Then there is Biden's State of the Union address that lays out in minute detail how the social progressive Administrative State can suck the last bit of power out of the American society. Evil incarnate....
As Albert Jay Nock (whom you recommended) wrote, 'Just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus what it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power; there is never, nor can be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power.' From The State of the Union: Essays on Social Criticism, Liberty Press, 1991.
Such is the unpredictability of human affairs, subject to the whims of currents inundating or nourishing them. The caption now shows the title 'On the Rocks'. The print is at https://kamprint.com/onrocks.html .
I don't think our ruling oligarchs are stupid--they are clearly destroying the USA on purpose, perhaps on behalf of others who want to displace America as a superpower, such as the Chinese. It's happened before--for example, Lenin in Russia--sponsored by Germany. As you point out, there were severe consequences for Germany. Same with Great Powers breaking up the Ottoman Empire after WWI--they lost their empires not too long afterwards.
Yes, nations and empires do engage in spasms of self-destruction, and this may be one of those times. For the ruling oligarchs, perhaps the USA has served their purposes and can be destroyed without harm to themselves. It's hard to believe, though, that they will get a better deal with China. Maybe they think so, but that wish is not informed by any knowledge of history.
This was simply insane. How could they think that would end well?
"2. Mr Biden then put his own signature grandiloquent stamp on the unilateral U.S. sanctions regime by stealing $300 billion of Russian assets and expelling Russia from the SWIFT international trading system, contrary to Federal Reserve advice. The Fed had good reason to be concerned about the effects on both the international trading system and the continued use of the Dollar as the world's de facto currency. Fed and Treasury officials are well aware that the U.S. currency's monopoly of international trade settlement is essential to U.S. economic welfare. Mr Biden's extraordinary acts of economic warfare led within months to Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia trading oil without benefit of Dollars; to the first serious efforts by BRICS countries to establish a non-Dollar medium of exchange; to massive gold purchases by China to guarantee its currency; to devaluation of the Dollar in terms of metals, oil, grains, and other commodities; and to Russia's establishment of an independent trading system with India, Iran, and other countries."
Then there is Biden's State of the Union address that lays out in minute detail how the social progressive Administrative State can suck the last bit of power out of the American society. Evil incarnate....
As Albert Jay Nock (whom you recommended) wrote, 'Just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus what it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power; there is never, nor can be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power.' From The State of the Union: Essays on Social Criticism, Liberty Press, 1991.
Too bad it’s not a gin and tonic...
Somehow I did not get the reference right away. I was thinking of shipwreck. Chacun à son gout.
PS What's the title of the illustration? It makes me think of Brutus' speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:
BRUTUS:
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
(JULIUS CAESAR ACT 4, SCENE 3, 218–224)
Such is the unpredictability of human affairs, subject to the whims of currents inundating or nourishing them. The caption now shows the title 'On the Rocks'. The print is at https://kamprint.com/onrocks.html .
I don't think our ruling oligarchs are stupid--they are clearly destroying the USA on purpose, perhaps on behalf of others who want to displace America as a superpower, such as the Chinese. It's happened before--for example, Lenin in Russia--sponsored by Germany. As you point out, there were severe consequences for Germany. Same with Great Powers breaking up the Ottoman Empire after WWI--they lost their empires not too long afterwards.
Yes, nations and empires do engage in spasms of self-destruction, and this may be one of those times. For the ruling oligarchs, perhaps the USA has served their purposes and can be destroyed without harm to themselves. It's hard to believe, though, that they will get a better deal with China. Maybe they think so, but that wish is not informed by any knowledge of history.
This was simply insane. How could they think that would end well?
"2. Mr Biden then put his own signature grandiloquent stamp on the unilateral U.S. sanctions regime by stealing $300 billion of Russian assets and expelling Russia from the SWIFT international trading system, contrary to Federal Reserve advice. The Fed had good reason to be concerned about the effects on both the international trading system and the continued use of the Dollar as the world's de facto currency. Fed and Treasury officials are well aware that the U.S. currency's monopoly of international trade settlement is essential to U.S. economic welfare. Mr Biden's extraordinary acts of economic warfare led within months to Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia trading oil without benefit of Dollars; to the first serious efforts by BRICS countries to establish a non-Dollar medium of exchange; to massive gold purchases by China to guarantee its currency; to devaluation of the Dollar in terms of metals, oil, grains, and other commodities; and to Russia's establishment of an independent trading system with India, Iran, and other countries."