I am confounded daily by the unending belief the average American citizen has in the health of western economies, in the ability of political leadership to suddenly take corrective action, and that the federal government partnered with the banks and their subsidiary corporations have the best interests of the citizenry in mind. I’m all for optimism, it drives the human mind to seek new frontiers, answers and discoveries. But there is a time when optimism is facing an empty playbook, and it becomes as much a dream as the optimistic elation that one might win the lottery.
In order for this type of blind optimism to ensue, there has to be denial. Denial that the market trends of the last eight years have been a rickety roller coaster ride at best, and the current downhill run will not rebound with any kind of energy to climb another hill. Denial that the dollar is facing disastrous devaluation and eventual hyperinflation as the world dumps it pessimistically, and our own government feeds the fire by trying to prop it up with ever-increasing bailout and stimulus packages. Denial that Congress and the Executive answers unequivocally to the Federal Banking system, which has leveraged itself beyond sanity via foreign investment into our insurmountable debt. Denial that our entire way of life on this continent will be turned upside down, perhaps permanently.
I have spoken many times about these prophecies in progress to my wife, my siblings, and select friends. It’s not something I broadcast to the world, as it is a surefire way to end a conversation with suspicion of lunacy. Even people I trust with all of this look at me with skepticism and swim away back to the warm deep waters of that river. It reminds me of a teenager believing his inexperienced, ignorant and uncaring peer about the effects of taking psychoactive drugs rather than the experienced, educated and dedicated advice of their parents. By the time they figure out that the advice of the peer has set them on the path of ruin, they are past the point of no return.
The exception to this is my wife. We make it a regular practice to talk about what will most likely happen, what it could do to our standard of living, and how we will cope with it. We assure each other and ourselves that we can be a strong family unit without TV and iPods and computers. We could live in a shack and still be a parental unit that provides the basic essentials and teaches our kids to understand intelligence is a paramount item in your life, combined with attachment to people you can trust and trust you. We don’t want any of this to happen, but we also pay close enough attention to the history of human nature and organized societies to know that America and much of the west is that kid that has just graduated from smoking it to mainlining.
The moral of this story is that when these things come to pass, and our economy is in shambles and unemployment has surpassed sixty percent of the populace, it’s not a bad idea to have gold and silver in hand. It has proven throughout time that it is a tangible, durable commodity with real value unaffected by the scheming practices of banks and governments. Any savvy investor will tell you never to put all your eggs in one basket, in fact never to put more than one fifth into any investment. But I am continually amazed at how many people have absolutely zero precious metals and a huge amount of paper money invested in a stock market that is controlled and manipulated by entities at odds with long term security and conservative practices. So before you dismiss all of this as poppycock, and head downstream with the rest of the flotilla, take a look at the trends of gold and silver over the past twenty years, and then take those numbers and triple them in the next seven, and hopefully you’ll take even a small percentage of your assets and put them into a vehicle that is as solid as the ore it is mined from.
And where does my optimism lie? If there is any great trend in the history of these United States, it is that a very few great minds can come together and rise from the ashes, pulling the rest kicking and screaming out of the water and onto the shore. It is men that hold true to a standard of intelligence, truth, and the cornerstone belief that all men are created equal, and that we are endowed with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These men and women are out there; perhaps they are the children that people of character must raise absent of privilege. Perhaps they are the citizens of this nation that will have to overcome the greatest barriers and hurdles. Whatever the situation, these people will stand on the shore and call the willing to them, and from there rebuild anew.
