International Man: Since 2020, we’ve seen measures aimed at censoring and de-platforming voices that challenge the mainstream agenda.
Dr. Joseph Mercola has been targeted as a misinformation spreader and deplatformed. Nigel Farage has been de-banked because of his political views.
What’s your take on this trend of hyper-politicization of everything?
Doug Casey: It seems that most everything has been hyper-politicized. But it’s worse than that. There’s a more fundamental problem. The basic philosophical and psychological underpinnings of society have been so poisoned that everybody thinks in terms of politics—which is to say, they think the government should be used to coerce society.
You can’t easily cure the disease of hyper-politicization. The people who control academia, major corporations, the media, and the entertainment industry, among other things, actually hate the values of Western Civilization. Worse, these people control the apparatus of the State and use laws and regulations to enforce their views.
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DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is just the most recent manifestation of the sickness infecting the West. Everybody is viewed as either the oppressor or the oppressed, an essentially Marxist view that amplifies the intrinsically corrosive nature of politics.
As long as the State exists, you’re either the ruler or the ruled. That’s why I “identify,” to use a currently fashionable word, as an AnCap or anarcho-capitalist.
Artificial concepts like “safe spaces,” “trigger warnings,” and “microaggressions” have only come up in the last decade, but they’re now everywhere. They’re hard to wash away because they aren’t just pseudointellectual fads but signs of psychological derangement—or spiritual sickness. The syndrome can be termed “Wokism.”
Although the Wokesters are happy to pass laws, they’re finding laws aren’t really necessary to destroy their enemies. Just make it impossible for them to live normal lives. If they can’t use banks, can’t express themselves, or gain employment, they can be transformed into nonpersons.
It’s almost as if a variety of the Hindu caste system is being implemented here in the US. If a person can neither readily access his money nor say anything in public, then he’s really become a type of untouchable.
It’s a very, very bad trend. Especially since the Wokesters—who are the modern equivalents of French Jacobins or Soviet Bolsheviks—also control the apparatus of the State. That allows them to use coercion under the cover of law.
But the rot is so deep that they don’t even have to use laws. The mob, what the Romans called the capite censi, the headcount, can enforce their will by force of numbers. They can “cancel” their enemies using democracy.
International Man: China has a formal social credit system in which citizens’ actions, views, and behaviors are tied to the money system and everyday life.
While the rest of the world doesn’t function this way, things seem to be moving in the same direction.
Do you think this could become a reality in the West?
Doug Casey: We already have our own unofficial variety of the Chinese social credit system. They’re called credit scores, computed by outfits like Equifax. Younger people actually like to compare their credit scores, seeing them as signs of approval from the society at large. I know it’s a shocking concept, but you don’t really need a credit score if you pay cash for everything. Stay off the debt treadmill. You don’t have to be a good “consumer.”
“Consumerism,” however, is fading from the national consciousness, but mainly because everyone is too head-over-heels in debt to consume much more. It’s being replaced by “Wokeism.” Words and movements ending in “ism” typically involve using peer pressure, social opprobrium, and moral approbation to move people where you want to move them. On the one hand, they’re the glue that holds society together. But they can be manipulated by power-hungry sociopaths to destroy civil society.
Humans are herd animals. It’s dangerous to stand out because animals that move in flocks, herds, or packs tend to ostracize oddballs or outsiders. If you don’t go along with groupthink, the others might consider you a traitor.
This is what so-called cancel culture is enforcing on society. It’s very anti-individualistic. One characteristic that made Western civilization better than and different from any other civilization in world history is that Western civilization overtly endorsed and promoted individualism.
But a social credit score, Wokeist society is intensely anti-individualist. In fact, Wokism, like Marxism, is antithetical to every characteristic of Western Civilization (link).
Contrary to what the masses now believe, Wokism is not forward looking, or “progressive” in the sense of progress. It’s retrogressive. We’re going backward to a tribal-like culture.
International Man: Many aspects of life, from socializing to spending and earning money, have become digital.
Does this benefit or threaten individual freedoms?
