Gold Rises as the Empire Wags the Dog

There’s a certain order we expect to experience in the world. We see it and know all is well. Normal.

When the normal order is disrupted, and we see something like a tail wagging a dog instead of the other way around, it’s time to take a second look at that particular dog. Or that particular tail.

Maybe all tails wag dogs, but probably not. Our individual experiences tell us a dog has the power to wag the tail it owns.

The one with the power wags the tail it owns. Or the tale it owns.

There’s a game being played and it’s disrupting global order – the game of Coins and Crowns which deals with power over people.

And what is the end game on the Coins and Crowns game board covered with humans?

Maybe a tale is being wagged.

Since there is no real end to time, maybe the end game is the swinging of time itself. Power that shifts from one entity to another. Time would control the swing, while the ones with power try to control the playing pieces they own, inside the shift they can’t control.

If there is power to influence people to do certain things in a certain way, it would mean that you and me, and all of us lovely citizens of our individual countries could be doing things which those with power set up for us to do.

Our whole society, with jobs and food, rituals and culture, music and schedules and consumer goods, and the systems of exchange like money and currency, could all just be things to do in one certain way instead of some other certain way.

Perhaps instead of being made to do these things through force we’re being persuaded to want to do those things ourselves.

The way we do things is not the way it has always been done throughout human history. Normal back then is not normal now, and most likely normal will change. Maybe sooner rather than later.

Having an ideology that there is one ‘right’ normal has caused a bit of trouble in the past.

Let’s look at a wider picture frame. Before 1648 and the Westphalia treaty there were no nations or states. It was normal to have your tribe roam around and cause havoc with other tribes. There was no sovereignty. The Westphalia treaty had some friends shaking hands and saying they’ll stay out of each others’ business and land. That became normal. For about ten minutes.

At this time the normal is to gain status through consuming physical goods. The more stuff the more status. We believe we gain status by controlling things as opposed to controlling ourselves. Those with current power in the macro world gain by having this ideology as our normal.

Hmmm. And what are our individual micro games?

Here’s mine:

There is no location, dollar value, set of experiences, or power accumulation that I want to own in order to to feel I’ve “won”. My game is in the swinging. I have already won because I feel I’ve earned the right to stand where ever I’m standing at that moment. My game is the motion itself. I want to grow and join forces with others who are also doing the same at each swing out, and to consolidate when it swings in. I want a normal that has longevity. My game is the path of least resistance, trusting the cycles of nature and the universe, and working with them to create things and experiences that fulfill me and my family.

I do mine through ideas, music and writing.

Yours are no doubt different. We’re all built differently.

Marxists believe everything we do as an individual, and then as states, is to support a means of production – a way of making the material things we want as individuals. I’m an ethical Capitalists, and I’m all for free market, but what if it’s not free and a few are gaming the system? And then keeping that system running while they feed off the playing pieces?

If we felt all was well in the world then we would want to protect and keep the system the way it is.

This is called a Realist View.

Is normal working for you? What do you feel is normal and what are you protecting?

Maybe we’re being told all is well over and over again, even if we’re starting to feel something isn’t working very well.

Maybe we don’t make changes because we’re told all is well. Would that make it well?

How dysfunctional would it have to be before we would look at a current structure and see we’re personally losing out while a few, coincidentally the ones saying all is well, are winning.

It seems that more of us are seeing that something isn’t quite right, though many can’t put their finger on why.

Financial things are rougher than they were for some. We hear about others having difficulty, or losing a job, or house, or dream, but we’re okay. Then it comes to us. And then we don’t have any energy or power to change things.

So what is the greater game? Who are the players and who is winning or losing?

The idea of states or nations has only been with us since 1648. It’s a “state”, as in a way that we organize ourselves to get what we want.

Protecting normal is what we’re used to in our personal lives, and back in oral and written history. But history can be skewed or rewritten, depending on the writer.

History is just a tale that someone is telling.

Media, mainstream and alternative, write words grouped together that come from an idea, packaged and moved from one-to-many.  By hearing, reading or seeing this idea we re-experience it and it becomes a collective normal. We are all recreating our idea of what a nation is, what a relationship is, what a beautiful or not so beautiful normal is.

This is why it’s good to shut off media. Think and dream. Look at personal experiences and listen to those close to us.

It’s to our benefit to look at different perspectives, different viewpoints and unrelated sources, and then come to our own conclusions. Curate our lives, choosing the close bonds, the re-creation of our experiences with who we choose to be with.

Wag our own tail and our own tale.

If some outside media, person or group tells us what is normal, then why are they telling us so? Who is gaining by reinforcing this idea? Perhaps all is not as they are making it appear. This can work in a macro system, like government, news and movies, or in a poorly functioning micro system, with a boss or a partner.

Just something to think about.

George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones and Ice and Fire series is set around the struggle for power over land and people. There are a few key players and a lot of pieces. The characters use many unethical strategies to gain power and sway an outcome, while in a situation they can’t control.

It mirrors some things we’re all feeling right now. Martin is telling us a story, a tale, yet the characters, while speaking to each other, are speaking to us individually as well.

