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Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, 1841
"The inability to identify with others was unquestionably the most important psychological condition for the fact that something like Auschwitz could have occurred in the midst of more or less civilised and innocent people. The silence under the terror was only its consequence. The coldness of the societal mindset, the isolated competitor, was the precondition, as indifference to the fate of others, for the fact that only very few people reacted.
The torturers know this, and they put it to test ever anew. One must come to know the mechanisms that render people capable of such deeds, must reveal these mechanisms to them, and strive, by awakening a general awareness of those mechanisms, to prevent people from becoming so again."
Theodor Adorno, Education After Auschwitz, 18 April 1966
"Foolishness is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. Against such foolishness we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the foolish person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the foolish person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.
This much is certain, that it is in essence not an intellectual defect but a human one. There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet foolish, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but foolish."
Dietreich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Paper From Prison, 1945
"The gates of Hell are terrible to behold, are they not? The lofty mind of man can be imprisoned by the artifices of its own making. If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves."
E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World, 2008
Stocks dumped hard today, after an overnight attempt to rally the futures.
They recovered a bit during the day. A record breaking IPO is due out later this week. The second chart below puts it in perspective.
They will try to defend the markets until they squeeze this one out.
The first chart shows the extreme concentration of wealth in the US, which is the direct results of crony capitalism and the corruption of the political process by big money.
Gold and silver were hit hard again.
Bitcoin failed in its attempt to recover its trading range.
Trump's 'peace deal' turns out again to be a false narrative for a Monday market pump and dump.
VIX is starting to wake up. It will have to wait for Mr. Musk's Wild Ride.
Best to remain cautious. This is hardly over. The consequences of recklessness and pride are still waiting to be delivered.
Here is a speech which Thomas Massie delivered on the floor of the House the other day. Not many people have been aware of this disgraceful episode in American history, which continues to be shamefully covered up even until today. Thomas Massie shines like a bright light in a room filled with craven servants to power.
"You are the very cause of your ignorance, yourselves. You put away the light, yourselves; you first pluck out both your own eyes, yourselves; and after that other men’s too, so that the blind may lead the blind, until you both fall into the pit.”
Thomas More, The Sadness of Christ at Gethsemane, Tower of London, 1535
Have a pleasant evening.
