Age of Stings
I was struck just now by the absolute universality of the sting in Western business and politics and "courts" and media.

Nearly everything that happens in US/UK/EU is a sting.

Pattern is simple. Create a problem that didn't exist before. Mobilize the captive media to publicize the problem and develop a "public desire" to "solve" the problem. Take steps to "solve" the problem which are guaranteed to aggravate the problem. Use the result to enhance your power and wealth.

The "law" enforcement version came first. Create the appearance of a political or criminal organization. Find some alienated and discontented youths. Get them to affiliate with the organization. Get them to agree with a crime that you have invented. Arrest them for planning and participating in the crime. Then you can point to the growing number of "terrorists" as a justification for more manpower and firepower.

The foreign policy version takes the "law" version and expands it into a magnificent megaproblem system. Organize and fund and equip a problem like al-Qaeda or ISIS or Yatsenyuk. Turn the problem loose. Publicize the results, scripting a "public outcry" for "revenge". Follow the "public outcry" with bombing and slaughter of civilians. This creates new problems in that part of the world and strengthens organizations like ISIS. More publicity, more "public outcry", more bombing, more strengthening........

The business version of the sting is the LBO and variants. Use captive tools like unions or lawsuits or regulators or media-generated "scandals" to create a problem for a successful company or country. Bet on both sides through options, default swaps, etc. Use debt to buy the suddenly cheap stock of the company or country. Bankrupt the company or country to eliminate your debt. Squeeze out the remaining value of assets. Win both sides of your bets. This is less lethal and less self-maintaining than the foreign policy sting. It doesn't directly kill people. Instead, it destroys a company or country along with its carefully developed culture and skills. It impoverishes large numbers of people. Ideally it kills an entire industry, starving everyone who supplied or depended on that industry.

Other parts of the world are more inclined to solve problems than to create them. Africans are the champion problem-solvers, using extremely limited resources plus massive ingenuity to keep life running cheerfully. Turkey's government explicitly implements Zero Problems, aiming to smooth out every difficulty instead of manufacturing new difficulties.

Only the decadent West allows elite monsters to ruin our lives.

Labels: Zero Problems, Гром победы

  ¶ 4:58 AM