Hi Everyone,
I believe we are at or very nearly reaching a critical point in our history. Over the past couple of years, the world has arguably grown more chaotic and divisive. Issues such as Brexit, climate change, Trumpism, racism, abortion, Covid-19, genderism, foreign policy, and freedom-of-speech are being used to fuel tensions. Protests and civil unrest has been increasing in many countries in the world. Figures 1 shows the trend for mass protests across the world over the 10 years between 2009 and 2019. Figure 2 shows the continued increase in the number of large protests from 2019 to 2020.
Figure 1: Civilian Anti-government Protests by Region
Source: Economist
Figure 2: Significant New Anti-government Protests (2019 and 2020)
Source: Carnegie Endowment
There is also a surge in the extent of civil unrest across the world. Figure 3 shows the increases in civil unrest over the course of 2019.
Figure 3: Increases in risk in Civil unrest in 2019 (Civil Unrest Index)
Source: Verisk Maplecroft
Covid-19 has been a significant cause of tension over the past 18 months but tensions have been rising long before Covid-19 restrictions and lockdown were implemented. I strongly believe this trend will continue for at least the next few years. In this post, I discuss some of the reasons for the tensions and unrest we are witnessing in the world. I also explain how much of what is being portrayed is just a veil for an even darker reality that could be fast approaching.
Why is tension rising and why is it going to continue?
I expect it is possible to create a very long list of reasons why tensions could be rising. However, I do not think that is necessary. I believe everything that is happening is by design. I believe this design has been a work-in-progress for a very long time. All the moving parts require significant planning and coordination. Governments, banks, big business, and media across many countries need to be consistently working towards the same goals; this is not a feat that can be achieved easily or quickly. However, this is possible if all parties believe that it is in their best interest to do so.
In my post Power, Money and Me Me Me and video by the same title, I discuss motivations for pursuing particular actions and paths. I predominantly focused on pursuit of wealth (monetary) and power. Essentially, they go to those who desire them the most (both relatively and absolutely). Unfortunately, achieving the highest levels of wealth or power is not sufficient to satisfy the thirst that drove these people to these heights. Therefore, the pursuit of wealth and power continues even if they have been obtained in abundance.
Government and Democracy
We can start by looking at Governments and structure of Governments. There are many forms of Government around the world. Some are direct and/or outright authoritarian such as Military Regimes, Monarchies, Theocracies, Oligarchies, and Communist States. Most of the western world claims to have some form of representative democracy.
Most of these western ”representative” democracies revert to some form of two party/candidate system, where both parties/candidates either have the same approach or offer complementary roles to achieve broader objectives. The areas of difference between the parties are constantly highlighted to flame tensions between supporting factions. However, the two parties/candidates fundamentally pursue the same policies in important areas that normally receive minimal attention. I cover Government and democracy in detail in my posts The Two-Party Political System – The dictatorship we didn’t know we had and Raise your hand if you live in a Democracy.
Media and Controlled Information
Mainstream media and social media play a huge role in influencing public opinion. The mainstream media divide themselves into groups so as align their bias with the main political parties.
On social media, people were allowed to express their own views and opinions. In recent years, this has changed. Views that do not align with either main political party are censored. Sometimes views that align with a particular political party are also censored. In recent times, views that align strongly with right-wing Government rhetoric are being censored on social media.
These two types of censorship serve different purposes. Censoring information or views not aligning with the political debates and agendas is intended to prevent their spread (typical use of censorship). Censoring information or views aligning with a political party is intended to create divide and tension. This type of censorship is intentionally ineffective as media or politicians who support the censored views highlight social medias’ bias towards a party. The party claiming to face social media bias (normally right-wing) attempt to become the anti-establishment party. This approach is adopted to attract people who feel disenfranchised with the two party system. Hence, bringing them back into the two-party paradigm.
