1,524 words
We live in indisputably dark times. Everywhere we look, the foreboding shadows of authoritarianism, globalism, and the imprisonment of the human spirit seem abundantly evident. 2020 demonstrated more than ever the naked and brazen power of the elites that misrule us, whether they were banning a sitting US president from social media or governing our lives entirely by technocratic diktats under the pretense of Covid-19. Nearly a year after the initial outbreak of the disease, untold millions across the globe are still virtual prisoners in their own homes, deprived of the small vestiges of community and human interaction that made the modern world bearable. The news cycle is an unending daily attack on liberty, rationality, the natural order, whiteness, and Western civilization. One could be forgiven for thinking that 2020 was the final victory of the deep state, globalist politicians, and the tech oligarchs over the citizens they purport to be answerable to. The prospects for a reversal of this situation in 2021, at first sight, seem bleak.
As the MAGA movement fades into obscurity, the notions of personal liberty and free speech appear to have vanished along with it. Initially a populist outpouring that exuded energy and potential, picking through the wreckage, it is hard to identify much of lasting value. It could be said that the idealism that inspired this revolt was also its fatal weakness, as political naivety hindered its success again and again. The MAGA adherents truly believed in Trump as the man alone who could drain the swamp; in reality, he remained mired in it, despite his fitful efforts to free himself. As their faith in their leader wavered, they retreated into an increasingly distorted reality viewed through the lens of QAnon, a sunshine cure that promised redemption in the end for the movement. Even in their final act, the storming of the US Capitol building was based on the naïve and fundamentally misguided assumption that power still resided there. The political frontmen have long been supplanted by their billionaire masters.
Despite lacking a clear political strategy, the storming of the Capitol nevertheless had value. In every movement for human renewal, symbols are important. And this symbolic act revealed several underlying truths. The shambolic lack of security at the heart of the most militarized state in the world exposed the hubris of the elites; they simply were unable to conceive that such a thing could happen. The people who had for so long been servile and dormant reasserted themselves and delivered a catastrophic blow to the credibility of the American Empire around the world. The images of a Confederate flag flying in the halls of the Capitol building provoked splenetic outrage from those same elites who had declared war on Confederate history years earlier. They may have succeeded in destroying hundreds of Confederate statues and markers, but in the end, the spirit of defiance rests not in cold stone, but in the people. They have always been terrified at the power of the stars and bars to animate resistance, and seeing it paraded through the halls of government confirmed their worst fears that it may well rouse resistance again. General Lee, in the end, had the last laugh.
The true lesson of 2020 was not the consolidation of suffocating state power, but of the primacy of random events and how they can be capitalized on for political ends. Whether it was the death of George Floyd or the coronavirus, the elites utilized these chance encounters to fully advance their agenda. But events also lead to unintended consequences, and we cannot look at the political landscape purely from a deterministic point of view. In a simple mathematical calculation, if we measure the state’s power versus our own, the outcome is plain to see. The state with all its military, technological, and legal might will ruthlessly crush those who oppose it. Yet only a few short weeks after the Capitol insurrection, our overlords suffered another unexpected black eye as a group loosely organized on Reddit known as Wall Street Bets decided to play the elites at their own game.
By massively increasing the price of flagging retailer GameStop’s shares, the group managed to wipe as much as 53% off the value of Melvin Capital, one of the largest hedge funds in the US profiting from shorting the ailing company’s stock. While the Capitol insurrection ultimately only caused a mild panic among the financial masters of the universe, the reaction to this economic populism was telling. Trading platforms almost immediately suspended the ability to make purchases and forced many users to sell at a loss. This was a clear effort to unlawfully intervene in a free market, and to intimidate those engaged in fiscal resistance. However, those buying the shares were largely not attempting to speculate and profit as vulture Wall Street capitalists do. This was a moral act of defiance by Generation Revenge, who bore the losses gleefully because the 1% were losing more. They deftly executed a guerrilla maneuver, and a war of attrition played out over several weeks, which spread to other stocks such as AMC and Blockbuster, as well as commodities like silver. In the end, the markets may have largely returned to normal, but the monetary and psychological damage to the so-called masters of the financial universe will remain.
Journalists quickly drew comparisons between the Capitol unrest and this financial insurrection. For once, their assessment was honest: these were two interrelated efforts to unnerve and unseat an increasingly corrupt and authoritarian global regime. When the dust settled, it had been proven those in power can neither defend their Capitol or their capital. And these two acts of defiance were joined by another episode where it seems David has triumphed over Goliath. The much-beleaguered UK, now finally nominally free of the EU, was expected to sink beneath the waves. Yet instead of sinking, it has joined the populist tremors by exposing the lethargy, inefficiency, and ineptitude of that bureaucratic behemoth. As the UK races ahead in its COVID vaccination plan, the EU was left red-faced and impotent as interorganizational infighting made the EU vastly slower at ordering and securing the vaccines it desperately needed.
