The Invisible Hand

Just in case you question the fact that Texans are probably some of the smartest folks around, here's proof.  The University of Texas Investment Fund is taking physical delivery of its gold holdings.  As for proof that Americans are all THAT dumb, Jerome Corsi's book supposedly proving that Obama ain't a legal president (as if you needed proof) has spun up to #2 on Amazon's best-seller list in one day -- pre-release.

There is hope, if not change.

Of course, Obama did keep his promise about "change," since that's about all folks have left in their pockets right now.  And there's plenty of 'hope' that they can find some more 'change' in the sofa cushions.

Back 13 years ago, or so, I started telling friends and family to watch out...the End of the World was coming.  At the time, the dollar index was around 111, gold was $280, silver was $5, gasoline was $1.50, the Dow was 14,000, and I was telling people to beware of Bush and Obama.  They said I was the craziest damn sunnuvabitch that ever came down the pike.

Now, the dollar index is 74, gold is $1,500, silver is $45, gasoline is $5, the Dow is below 13,000 (nominally) and not many people would disagree about Bush and Obama.  And I'm still the craziest damn sunnuvabitch because I moved to the opposite side of the world to watch the fun.

A few people are starting to ask me to help them get out, though.  Guess I'm just ahead of my time, is all.  It really does pay to read a little history once in a while.  You can learn a lot from seeing how all the previous bone-headed social experiments turned out.

Meantime, the world is going completely bonkers.  There's so much stuff happening at the micro-level that it's hard to keep up with it all.  Better to stay up at the meta-level where one can perceive trends in the Big Picture.

Trends are things like the news of Stuxnet breaking late last year, targeting Iran's nuke plants, and all the problems occurring with nuke plants worldwide right now, not just in Japan, but in Germany, the US, the EU, and Russia.  They didn't all get hit by earthquakes and tsunamis.  You think there's a connection?  Maybe Stuxnet got out of control?  LIHOP/MIHOP kind of questions.

Trends like mass die-offs occurring all over the place, that all began with the BP fiasco and GoM murder.  Now BP has revealed that it used artificial microbes on the spill.  Now, one year later, critters are dropping out of the skies and washing up on beaches, in or around coastal areas.  And do you think there's a connection between bird, bee, fish, and animal die-offs, and things like genetically-modified plants, magnetic anomalies and increased Earth rumblings?

I keep going back to pointillist painters like Georges Surat.  When you are up close to the paintings, they are just little blobs of color, but when you step back far enough, they create rich images.  Everything in life is a matter of perspective.  If you stand back far enough from history, you can perceive long-term trends and conditions.  You can also perceive the Invisible Hand that has guided events to this particular intersection.

There's no magic to seeing the future.  Once one understands how things work, and can see the omens and portends, it becomes rather easy.  On the micro-level, you can't always foresee discrete events, but on the macro-level, you can definitely follow the stream of events.  But, there is one curious part to current events.

It seems that the Invisible Hand is losing its grip.  Yes, this Hand definitely benefits from increasing chaos and entropy, but only when it contrives and controls them.  What the Hand seems to have missed is that no matter how big your perspective is, there is always a larger one.  You can stand back quite a ways, but someone else can stand back quite a ways further.

An excellent parable for times like these is "Jurassic Park," the book not the movie.  In the book, the megalomaniacal owner of the island thinks he can control and manipulate Life.  Because he has the power to bring ancient life-forms back from the grave, and even customize the genome to suit his needs, he thinks that he is, in effect, God.  What he discovers is that there is always a bigger perspective.

I get the distinct impression that Life is spiraling out of the grip of the Invisible Hand.  In its hubris and megalomania, it has forgotten that in the hierarchy of the Universe, there is always someone higher up the shit pile from you.

If anything, that is what science should have taught us.  We invent bigger telescopes and discover that what we thought was the end of the Universe was really just the beginning.  Then we invent bigger microscopes and discover that what we thought was the smallest possible thing was really made of smaller things.  Over and over, we see this progression, and over and over we see scientists pontificating as if they now know and understand everything.

Those who forget their past are doomed to repeat it.  Another way to look at it, is if you don't mark your trail, you will end up walking in circles.

It would seem that the Invisible Hand has met the Unintended Consequence.  It is discovering that all the machinations and contingencies don't conceive of every possible outcome.  No one and nothing can do that.  Thus, the Powers That Be are becoming the Powers That Were.  In the process, Mankind must suffer, because we have never been down the alternative roads.  At least not as a species, though there are some notable experiments in alternatives.

Throughout our history, there have always been kings, whether overt or covert.  The time has come to try something new.  Humans have tried every conceivable variation on the theme, and it always ends the same: Disaster.  Will we ever achieve Utopia?  Possibly, if we survive the experiments.  One thing is sure, though, we will not survive the current paradigm much longer, at the rate we are going.  We have overrun the Petri dish.

The problem has always been that when the zoo-keeper dies, so do most of the zoo's inhabitants.  But a few survive and revert to their natural state.  They adjust and adapt until they are comfortable in the new state of things.  Then they become confident and begin manipulating the new state until they grow in power and pride. Ultimately, that new paradigm dies, as well.

It is the nature of Nature.  There is no escaping All That Is.

In the meantime, it is interesting to watch, from a distance.  It is a challenge to maintain perspective when events almost demand that we drop down to the minute level to survive.  It is great theater from a dispassionate point of view.  I am gripping the arms of the chair as I wait for the next scene.  The Director is a genius!  He has telegraphed just enough that we can anticipate the plot, but not the action.  Just like Spielberg's 'mine-car scene' in the Indiana Jones series.  He found that the scene was much scarier when the camera turned and let us foresee what was coming, because it was the anticipation, not the actual events, that got our hearts racing.

And so we grab our popcorn and peanuts and a Big Gulp of sugar-water, and sit back for the ride.  Where this train is going, no one knows at this point.  But, the camera keeps panning around to let us foresee just enough that the hairs on our necks stand up.

One thing we know for certain.  At the closing credits, all the main characters will be gone.  Should be interesting to see how we get there.