The left-wing media sometimes attempt to push an anti-establishment approach as well. They often attack established systems using climate change, genderism, and racism as arguments for change. They often promote “activists” who claim to want a cleaner, fairer, or kinder world. The most strongly argued methods of obtaining these goals are higher taxation, more regulation, and laws. Ironically, global organisations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have pledged to climate action and the Paris Agreement is supported by almost every country in the world.
The media often invoke a stronger radicalisation of views than even Governments. This is done so that Governments are able to justify becoming more radical based on public support.
Education
Mainstream media and social media may have a huge influence over the distribution of information but education systems play an equally important role. Many countries require children to have at least 10 years of formal education. See Figure 4 below
Figure 4: Years in Compulsory Education
Source: Maps of World
This education can begin from before the age of 5. For many countries, Governments have a considerable role in shaping the syllabus students are required to follow, the sources of information they are exposed to and how they are to be assessed. The type of formal education a person receives can greatly shape his or her views.
The content of material taught is often treated as facts even if it is biased by the views of the authors. Examinations often rely on recalling information presented as facts. Examinations should be considered as measures of a person’s ability to recall content rather than a measure of understanding subject matter. Students will focus on what will give them the highest grades instead of what will give them the most knowledge and skill. Arguably, this could be considered a form of brainwashing.
Big Business and Control
The next thing we should look at is big business and the amount of wealth the very richest control. In 2021, the number of billionaires increased to 2,755 and they possessed a wealth of US$13.1T (Forbes 2021), which is equivalent to over 15% of Global GDP (Statista) and over 3% of the world’s wealth (Credit Suisse 2021). In 2021, billionaires held approximately US$4T more in wealth than they did in 2019. However, the wealthiest control much more than what they own. As of mid-2020, the 10 largest asset management firms controlled over US$34T worth of assets (ADV Ratings), which is equivalent to over 40% of the global GDP and over 8% of the world’s wealth.
In my post Controlled Opposition and Divide and Conquer, I discussed the links between Government, big business, and the media. Large businesses play a key role in maintaining countries’ power structures. They can greatly influence political parties and candidates’ ability to campaign. They can support political parties and candidates directly through donations or indirectly through the media, they heavily fund (both mainstream and social media). This is done to guarantee that Governments will focus on representing big business' interests first. This will ensure the richest continue to grow richer and in most cases more powerful as well.
Banks
Of the types of large businesses in the world, banks may hold the most power. The banking system controls the distribution and often the use of money. For most people in many countries, holding a bank account is essential for just everyday living.
Banks have integrated themselves into people’s income and expenditure flows. Salaries and wages are paid directly into banks. Online payments require services offered by banks such as credit card payment facilities or direct bank transfers. Even payments made in person often require the use of debit and credit cards or cash withdrawn from ATMs. They also have the power to control the extent of access people have to their own money.
This forced relationship banks have with their customers has proven to be very beneficial to them. The 30 largest privately owned banks in the world have assets worth over US$60T, which is equivalent to over 14% of the world’s wealth (Wikipedia).
Central Banks wield even more power as they control money supply. Increasing or decreasing money supply has many broad effects. It can influence interest rates, rate of inflation, and even distribution of wealth. Central Banks can greatly contribute to increasing the power and influence Governments have over their people. This was strongly evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, when banks created an excessive quantity of money to fund Government expenditure during the lockdowns and tight restrictions. Central Banks saw their balance sheets greatly expand over this period. As of June 2020, Central Banks have accumulated assets worth almost US$37T (SWFI), which is equivalent to almost 9% of the world’s wealth.
Pandemics and Vaccines
In my post The Game of Pandemic, I described how a pandemic could be used as a tool to control people as well as benefit particular groups of people. The Covid-19 pandemic has served that role reasonably well. The new variants of the virus have worked well to extend the pandemic and the duration of restrictions.
Pharmaceutical companies and laboratories have played a huge role in the pandemic and the responses to it. There is a strong possibility that Covid-19 originated in a laboratory and the touted solution to Covid-19, the vaccines, came from laboratories. In my post My Concerns about the Covid-19 Vaccines, I investigated the vaccine in terms of effectiveness and safety as well as the appropriateness as a response during an outbreak. We were left with questions regarding how effective they are at reducing transmission, and protecting against serious illness as well as the extent of possible adverse reactions in both the short and long run. Effectiveness of the vaccines can definitely be questioned, as they were not designed to be effective against significantly different new variants.
