I Keep Changing Channels But It’s Still The Same Program

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

We can fake an insanely over-leveraged, fragile established order is rock-solid and can ship the goodies no matter something in need of an alien invasion or meteor-strike, however pretending will solely take us thus far.

I have the impression that altering the channels of “news”, “analysis” and “opinion” would not modify the slender band of what is being supplied. The bullish views are kind of all the identical, and the occasional bearish counterpoint is equally bland. I hold altering channels however this system would not differ.

This homogenization of opinion and evaluation is so ubiquitous that it is troublesome to discern. That’s the purpose, after all; to current rigorously pruned and curated “views” and “analysis” that stick with the identical drained narratives of propaganda: the flavour modifications and the speaking heads / actors change, however the product stays the identical: homogenized.

Like toothpaste, the nearly an identical media product is packaged into supposedly competing “brands” to “differentiate” and “offer consumers more choices” to purchase the identical extremely worthwhile product, engagement, i.e. dependancy and derangement.

Fellow impartial Mark St. Cyr and I talk about this homogenization and the forgotten worth of expertise in our recent podcast. The “marketplace” of concepts has been corporatized, i.e. decreased to a simulacrum / facsimile of competitors, because the media and Big Tech have assembled quasi-monopolies of company cartels: a handful of worldwide, politically highly effective firms management your entire media: the “news,” social media, and so forth.

The central state takes a eager curiosity within the energy to regulate the “competing” narratives created by this company monopoly homogenization. Let’s not name it censorship–such an unsightly phrase. Let’s name it “happiness,” a way more palatable and marketable slogan.

This homogenization serves to ship the right combination of “happiness”: a little bit of variation, colorizing the identical outdated black-and-white narrative (Us vs Them), mix in a little bit of spice (the most recent conspiracy concept debunked), function the automotive wrecks and riots, after which the ending wrap-up of puppies, kittens and children.

Once once more I’m reminded of this Houellebecq quote:

“I have the impression of being caught up in a network of complicated, minute, stupid rules, and I have the impression of being herded towards a uniform kind of happiness, toward a kind of happiness that doesn’t really make me happy.”

What’s been devalued is not simply really impartial thinking–real-world expertise has additionally been devalued. Mark and I each began out incomes a dwelling with hands-on skills–what was as soon as often called “honest work” that created worth you would truly contact and see.

In the push to globalize, stripmine labor and rush poorly skilled employees into the meat grinder–oops, I imply “productive labor force”–the form of expertise wanted to really perceive how programs work and repair absolutely anything that goes awry has decayed. By specializing, segmenting and siloing duties and abilities into slender bands of experience, we have misplaced the form of experiential information that was as soon as taken without any consideration.

This depth of expertise cannot be rushed, packaged or commoditized. It needs to be earned and realized the exhausting means, by making numerous errors in the true world, studying from mentors and always advancing and training one’s abilities. This stage of expertise is constructed on the muse of delight in a single’s work and the worth one creates every single day.

We additionally talk about the worth of the outdated decentralized, intermediary, family-owned biz mannequin that was crushed by world company giants. As Mark notes, there was once a phrase for the wholesaler / vendor intermediary layer within the economy–“I have this guy, I know this guy”–for somebody who actually knew the sector and will get the wanted elements and provides and will direct the small enterprise homeowners to no matter fix-it was wanted.

This layer of the financial system has been decimated because it was deemed “inefficient” in comparison with vertically organized firms. Nice, however this effectivity generates a second-order effect–extreme vulnerability and fragility as soon as the specialised layers collapse and the system wants individuals who truly know greater than their company slot.

Could family-owned enterprises served by localized wholesalers / jobbers truly turn out to be simpler than globalized, super-efficient firms? Once the cracks begin opening in globalization and a workforce homogenized into specialization, the hyper-efficient globalized mannequin of doing enterprise breaks down. This is at the moment thought of “impossible,” for anybody declaring the inherent fragilities of this maximizing-profit cartel-corporate system is, ahem, marginalized as an “unhappy” and subsequently shortly deleted / demonetized affect.

We additionally talk about the worth of pondering and appearing in an entrepreneurial mindset of prices, advantages, dangers, competitors and fixed studying / adaptation. This is the purpose of my e book Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy: even when we’re an worker, we profit from enthusiastic about our profession and livelihood in an entrepreneurial context, the core of which is creating worth not simply with our personal work however by collaborating productively with others of the identical mindset.

Taking management of 1’s work and life is the center of Self-Reliance. We can name this company or entrepreneurial, the purpose is similar: cease shopping for right into a system that now not advantages you and begin decreasing your publicity to its intrinsic dangers.

We additionally echo administration guru Peter Drucker’s perception that enterprises do not have earnings, they solely have prices. Fixed prices outline the danger construction of enterprises and households alike; prices of manufacturing constrain what’s potential and what’s sustainable. What’s not sustainable will go away, no matter what we’re advised is “impossible.”

It will not simply be elements which might be on back-order: total existence shall be out of inventory. We can fake an insanely over-leveraged, fragile established order is rock-solid and can ship the goodies no matter something in need of an alien invasion or meteor-strike, however pretending will solely take us thus far.

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