While some may say that vaccination in itself is an assault on liberty, and that the UK’s success in vaccination has more to do with its centralized and authoritarian nature than anything else, this nevertheless remains an interesting case study in the resurgent power of the sovereign nation. The EU is a deadening influence, a safety valve and a parasitic cadaver sprawled across the nations beneath it. By freeing themselves, EU members will once again unleash the power of the untrammeled and free sovereign state, for good and for ill. Thus while 2020 may have seemed a consummate lesson in the invulnerability of the globalized, authoritarian, and unaccountable elite, 2021 in just a little over its first month has provided three shining examples of their inherent weakness. Whether we make our resistance at the political, economic, or national level, we have been re-endowed with agency.
Each one of these acts of defiance is a stone catapulted from the populist David’s sling towards the monstrous liberty crushing Goliath. And these are only the warning shots, the unsteady but enthusiastic stirrings of a greater will to resist. Each loss of face, each vivid reassertion that the emperor has no clothes, will spur on more acts of collective disobedience. We have once again discovered our individual and collective potential. While our enemies must control every lever of power to succeed, we require only a few organized individuals to disrupt their plans. And we have something even more powerful in our favor: the nature of who we are.
The hated and abused Western minority are the architects of the system that the elite are now immorally presiding over. It is our Faustian and Promethean nature that created the modern world, that allowed the current regime to usurp its power. Yet latent within us is the strength to reforge that world; to re-write our collective reality. Whether it is the physical courage to resist in mass actions such as the Capitol siege, or the ingenious economic fightback, we are a tenacious and stubborn adversary. 2020 was a concerted attack on humanity, an effort to accelerate the trends of atomization, loneliness, hysteria, and state power over our lives. 2021 will not go as our masters expect, because all their overreaching and meddling has reawakened the slumbering rebel nature of those committed to a free, human, moral, and Western world. Let us all now organize and work together inspired by these acts of selfless resistance to make 2021 the year that David Defeats Goliath.
If you want to support Counter-Currents, please send us a donation by going to our Entropy page and selecting “send paid chat.” Entropy allows you to donate any amount from $3 and up. All comments will be read and discussed in the next episode of Counter-Currents Radio, which airs every weekend on DLive.
Don’t forget to sign up for the twice-monthly email Counter-Currents Newsletter for exclusive content, offers, and news.
Enjoyed this article?
Be the first to leave a tip in the jar!
Related
-
Black Corruption: Funny Until It Isn’t
-
Keith Olbermann Is a Deeply Unhappy Man
-
Keith Olbermann Is a Deeply Unhappy Man
-
What Future for the Polish Right and for Democracy? An Interview with Andrzej Nowak
-
Nueva Derecha vs. Vieja Derecha, Capítulo 30: Populismo Prematuro
-
A Conspiratorial Life
-
Return of the Obamas
-
It Cometh from the Pit, and It Hath a Knout II
17 comments
Not to be a Nerd, but David was most likely a Jewish Toady working in the Phillistine militia in Gath (a genuinely large Bronze Ironage city with some regional and imperial clout) who invaded a tiny speck of a hillside village called Jerusalem with a few mercenary henchmen and ruled it as a Phillistine client. If Solomon and Absolom were real people they were just locals with local names reasserting some autonomy from that invasion and tyranny. Just saying. Salem is just the local god’s name and loosely translated means Dusk or Evening Star which colloquially came to mean Rest or Peace. Goliath of Gath did nothing wrong.
You don’t sound so much like a nerd as an atheist. This likely colors your response to Mr. Hessler’s fine comparison, which is based on the size of our opponent.
I am glad to start this morning with hopeful thoughts.
Ever read Goliath and David by Robert Graves?
Goliath and David
(For D. C. T., Killed at Fricourt, March, 1916)
by Robert Graves
Yet once an earlier David took
Smooth pebbles from the brook:
Out between the lines he went
To that one-sided tournament,
A shepherd boy who stood out fine
And young to fight a Philistine
Clad all in brazen mail. He swears
That he’s killed lions, he’s killed bears,
And those that scorn the God of Zion
Shall perish so like bear or lion.
But . . . the historian of that fight
Had not the heart to tell it right.
Striding within javelin range,
Goliath marvels at this strange Goodly-faced boy so proud of strength.
David’s clear eye measures the length;
With hand thrust back, he cramps one knee,
Poises a moment thoughtfully,
And hurls with a long vengeful swing.
The pebble, humming from the sling
Like a wild bee, flies a sure line
For the forehead of the Philistine;
Then . . . but there comes a brazen clink,
And quicker than a man can think
Goliath’s shield parries each cast.
Clang! clang! and clang! was David’s last.
Scorn blazes in the Giant’s eye,
Towering unhurt six cubits high.
Says foolish David, “Damn your shield!