The biggest immediate threat are the adverse reactions. Figure 5 contains data for reported adverse reactions in the USA and the European Union.
Figure 5: Reported Adverse Reactions in the USA and European Union
Source: US Data OpenVaers and European Data Health Impact News sourced from Europeans Medicines Agency
It is important to note that these are reported adverse reactions within a period after vaccination. The vaccine may not have directly caused some of the adverse reactions stated in the reports. However, not all adverse reactions would have been reported; according to The Lazarus Report only 1% to 13% of serious adverse reactions are typically reported. Therefore, actual number of adverse reactions will not be accurate. Considering the extent of underreporting, it is likely they will be higher. The current figures do not capture the long run adverse reactions that could take years to discover fully.
My initial fear, when Covid-19 began to spread round the world, was that it was some kind of bioweapon. It still might be a bioweapon but it has caused relatively minimal damage and does not pose a serious risk to a large proportion of society.
The real bioweapon may actually be the vaccines. A vaccine bioweapon could have a much higher chance of success than a virus, as it is injected directly into the body. The most challenging part would be convincing a large number of people to willing take the vaccine. Media fearmongering about the virus and threats of prolonged lockdowns and restrictions has served that purpose well. The Medias refusal to report on the number of adverse reactions whilst claiming how safe the vaccines are by interviewing experts who have vested interest in the rollout of the vaccines, further facilitates the mass and rapid rollout of these vaccines.
Pharmaceutical companies profit from sick people. Therefore, vaccines are more likely to cause sickness than death, as that is a more profitable avenue to pursue. However, the wealthy and powerful could stand to gain from a culling of the global population; explained in the next section.
Technology and Potential Replacement of Human Jobs
A potentially great benefit of technology is the improvement in human efficiency in performing work. This improved efficiency could help reduce working hours as well as increase output and quality of output. In my posts Technology – Curse or blessing?, Less jobs vs less working hours – Further discussion about efficiency and technology, and Technology and Employment, I discuss many of the positive aspects of improved technology. However, the implementation of technology could have some serious negative outcomes for many people if the rewards from technological improvements is restricted to just a few people. Instead of people reaping the rewards of higher pay and less working hours, they may instead face less opportunities and considerable competition for just a few jobs that are compatible with the new technology (assuming the trend of increased net job creation from technological improvements is reversed). High competition for jobs will force wages downwards, thus beneficial to the businesses hiring them.
A mass replacement of jobs by technology will cause a considerable increase in unemployment. High unemployment numbers are not beneficial to the powerful or wealthy. Depopulation would solve that problem. Depopulation could be done through sterilization or a direct culling. Sterilization could be targeted at the younger generations through food and medications. The older generations could be culled more easily through excessive medication or exposure to disease.
The Great Reset
Covid-19 sparked the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset Initiative. In my posts My summary and opinions regarding ‘The Great Reset’ – Part 6: Conclusion and A Peripheral look at the Great Reset and Fourth Industrial Revolution, I provide an overview of the Great Reset and how it might impact our lives. The outlook is not great if you are a person who values freedom.
If implemented as planned, the Great Reset is likely to lead to a world dominated by global governance from a few large international organisations, and political blocs. Production and services are likely to depend on a few very large mega corporations. The vast majority of people will be employees in these companies or Government bodies.
For the majority, private ownership will barely exist. We can expect to see large companies buying up asset such as land and property; this will inflate prices so people cannot afford their own home and be forced to rent. Possibly the biggest problem that lack of ownership of assets will cause is a high vulnerability to inflation. Because of extensive creation of money, we can expect considerably higher inflation in the coming years. This inflation will greatly limit people’s ability to save and hence render them a wage slave for most of their lives.
