I have no idea what is going on

But there are a few clues.

You are perhaps familiar with the Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times.

We seem to be in the thick of very interesting times. Nothing makes sense. I’ve felt this way for years. Most of us have.

Covid originally brought me here to Substack. It woke me up. During those particular interesting times I looked everywhere for useful information to try to understand events as they unfolded.

It made me focus on aspects of the world I had not considered before since it seemed so extreme.

The Covid response was a mass hysteria event, although none of it affected me. I seemed immune to the narrative for some reason.

Watching as the world collapsed and took leave of its senses was something I couldn’t ignore.

This Substack was the result. I am now exploring these things by writing about them.

What is going on?

The world does not work as I imagined.

I believe most of what we see, and almost everything produced by traditional media, is to maintain narratives used to shape public opinion. This is true in all Western democracies.

Propaganda encourages the masses to vote the right way so powerful groups can adapt society to their own needs.

In extreme cases events can be manufactured, including emergencies, to corral public opinion towards policies favoured by the powerful.

Some say the instability we can expect from rapid mass immigration will be exploited to usher in government-created digital currency and digital IDs, each to ostensibly track illegal immigrants while tightening the noose around our necks. Similar claims are made about climate goals, with carbon monitoring just one of many schemes designed to control us under the cover of environmentalism.

Even with natural events the media is selective in the areas it covers. This alone helps shape perception of how the world works. We see extensive coverage of conflicts in Gaza or the Ukraine, but no mention of unrest in South Africa or Ireland.

These are the techniques power is said to use in the West to avoid open confrontation. They prefer to maintain the illusion of democracy and the separation of powers with checks and balances. All the while they blast out their propaganda to shape how we think.

Control is difficult

It can be difficult to feel anything but dismay at the thought we are ruled by the powerful and have little real control. But all is not rosy in eliteland.

Possessing billions and knowing all the right people certainly helps you get your way. But what typically drives elite groups is a lust for power. They want to control the world. They have a need to shape how it works.

To accomplish this they must work through others, often complex layers of society they have minimal control over.

Their ideas are difficult to administer. Plans are misunderstood. The wrong people are in place. Things go wrong. In any extended network Chinese whispers play a part in creating confusion too as strategies become distorted.

So how can the ruling class control so much?

Elites have one great advantage. Small groups can more easily organize than large groups.

A modest group of determined billionaires may have little in common, but enough shared interests to put their differences aside to pursue some mutually advantageous policy such as importing cheap labour from overseas or promoting climate initiatives to extend control over a population.

Even if many people oppose these policies it is not easy to organize to put a stop to them.

Occasional moments of solidarity do happen. Brexit was an official referendum in Britain and Trump’s first win was a presidential election. These exploited preexisting mechanisms in the form of voting, enabling a brief flourishing of popular causes which appeared to be genuine. Both were vigorously opposed by the establishment and caused meltdowns in the chattering classes.

But outside of such mechanisms it is very difficult for people to organize against a small group if they are determined and wealthy.

The myth of populism

Populism, therefore, is largely a myth. Our world is controlled by elites, and their views ultimately predominate no matter who is voted in.

Brief moments of genuine populism such as Trump or Brexit are crushed by the powerful and the structures they control. Sometimes they are neutered by inaction despite initial success and momentum.

Most of what we see, including apparent populism, is theatre. Decisions are typically made by elites. The rest is scenery and furniture to maintain the illusion of democratic controls.

When we think of elites we imagine wealthy powerful people, an aristocracy who constitute a ruling class. But the reality is more diffuse, with layers of people exerting control representing something closer to an elite hierarchy.

We seem to have globalist elites, those who operate above the level of nation-states, and national elites who operate largely within a country. Confusingly, both groups today tend to be globalists, and this is the origin of many of our woes as they view the nation-state with its heritage and shared bonds among the populace as an impediment to their plans.

Many other groups operate, and all have some power and control. They even compete, further confusing the picture. And yet we do sense power is wielded even if its origins are opaque.

A better concept may be the more obscure term “the establishment,” a loose interconnected group or groups who work to maintain today’s power structures. The establishment would include the ruling class at the top, those with the most clout, as well as a nation’s most influential groups, but also mundane bureaucratic elements.

The establishment contains all those who in one way or another make the serious decisions that affect us. Academia, the media, politics, corporations, the civil service and local authorities. A lot of people, although relatively few compared to the whole population.

This includes normal people in positions of authority. They are not necessarily in a cabal or secret society. They are simply aligned with elite interests either through temperament or indoctrination or even just paid employment.

