sleepy Joe,” he said, who wants to “pretend that Trump never happened and go back to the Obama years. ”Democrats, he said, support Biden only because he is not Trump. “Very few are excited about him as a choice, including the millennial generation.”The interesting question, according to Howe, will be Biden’s vice presidential choice, considering his age and likelihood of running for a second term. To successfully emerge from the fourth turning, we need a leader who will galvanize across generations – young and old, Howe said.

neil-howe-the-pandemic-and-the-fourth-turning.pdf

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Grey champion is a strong political figure who arises in a time of great need and brings order to a nation

Oh. Never heard of it before.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

There might not be one this time. Strauss is dead and Howe is going off on all sorts of political tangents now. Their core work is sound, "Generational Theory" but there are cycles and super cycles in history and they never accounted for long ones in their theories because none occurred over the research time frame, basically the american era. Look at the interest rates now, the lowest in recorded history, a complete outlier. We are fast approaching the end of a debt supercycle many believe, one that will be like the tulip bubble fallout when it bursts. But maybe it wont burst? Maybe what they are doing now, allowing a managed collapse, will be the solution. To do this though you need to coordinate currencies and interest rates across the entire world, which is pretty much what has happened over the decades.

These things transcend presidents and even concepts like democracies. You have a democracy, had one perhaps, but that doesn't mean it can exist in the future or exists now. Does it exist now? Many say no because of what just happened. But again these things are small potatoes compared to running the world without oil, compared to feeding 8 billion people. One EMP event or a year without a summer event affecting grain production can turn the world upside down instantly.

You are quite right. The Yankee era is over, the 158 trillion in unfunded future liabilities for social security etc guarantee that. A chunk of that money was collected from taxes, and instantly spent, and now exists only as a bunch of US bonds held in a couple of filing cabinets at the treasury building. Same with all the private pensions, it's all invested in paper bonds and the stock market. The government will have to bail on SS one day and then what happens to the 100 million people for which it is their only source of income? That's a big question and no one has an answer. Biden wants to create 2 trillion dollars for a covid relief but a big chunk of that will go instantly towards making interest payments on the current 27 Trillion federal debt. 400 Billion in interest every year now. https://usdebtclock.org/

Your government is spending twice what it takes in from taxes. Twice! Madness.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

We need a balanced budget amendment like nearly every state has.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

True, but look at the states, many are in technical bankruptcy and cutting back on services left right and center. If it wasn't for the Federal SNAP program 50 million would be starving today and a balanced Federal budget would probably mean eradicating a lot of that and a lot of SS and a lot of the military. It's a dilemma, and dilemmas don't have solutions, only outcomes.

The outcome for the US will be the same as was for all past empires I assume, Loss of military power, in a BIG way, loss of lifestyle, loss of infrastructure, much of which is crumbling before your eyes now. Russia faced the same problem and they simply allowed an entire generation to starve when they cut all government services and went "capitalist" But they still have a good supply of conventional "cheap" oil and gas, which the US does not, and they sold it and funneled a lot of the money into their military.

Even Britain was able to pull itself out of the mire with it's north sea fields. Oil is the master resource, it's what made america great in the first place and is the reason you are so heavily involved in the middle east today of course. Once you cant project power abroad the game is over.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah, we still need social programs, but the military budget should be slashed in half. We can do better with less, so long as the swamp is drained and every dollar spent is accounted for. Most of the military budget is wasted on things we don't need — and a lot of it goes "missing."

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It could be done, but the system as a whole would have to be totally dismantled. Just look at all the billions wasted on marketing and advertising that simply adds to the cost of the end product, often a product not even worth buying? Then there is the medical system and the higher education system, corrupt to their cores now and the waste there is immense! I could write a list that would go off the page, the money shuffling bullshit on wall street, the millions of government workers who are useless as nipples on a frog for the most part. The money wasted on drugs!!! On overpriced sporting events and music and movies, just so a few 'stars' and all the parasites under them can become obscenely wealthy. It all needs to go if you want to have happy families making a living wage again. Like back in 1950 when there was basically none of that shit.