Luxury Beliefs Are a Signal of the Peak
It’s hard for me to see otherwise smart but naive people follow stupid ideas. DEI, Wokeism, socialism and insane environmental/ ESG ideas and also try to inflict them in the world and others with zeal.
Examples of stupidity abound. The idiot environmentalists stopping traffic or vandalizing famous museum artworks. The protests for the “oppressed people” of the week. Defund the police or most insidious spread of pro-socialist/ almost communist views when there have been so many examples that this is just the road to societal hell as we have seen in the Soviet Union, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Argentina multiple times and most recently Venezuela.
Pacifism is another example of a luxury belief. In the bad old days like hundreds if not thousands of years ago, we had to do what we had to do to survive. Life was widely dangerous and unstable. If you did not fight or kill you would die and your genes would not get passed on.
How fortunate are we that this is not the case anymore and that there is some level of prosperity and stability in our world that we can afford more diversity of thought and ideas. That we have plenty for now that we can afford to help others.
There are studies that show that when people or organisms grow in an area of scarcity, these individuals just become tougher. When resources & stuff is scarce it literally is “I win, you lose and starve”. It requires ruthlessness and drive to survive in these environments.
If you grow in an area of plenty, you tend not to be as sharp. Access to plenty eventually leads to softness, ease and lethargy. Our modern world of abundance and comfort has wrecked humans. We are maladapted. Look at the high level of obesity and mental illness in our societies today. All signs of unfitness and brokenness.
This reminds me of when well intentioned & pampered Western kids join NGOs and go to third world hell holes. They quickly find their comfortable views upended by the harsh realities on the ground. They are usually disabused of their ideals very quickly. Sometimes violently.
Sadly this is where the Western world is going. People who have been hidden from the reality and harshness of the world now face this new world disorder for the first time. A unipolar world to a multipolar world. This was inevitable but has been sped up due to complacency and weakness of the West in mind, body and spirit.
Radigan Carter writes on this:
“Most in the west don’t understand fanaticism because their entire life is devoted to avoiding pain. From Fed preventing losses in their investments, to wanting a pill to solve an illness instead of enduring the discipline at exercising, to not missing a meal, to being able to go without air conditioning or hot water.
People who spend their entire life avoiding normal everyday volatility will never understand the expense and dedication required to win against those who live long volatility as a lifestyle. And that is what fanaticism is at its heart, it is taking upfront pain for a potential reward in the future. It is the very definition of long vol.
Which is why most in the modern west don’t understand it. They can’t even stand a 20% drop in their vanguard account.
So since we aren’t really going to commit to the level required to win, no point in doing it at all I think. But I may as well be speaking a foreign language talking about this to some. They want to watch military montages to AC/DC and feel good while not taking any personal pain, so ok.”
Within our societies, things are only going to become more competitive, rougher and tougher.
This is going to be a shocking wake up call for many people. It will be a Darwinian test of survival for many people and countries over the next decade. Similar to what happened to the Roman Republic with luxury and comfort leading to incredible rot and weakness as well as viciousness. So better be prepared for this now.