The terror of the east. Shirtless-horseback-man.
I’m listening to Peter Zeihan on Joe Rogan. He’s got some prescient observations about the state of the world. It’s dark and scary.
Although, if you can wrap your mind about the idea of an inevitable mass culling /war, things will be great after we come out on the other side.
Among Mr. Zeihan’s observations and prognostications, he discusses Russia going to war in order to die on its own terms.
Basically, Russia has only got until the 2070s as he asserts, and their competent, young population has mostly sought life elsewhere on account of the establishment’s oppressive, top-down approach to leadership. Then, as you move up in age from that young, population (the less competent cohort presumably fighting/dying in Ukraine) there is a demographic shortfall of middle-aged Russian, before the population swells again in the pensioner demographic.
CHINA
Zeihan has a dim view of the Xi administration also. Apparently noone wants to tell Xi Jinping bad news. Also, in spite of a “bottomless well’ of stolen IP, China apparently hasn’t advanced much technologically in the last two decades.* Also, 90% of the calories China consumes have at least one imported input. Not good.
Similarly, China imports huge amounts of energy. It’s not a good time not to be self-sufficient
Mexico
…apparently has twice the skill of the relatively stagnant (vis a vis skill-building) Chinese workforce, and also costs 1/3. Also, Mexico is very integrated with the US economically.
Why it’s working for the US
According to Zeihan, any country blessed demographically and geographically (USA, France, Turkey, Argentina) is in a good position to make it to 2030 and beyond.
Geo-Politics in General
The last time I paid this much attention to geo-politics was during a more Marxist time in my life, and it was all doom & gloom. Also, I lived in Canada, and although I wasn’t aware of it at the time, my life in Canada was a dead-end. I don’t feel like life is a dead-end here in the US, and again—demographically and geographically—the US seems in a better position to fare well than perhaps anywhere else on the planet.
The absolute optimal placement of the USA in the world along these lines, and the fact that I live here, makes me a lot more optimistic as I begin really paying attention to the world again. RealLifeLore has a great Youtube channel which I’ve also been using to get brought up to speed about regional conflicts, energy concerns, food concerns, and the respective survivability of the various nation-states. Things are going to happen over the next decade and affiliation and mobility will be the key to survival.
—more on that another time.
Personally, I am scared, but at the same time I’ve never felt so alive.
America has to Find Itself
If every nation in the world can be anthropomorphized, I would view the United Staes as a brash, young man. Big Dick Energy all the time. Nonetheless, the passage of time reliably wears people and entities down. In Fight Club, Tyler Durden even says, “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate of everything drops to zero,” and while I see the truth in that statement, there’a more to the story of survival. So ‘something, something, something, American exceptionalism‘— maybe America doesn’t get worn down, or let itself get worn down. Maybe it stays sharp and communicates and cooperates more sophisticatedly with its peers, forming more reciprocal relationships and harmonizing, while at the same time never losing the ability and willingness to rain death from above on evildoers. I like that for America. I like that for me.
Stay sharp. Maintain that edge. It’s the only way to protect yourself and the people you care about.
America, the young man will go on a vision quest over the next 10-20 years. It will isolate itself from a lot of countries. It will strengthen its relationships with others—although that won’t necessarily be a smooth or linear process. Perched here in the centre-sweet-spot of the North American continent—we will see suffering all around us. Our garden, walled by Canada, Mexico and two oceans, will be isolated from much of the suffering of the rest of the world—we will not survive unscathed though. Within the walls of our safe garden, snakes and others will spring up and threaten us from within. Our waters will turn brackish and stagnant too if we do not circulate them with those of the outside world—that same outside world which we can always reasonably expect to corrupt and poison us as we draw new vigor from it.
It’s a complicated relationship, wherein we tongue kiss each other with our hands wrapped around each other’s necks.
Once it gets to the other side, America will be so robust in 360 degrees C U B E D S P H E R E D!
Strength—kind, compassionate, upward-oriented strength—radiating in all directions, on all axes, and to all potential allies.
“Even though y’all hate, I love y’all mafuccas/
Friend or foe—y’all all my mafuccas!”
-Jay-Z, Hola Hovito
Love in all directions.
“Sweet King, Martin, sweet Queen Coretta,
Sweet Brother Malcolm, sweet Sister Betty …
—We made it in America!
-Frank Ocean, Made in America
I’ve vision-quested myself in my 20s and 30s. Perhaps I can be one of the more measured energies in the psyche of this great nation over the next two decades. I know what my country can do for me—but I am willing and able to give it a positive ROI.
Best,
-Dre
*It is important to mention China’s pervasive presence in American infrastructure (power cables, systems requiring updates, etc)
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