The senior people in your local council may be fully onboard with open borders and Net Zero, for example, helping further policies that are not in our best interest. They may sincerely believe the propaganda and think they are helping humanity.

It is not all malevolent actors plotting our downfall. There is a great deal of gullibility in a nation, and the determined can exploit this.

Slave thinking

Lack of organization is a serious impediment to lasting change. But a greater hurdle is indifference to liberty.

Much of humanity is comfortable being slaves to elites; they do not yearn for freedom. In the Anglosphere we seem to have a higher proportion who do wish for liberty, about 20-30 percent by some reckonings.

The rest want safety, comfort and reassurance. They will reward anyone that promises these illusions.

To make matters worse, we are importing people from parts of the world that have never longed to be free. Many come from cultures where strong men are valued and tribalism is the ruling creed. None of them would die to uphold a Bill of Rights. They have no Magna Carta or Habeas Corpus Act echoing through their history.

This has always been the case. Liberty seekers are a historical anomaly and spread unevenly throughout the world today.

This makes change all the more challenging given it is already difficult for large groups to organize against small, determined factions. But when many don’t really care so long as their cage is comfortable then our options seem bleak.

Controlling the world is not easy

Despite all their advantages, the world of the powerful is failing. Reality keeps intruding to ruin their grand plans to control everything.

Covid made people pay attention to societal structures that should have remained overlooked, and it burned through a great deal of social capital. It represented almost catastrophic institutional overreach, even if not directed by elites and to some extent working against their interests.

In addition, the multitude of disruptive causes created with elite funding have alienated normal people. These political weapons are more difficult to control than they seem. It is dangerous to encourage belief in known falsehoods as the credentialed drones produced by the universities often seek out crusades and take them seriously ensuring their originators quickly lose control as zealots take over.

This can backfire in unexpected ways, like the academics encouraged to denigrate white European culture as oppressive recently turning on Jews and Israel which made some elite groups angry. It was clearly unexpected too.

When this happens these offshoots act as rival nodes of power which cannot be tolerated. They are meant to be tools of the powerful only not legitimate causes with which to energize the plebs.

The artificiality of the world being created is its real weakness. Many of the narratives have had to adapt to the destruction they are causing and are becoming ridiculous as a result. This makes them easier to spot as manipulations even to those not paying attention.

Foreigners pouring in too fast to assimilate, so we talk instead of diversity as a positive and not the incubator of dysfunction it was previously understood to be.

Women’s happiness is in steep decline as radical feminism conquers all before it, spreading dismay wherever it goes. So the narratives shift attention away from failure to ever more extreme ideas like tackling toxic masculinity or misogynistic thinking in young boys.

Energy policies are pursued that may kill entire nations so we must be constantly reminded the Earth is dying despite evidence to the contrary.

These are not outcomes that encourage stability. They are unforeseen consequences of bad ideas forced onto Western nations.

Some are distortions of elite ideas, losing coherence as they cascade down a hierarchy they do not fully control, like the anti-white/oppressor trope unexpectedly applied to Jews.

Others were more predictable and may suggest genuine delusion among the powerful such as panics about dwindling resources or observably wrong predictions like pending population explosions.

None of them can be easily hidden because reality is visible.

All this from people determined to stay in the shadows. Indeed, afraid of exposure, an exploitable weakness.

Making sense of interesting times

I am not really sure what is going on or who is doing what. I don’t think anybody is.

Some of it may be directed action, some is the consequence of broken people in positions of authority, and some is just outright stupidity.

More broadly, things happen. Life unfolds regardless. Man plans while God laughs.

Lots of ideas, conspiracies and theoretical models try to explain the craziness of our world so it can be difficult to know what to think.

That is why I write on here. To explore these things, to try to make sense of what I can see and then to adjust as I learn more.

And what I can see is most of us are buffeted by events. We certainly have no control over them.

But a little knowledge goes a long way even if you must flail around to get it like I do.

This is more dangerous nowadays. My own country is becoming tyrannical. Jailing people for posting memes or material that questions the official narrative. 12,000 convictions for hate crimes and counting. A sign of desperation among those who wish to control the narrative.

But what can you do? I don’t write anything hateful and nor am I any kind of hater either. But there are plenty who would hate me and anyone who reads these explorations of events because we try to shine a light on what is happening.

We cannot become cowed into submission or we may as well not exist. That is not the Anglo-Saxon way.

I will continue to explore the world we live in and share it so others can at least get some perspective they may not get elsewhere.

I hope you will stay with me and we can navigate these interesting times together.

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