Lioness: The Thin Line Between Chaos & Order
Taylor Sheridan is the hardest working man in television. A man responsible for showing all of us how the world truly works through his shows: Yellowstone, 1923, 1883, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, and Landman. I especially enjoy Special Ops: Lioness, a show about a secret group of CIA agents, quietly and not so quietly, protecting us from the bad guys out there.
In season 2, there was an incredible comment that one of the veteran agents said to a newbie.
“You see some of the things I’ve seen, do some of the things I’ve done, in order to learn that the world is this close (showing a half inch with her fingers) to chaos at all times. 5% of people are saints, 5% are evil, in their soul, stone evil. The other 90, they’re just sheep. They will follow whoever has the upper hand.
That is what we fight for. There is no winning, there is just the upper hand.”
Damn. This was the world we have always been in. But especially in this new emerging multipolar world, this is becoming more obvious and clear. We are up against near peer challengers. It’s a literal arms race, where there is no moat, and your edge does not last for long. It’s going to be an endless competition.
This is going to be life at the individual level, company/organizational level, country level and even between economic/military blocs. Buckle up everyone, it’s going to be a wild ride for the rest of the roaring 2020s.
Josh Clemens writes in his excellent article: “Rise of the Dutch Republics”:
“When hegemony is broken, conflict returns. At worst, the strong take what they can and the weak suffer what they must. At best, innovation returns. When there is no dominant power to ensure peace, there is also no bureaucracy to ensure stagnation. No global hall monitor. The same environment that produced Sparta and Athens––one of iteration and competition––is allowed to flourish.
Hegemony brings peace, competition brings innovation.
If America slips from total hegemon to standard first power, we’ll see a much more dynamic global environment. Ideally, the US will rise to the challenge and become more competitive as well. Decentralized currency means small network states can operate with a globally valid currency––no confederate dollars. Startup founders are now using LLMs to run companies with 2 people instead of 20. The same may be true of countries.
Athens held total hegemony for 67 years. The United States has enjoyed the same for 79 years. Now a challenge to American hegemony paired with advances in tech set the stage for the rise of smaller, agile nation states and organizations to compete.” (Source: https://americanreformer.org/2024/06/rise-of-the-dutch-republics/)
I expect there will be more change on the economic, military, technological and geopolitical aspects of the world. That means for anyone looking for stability, you are probably going to be VERY disappointed. For a Taurus and fixed sign individual, I am a planner and hate change and unpredictability.
So to properly manage myself, I have to over-prepare to deal with the volatility. I try to manage my cost structure carefully and keep as much cash & liquidity as reasonable. This allows me to breathe and think clearly.
I also aim to keep my calendar as light as possible, so I have time to think and can adjust schedules for the inevitable emergencies in life. An overbooked schedule leads to undue stress. Remember real work does not always look like work. The best ideas and insights come at the most unexpected times, free time.
Struggle and stress build men as I’ve learned from all the greats. That is also why my focus on mental resilience and physical fitness (personal trainer and fight training) will reap major rewards. This is the only way to stay in the game to take on all the inevitable opportunities that will appear in all this change. “Chaos is a ladder” as was famously said in Game of Thrones.