Over the last years, we have encountered an abundance of alarmist and hysterical “warnings” and admonitions, foretelling the impending doom of the world as we know it. Market corrections have served as an excuse for scaremongers to cultivate panic over a total systemic collapse. Surprising political shifts, like unexpected electoral results, have been coopted to support extreme scenarios, predicting the fall of the current world order. Especially in turbulent times like the ones we are currently living in, anything and everything can be presented as an existential threat by those who wish to exploit and to profit from the base instincts and the beastly fears of the general public.
Ask yourself: when was the last time our national and international order was not in a state of emergency? When was the last time we were not threatened by some kind of existential danger and when was the last time we were not living under the fear of some imminent and catastrophic crisis?
We seem to oscillate between military, geopolitical crises and economic and financial ones, a pattern that was only recently interrupted by a global public health “emergency” in the form of the covid pandemic. But even after that, the threats of war and economic turmoil resumed their primary roles as the crises du jour.
Indeed, if you really think about it, we have been in a constant state of emergency for as long as most of us can remember. We are consistently being told we are under siege and we are perpetually being warned of an imminent danger. We are incessantly being reminded that we are unsafe, vulnerable and inherently defenseless and that the only way to protect ourselves and those we care about is through pledging our allegiance and submitting to a higher authority. In other words, we are being urged to exchange our liberty for safety.
And this is the most dangerous trap of all. As Aldous Huxley put it, in his magnum opus “Brave New World”:
“But liberty, as we all know, cannot flourish in a country that is permanently on a war footing, or even a near-war footing. Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of everybody and everything by the agencies of the central government.”
In this state of “permacrisis”, there can be no true democracy (of course, even what is called “true democracy” these days is basically glorified socialism). A terrified citizen cannot possibly be expected to make rational decisions, and even if they manage to do so, the public will can still be easily subverted and wholly overridden through the use of “emergency” measures, like we saw during the pandemic and during the Ukraine war. Laws can be circumvented, bent, or even directly broken, and the government can assume “special powers” that contradict even the most fundamental principles of the so-called social contract.
So, knowing all this, what is a rational citizen to do? Clearly, it is not easy to simply block out the fearmongering messaging and the overwhelming intimidation campaigns. But even if one could totally evade and ignore the establishment-dictated and mainstream-media-propagated narrative of impending doom, there are still risks that are actually worth paying attention to. Many bad actors do and always will try to use any excuse to scare the public into submission and to misrepresent tall kinds of threats and dangers, but this doesn’t change the fact that there are still some risks that are much more serious and legitimate than others.
For instance, the inflation crisis that started after the spending and printing recklessness of the pandemic and that is still ongoing to this day, is something that every responsible saver and investor should earnestly worry about – as opposed to the threat that was posed by pandemic itself and the fears that central authorities so vehemently tried to spread.
The same goes for the monetary risks we have been facing for a very long time. The intentional and relentless destruction of value, the punishment of savers and the encouragement of debt that is supported by inflationary policies is certainly something we must all take very seriously and protect ourselves against.
In times of widespread fear and panic, it can be challenging for the average citizen to tell apart real dangers from manufactured distractions. This is why having confidence in one’s own critical thought and judgment is essential. And the way to acquire this confidence is through perpetually educating oneself, openly debating ideas and keeping an open mind. A good place to start this all-important work of self-enlightenment are reliable and liberty-oriented sources of accurate information and fundamental ideas and principles, like the Mises Institute, which offers solid research and analyses grounded in the Austrian School of Economics, promoting individual freedom, Reason and international peace.
Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland. www.claudiograss.ch
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