And damn my sling! but I’ll not yield.”
He takes his staff of Mamre oak,
A knotted shepherd-staff that’s broke
The skull of many a wolf and fox
Come filching lambs from Jesse’s flocks.
Loud laughs Goliath, and that laugh
Can scatter chariots like blown chaff
To rout; but David, calm and brave,
Holds his ground, for God will save.
Steel crosses wood, a flash, and oh!
Shame for beauty’s overthrow!
(God’s eyes are dim, His ears are shut.)
One cruel backhand sabre-cut —
“I’m hit! I’m killed!” young David cries,
Throws blindly forward, chokes . . . and dies.
And look, spike-helmeted, grey, grim,
Goliath straddles over him.
I had not read it, it is beautiful. And I retract my earlier statement; you’re definitely a well-read nerd.
This is a fine, extremely upbeat essay that inspires my soul.
I’ll take issue with only this one item:
“ The shambolic lack of security at the heart of the most militarized state in the world exposed the hubris of the elites; they simply were unable to conceive that such a thing could happen. ”
I really don’t think this is how it played out. I truly believe that security was intentionally minimized. I believe that the inner core of the Capitol building onion was well armed and secure, but the outer layers were relaxed in order to invite a controlled spectacle.
They need these events by which to usurp more power and create a sense of fear and hostility. All of this could have been avoided by allowing Trump’s supporters a venue and a fair hearing for their grievances. But then they would not have an excuse for their authoritarian reactions.
Goliath was a misunderstood gentle giant.
Moth likely a European colonist or a descendent of one. The DNA of Philistines indicate they originated in places like Greece, Crete and Cyprus.
And an aspiring rapper.
Under no circumstances should anyone want to take down the whole financial marketplace. However, learning to day-trade in it can keep a small income stream coming into your life daily, and as you learn more, you can increase that income. With only my pension and IRA, I manage to pull out $100 – $200 daily, without upsetting the world economy. That’s $2000 per month and I’m not ruining anyone’s turf. If a good many people could learn to do this, I am convinced we could cut the poverty level in this country. I feel secure, but then, I’m an ‘old woman’. I do love the label “Generation Revenge” however, and I’m proud to apply it to myself, even though my age is not in sync. Learn the boring subject of ‘personal finance’ (which should be taught in all schools K-12) and day trading, and at least you should be able to keep a roof over your head and victuals on the table. Best of luck — we NEED YOU to be successful financially.
Alexandra,
I’m one unfortunate example from “Generation Revenge” who was never taught anything about finance either in school or by my elders. I’d like to learn about finance and trading, at least enough that I can be confident about how I invest my earnings, but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any book recommendations for a young person interested in learning basic personal finance? There’s a lot of garbage information out there nowadays and it’s hard to tell what is reliable without having any prior experience.
Here, here, Lex H! I too would like to know how to get started with that.
Great essay. Optimism is not only contagious, it’s also a force multiplier for good !
…free ?
How is freedom a subject of rightists, I thought rightists are authoritarians and freedom is a problem because of the fallen nature of man?
Is it possible that there would be much more support… or make that, much less opposition… to the “Right” if the “Right´s” relation to “freedom” was clear?
This is a very good essay, with fresh takes and reasons for optimism. Well done.
FIGHTING BACK…FILING YOUR 2020 TAX RETURNS LATER (LEGAL TIME EXTENSION):
Speaking of financial / bureaucratic fightback against the elites, what would happen (?) if, say, 30% to 50% of the 75 million pro-Trump voters simply requested automatic extensions of their Tax Year 2020 filing deadlines (extensions requested via Form 4868 for individuals and Form 7004 for most businesses). Actual tax returns would be filed later right before the absolute deadlines of October 15, 2021 for most individuals, and (I believe, also 10/15/21 for most businesses). Watch as a mass of incoming individual and business returns even lightly and temporarily chokes the bureaucracy.
Such an action would probably grab headlines even from the MSM. And it would be totally legal, while the penalties are not earth shaking for most people: 1% of taxes due as a late filing penalty, and 5% of taxes due as interest on taxes that should have been paid by April 15. Moreover, you can still protest and avoid the 5% interest charge by calculating and paying the taxes due on time by April 15 (send a check but no return), but still obtain a time extension and not file until mid October.
This is not about causing cash flow problems for the feds. Of course the elites can print money in mass quantities whenever they wish to, as they have been doing for decades, but at an accelerated rate (with zero regard for long term effects, of course) since early 2020.
It is instead a non-violent, perfectly legal form of protest against this disgusting, illegitimate regime in DC. How much louder can one lodge a civil protest under the current regime?
David literally represents the Jews, and Goliath the gentile, though. Otherwise great article.
Inspiring and thoughtful. Great article.
Comments are closed.
If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.
Note on comments privacy & moderation
Your email is never published nor shared.
Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.
Paywall Access
Lost your password?Edit your comment