Privacy will also not exist, as our every action will be monitored to “protect” others or ourselves from harm. The real motives for monitoring people are more likely to relate to marketing products and services, and determining political views and identifying threats to the system.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have the potential to change the way the world operates. They could revolutionise financial, governance, economic, and social systems on a large scale. They have the potential to empower the people whilst offering opportunities to all on individual levels. In my post The Blockchain Economy, I discuss the huge potential the blockchain has to offer.
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have become significantly large and have a significant number of long-term holders. The chances of them failing even if markets are manipulated is highly unlikely. However, this current Bull Run has shown some considerable vulnerabilities of cryptocurrency markets as a whole. Short-run prices of all coins are still strongly influenced by the price movements in Bitcoin. Bitcoin price is still vulnerable to fake news and manipulation from large organisations and countries. Price manipulation can be very profitable for those doing the manipulating. It enables them to sell near the peaks and buy back once they have significantly driven down the price through fearmongering tactics, which are normally propagated by the media.
In the current Bull Run, most trading of cryptocurrency is based on short-term speculation with no regard for intrinsic value of coins. Meme coins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are receiving significant attention, which creates the impression that cryptocurrency is a joke with no long-term future. I believe this has been done intentionally to stifle any cryptocurrency projects that can offer real value, solutions and use cases. The price of coins with little substance will be easier to manipulate, as most people only buy them for short-term gains.
Cryptocurrency is very unlikely to go away but it may not fulfil the great potential it offers. As long as markets remain unstable and buyers of cryptocurrency only do so for short-run gains, Cryptocurrency and blockchain will only scratch the surface of its true potential. However, these problems can be resolved if mass adoption is achieved. This will require people making cryptocurrency a part of their daily lives. This will require a significant portion of the public using cryptocurrencies as functional currencies. Cryptocurrency and blockchain are a major threat to both Governments and banks. Acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a preferred medium of exchange greatly dilutes the power Governments and banks hold over people.
We are losing the battle
Governments are growing more powerful. They are using that power to control and divide the population. Big businesses are growing wealthier, as small and medium businesses are being forced to close or become dependent on Government aid while they are being forced to temporarily close or operate at limited capacity. Big businesses are starting to buy assets such as residential property and land; this will force prices up and push people out of the housing markets.
Mainstream media and social media are controlling the information we receive, thus limiting and dictating our perceptions. Formal education is likely being used as an instrument to brainwash the younger generations; this is becoming apparent with the rising popularity of the ‘woke cult’.
Central Banks are printing an excessive amount of money, which will eventual cause substantial inflation. This inflation will become an even bigger problem if the implementation of ‘The Great Reset’ leads to most people not holding assets. Pharmaceutical companies are profiting from fearmongering by rushing a vaccine with likely unknown adverse reactions. They are likely to profit from more people being sick. Pharmaceutical companies and Government may also be pushing a depopulation agenda, dangerous vaccines could help serve that goal.
The vast amount of wealth controlled by just a small number of people makes a lot of the above possible. This wealth helps keep power in the hands of the few, which in turn moves even more wealth into the hands of the rich. The advantage the rest of the population has is numbers. The elite are in the thousands, whereas, the rest of the world’s population is in the billions. However, that advantage might start to dwindle if or when a depopulation effort begins.
As it stands, the few can control the many because the many believe they have the right to do so. Instead, the many would rather fight against each other based on controlled agendas, which distract from what is really happening. Stronger attempts to create divide amongst the people is a strong indication that serious matters require covering up. It is evident that the world is waking up to what is happening but is it waking up fast enough to turn the tide.
More posts
If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.
Spectrumecons Seven-Week Challenge (Coming Soon)
In July and August, I will be running a Seven Week Challenge Series. All the challenges will be focused around economics. Participants only need to enter through the comments section of each challenge post. Participants could win up to 60 Hive in each challenge. The first 12 participants for each challenge will receive an upvote. There will also be an overall winner for the entire series. For full details, read my post Spectrumecons Seven-Week Challenge (Coming Soon).
Future of Social Media
