"It is the time of the harvest, and the reaper cuts into the ripe grain with wide strokes. Mourning takes up her abode in the country cottages, and there is no one to dry the tears of the mothers. Whoever today still doubts the reality, the existence of demonic powers, has failed by a wide margin to understand the metaphysical background of this war. Behind the concrete, the visible events, behind all the objective, logical considerations, we find that which goes beyond the merely rational: the struggle against evil, against the servants of the antichrist.
Everywhere and always demonic powers lurk in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place in Creation, as founded for him by God in freedom; and when he yields to the forces of evil, he separates himself from the powers of a higher order; after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on and on to the next and to the next, at a furiously accelerating rate."
Die Weiße Rose, Fourth Leaflet, Munich, 1942
"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege."
Thomas Clement Douglas
"A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few, as we have learned to our sorrow."
Judge Learned Hand, 21 May 1944
"The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account
is a crime that has never been found out, because it was well executed."
Honoré de Balzac, Le Père Goriot
“When Fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power, such disregard for the rights of the weak, or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak.”
Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom
"It can only be hoped that American democracy will thoroughly realize, and this before it is too late, that fascism is not confined to any one nation or any one party; and it is to be hoped that it will succeed in overcoming the tendency toward dictatorial forms in the people themselves. Only time will tell whether the Americans will be able to resist the compulsion of irrationality or whether they will succumb to it.”
Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism
We are well on our way, Wilhelm, if we are not there already.
Stocks were reeling overnight, in reaction to Trump's intended imposition of fairly draconian tariffs on some of the US' biggest trading partners.
It is fairly well established in economics and history that tariffs tend to exacerbate the conditions of the economies involved.
Well, perhaps this time is different.
I can already see the true believers trying to rationalize what is going on.
'Tariffs are like taxes', they say, 'and that money flows into the Treasury, which is a good thing for our deficit.'
What is ironic is that these words come from the mouth of someone who would condemn an income tax increase on the wealthy as an abomination.
Well, we will see a lot more of that sort of thing going on.
As Hermann Hesse once said Siddharta, 'when the suffering becomes acute enough, one goes forward.'
But I suspect things are going to be getting worse, a lot worse.
Stocks managed to find a footing and brought themselves back closer to the closing prices on Friday.
Last night I speculated that might happen.
The oligarchy is flexing its financial power. Odder things are in the cards.
Gold and silver managed to rise back from their overnight selloff and come back to a modest gain.
The Dollar has rallied overnight, but fell back during the day.
So, Mexico has averted crisis for now, by sending its troops to the US border to 'restore order.'
And Canada has decided to stop drinking Southern Comfort, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels.
Denmark is trying to cut a deal to avoid a US Anschluss in Greenland.
The spines in Congress are turning to dust. And the media is playing its role as gracious acolytes to power.
Rough seas ahead, matey.
Have a pleasant evening.