This is why many of us watch. We’re feeling connected to a struggle for power going on in our individual lives and in society. We want to understand, and we have players we want to see win.

There are real people behind institutions. Some look for a greater good and some are corrupt; just people with human flaws, good and bad, who might be good at manipulating and leading. Not gods. People are people and we all have flaws.

It’s a microcosm of a macrocosm.

Any entity with power would try to reinforce the current normal. They would tell their people how strong they are, how “good” they are, how God is behind them.

They could communicate that all is well with books, music, film and finances. Whatever could be used to tell a tale would all say the same tale.

But in the real world there is a shift going on.

Empires rise and fall every 200 years or so. Currencies fail and new ones are formed every 40 years or so.

Historically, when a new technology comes it triggers a shift of power.

We’ve had slavery, feudalism and capitalism, and now comes the Internet and renewable energy – new technology.

With new technology comes ideas and understanding, and then comes tension as those on the losing side of power find ways to harness the new technology.

This is the wheel turning. This is the season spinning. This is the rod and ring I was writing of earlier.

Where does power reside? They had slavery, but it’s exhausting to chase people down when they run away, and to make them do your work. So then they had a feudal system, where individuals could have a little piece of land to work but had to pay the “lords” a portion. Then the merchants who created their money from their own production of goods didn’t see the benefit of paying taxes, or giving power to feudal lords.

Capitalism came from this. The shift into Capitalism was bloody. But it shifted. A new way of organizing people came from tension when a new means of production came about.

Capitalism started off being wide and hopeful for many, and over time has concentrated more and more power to fewer and fewer.

Mike Maloney’s Hidden Secrets of Money – Episode 4 tells how the money system is set up to take from you. This video has been out for four days and has well over half a million views. People are feeling that all is not well.

Markets become saturated and the owner must find new markets, or else make sure the market they already have stays dependent for repeated sales.

Capitalism without the consolidation can continue through a technology shift because it spreads power to many. Free market capitalism has worked, but now what do we have, now that the power is in fewer and fewer hands? Where backroom deals favour a few against the many.

This is where we are now.

The owners are a small handful of bankers, government players, company owners, media outlet owners and a few very wealthy entities. Maybe we don’t know who the owners actually are.

Their tale that all is well is a tail wagging a dog perhaps. All is well for whom?

If media is owned by a few then how is the tale being told as travels from one-to-many. What tales are missing? Who benefits from the tale that all is well, or all is not well?

Our new technology is the Internet. Our new mode of production is energy that is renewable – not oil.

So there will likely be tension and a shift.

But when and where?

The entity in power wants to keep those who are losing in a position where they need the present system.

Why would we want to stay in a system where we are losing?

Maybe a threat of war from somewhere so the powerful offer protection?

Maybe chaos and hunger, and the powerful can offer food and deliverance?

When a shift happens the powerful want it to end with a new normal that is in their favour. They know that power resides where people believe it resides. so if they can make people believe they have their own power, while having the pieces do what the owner want them to do, then they keep the power.

The powerful can’t stop a shift from happening; technology and understanding brought it. But they want to control how it happens and what ends up as everyone’s new normal.

We’re heading into the winter cycle while this present system ends. Empires rise and fall. George Martin’s mantra is true in the bigger picture for us – Winter is Coming.

Economic and geopolitical winter.

It’s just part of a wheel spinning, and if we see it coming we can bundle up, store some hot chocolate, count our chickens, and put aside some seeds for the next spring.

The shift is possible without chaos, but historically it brings a bit of trouble.

Maybe it’s a good idea to get sorted out financially, get out of debt, store a few things up in case of a disruption. Always a good idea in case of natural disaster.

Some see currency wars ending in a currency crash as things are shifting. Some see hyperinflation and costs going higher and higher.

A falling Empire will go to war to win more stuff. When they go into debt for war they get deeper into trouble. Gold and silver were the trusted money in historical shifts, so it may be again for a while. Gold and silver are rising while the U.S. dollar is falling.

Probably worth looking into.

Might be worth listening to a few different people who come at it from different angles. I recommend Jim Rogers, Jim Rickards, Mike Maloney, Max Keiser and Elaine Supkis, among others. My angle is comparing micro and macro systems, the way we notice change, and how hard it is to acknowledge then leave a dysfunctional system.

I like the idea of preparing for good and bad scenarios, being able to sit in the center of a wheel while the not-so-fun spinning is going on.

If a shift is coming then those with power will not want to give it up. We’ve seen it in history. We see it in relationships.

When the shift happens they want controlled chaos in order to keep a dependency. They will want to rescue and control their playing pieces if the board spins.

They want a controlled chaos so they can create their own order out of it. Order we ask for to rescue us from the chaos. A new normal.

Those with power might even beat the drums of war to incite a little chaos, if it’s not ramping up on its own.

They might tell a tale or two.

Maybe a tale that will wag a dog.

Beating, beating. I can hear drums.

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Wag the Dog (I Can Hear Drums)
words and music Elaine Diane Taylor
©2013 Intelligentsia Media Inc. All rights reserved.
SOCAN/ASCAP
available soon on iTunes

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