Doug Casey: The computer is a double-edged sword. It’s like gunpowder. When gunpowder was developed, the ruling classes controlled it and used it to suppress the peasants. But it wasn’t long before the peasants were using gunpowder to unhorse armored knights and batter down their rulers’ castles. The tables were turned.
Technology has always worked to liberate the common man. Gunpowder led to physical liberation, and the printing press led to intellectual liberation. People no longer needed a priest to tell them what was in the Bible; they could read it for themselves.
The computer should liberate the common man in the same way. Right now, however, the State and its corporate minions still control most platforms and systems. But at some point, hackers are going to turn the tables. Or perhaps the system will collapse because it’s become overly complex and unwieldy. Central control and the State itself will then fall apart.
Unfortunately, the current trend is not only still in motion, but gaining momentum.
The important thing to remember is that computers aren’t your enemy. Your enemy is the State, which uses this technology to regiment and suppress its subjects.
International Man: A big part of this trend toward control has to do with de-banking individuals.
The bank won’t even tell you why they are closing your account, and you will probably have trouble opening accounts at other banks.
Essentially, someone could be pushed out of the traditional monetary system completely.
What’s your take on what people can do to combat this?
Doug Casey: It’s very clear that “the system” is moving towards even more digitalization of money. It’s moving towards a centralized Fedcoin, the evil twin of the decentralized Bitcoin. All your financial transactions will soon go through a central computer system.
Every dollar that you own will be in digital, not tangible or physical form. Your dollars will be controlled by a central authority, unlike cash, which is dispersed and untraceable. Commercial banks will still perform administrative functions and charge fees, but I suspect your dollars will be held by the Fed itself. It will be a big change. But since most banks today are already bankrupt—and things are in process of becoming much worse—it will be applauded for keeping us “safe.”
What should you do in the face of this?
The first thing you should do is redouble your efforts to produce more than you consume and save the difference. Just don’t save in dollars or any other digital fiat currency. You want to save in gold and Bitcoin. They are out of the system, and the government can’t easily touch them.
The second thing is, whenever possible, to request payment in gold or Bitcoin from people you do business with. It may be inconvenient for them to trade their digital dollars for gold or Bitcoin in order to pay you. But you should insist on it, if at all possible. It will not only protect your assets but further delegitimize the idea of fiat money.
It probably won’t do much good, but when you have a receptive listener, you may want to discuss some simple economics. Most people know nothing about the nature of money. Some will recognize the truth of what you’re saying. As Jesus said, “Let those who have ears hear.”
A lot of this is a psychological and moral battle. Doing and saying the right thing is important to help win the moral battle.
International Man: As a speculator, what types of opportunities do you see as a result of this trend? And what obstacles do people have to keep and grow their wealth?
Doug Casey: The economy is mutating before our very eyes. The whole world is overfinancialized—which means there’s an overwhelming amount of trading and leverage in every kind of stock, bond, property, commodity, derivative, and shitcoin. Huge numbers of people are gambling, using options instead of roulette wheels.
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The trillions of freshly created fiat dollars have encouraged everybody to gamble. Some use online casinos, others use Charles Schwab or Robinhood.
The amount of financial activity which doesn’t produce new wealth is quite amazing. It’s the result of the trillions of dollars of new purchasing media the Fed has pumped into society. As the Greater Depression bites in earnest, they’re financially devastated; people will forget the markets exist. In fact, they’ll be angered when reminded of them.
What should you do? Own gold and Bitcoin for savings. Over time, they’ll at least be stable, but they’ll probably go up relative to everything else.
The stocks of companies mining either gold or Bitcoin are excellent speculations. They’re fundamentally cheap and very depressed right now.
In your first question, you mentioned the hyperpoliticization of society. It’s causing huge problems. So you’ve got to insulate yourself politically—for practical purposes, that means geographical distance.
The financial environment is extremely risky, but the political environment is even more risky. You have to diversify politically, which means getting at least some of your money out of your home country. Foreign exchange controls are likely.
It’s best to own property in at least one foreign country if you have the assets to do so. And if you don’t, make sure you get the assets so you can do so.
Reprinted with permission from International Man.
