Is America making the same mistakes that led to a world wide economic depression and is the dollar no longer the premier global currency.

(Many of my post are repeating themselves.) According to a new pamphlet published by the institute for economic affairs--the answer is yes, "Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan." (You can read the full document here.) I guess the fact that the study is endorsed by a Nobel Laureate makes this a credible statement. It goes on to say that, "His policies even have the potential to consign the US to a similar fate as Argentina, which suffered a painful and humiliating slide from first to Third World status last century, the paper says." Although the country is headed down this path, I don't think things will get that bad. premier

Government spending money to solve the economic situation will hurt the economy in the long run. "In particular, the authors, economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House's plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years." There is no doubt that the current economic policies are designed to purposely hurt the economy for the purpose of remaking it and America.

The current economic policies being carried out are comparable to what FDR did, and his policies hurt the economy and delayed economic recovery. "The study represents a challenge to the widely held view that Keynesian fiscal policies helped the US recover from the Depression which started in the early 1930s. The authors say: "[Franklin D Roosevelt's] interventionist policies and draconian tax increases delayed full economic recovery by several years by exacerbating a climate of pessimistic expectations that drove down private capital formation and household consumption to unprecedented lows." If one reads _The forgotten Man_, by Amity Shlaes, one can see how the policies of Hoover and FDR hurt the economy and how the Great Depression was directly caused and exacerbated by government policies. As a result of the economic troubles of that time; the government increased its size and influence in the free market, much like the government is doing now.

The report states how the current economic policies will lead to a bleak economic future. "The prognosis is catastrophic if[IF] projected government policies are not cut back. According to the White House's own estimates, the federal budget deficit in 2009 will be $1.6 trillion, approximately 11.2pc of the overall economy, the highest on record since the end of the Second World War. In 2019, the national debt will represent 76.5pc of the US national economy, the highest proportion since just after the Second World War. In such circumstances, the international reserve status of the US dollar will not survive. As it fades, so interest rates on government securities will rise and the real burden of servicing the debt will increase. In such circumstances, the US economy will teeter on the edge of a black hole." This level of debt will have negative effects on the economy. China and Russia have already called for a new reserve currency to replace the dollar. China, a communist country, has expressed concerns, to the point of laughing at our Treasury Secretary, over the value and safety of their investments in U.S. dollars due to the U.S. printing and spending huge sums of money. These two countries are not the only ones calling for the dollar to be replaced.

In response to countries running up huge deficits, the UN is now calling for a new global currency to replace the dollar." The dollar should be replaced with a global currency, the United Nations has said, proposing the biggest overhaul of the world's monetary system since the Second World War." The article states that this call is in response to "the potential of countries running large deficits and would help stability." This is an interesting effect of the current global economic situation--a more unified global economy, an increase in the powers of international regulatory bodies, and America's decline of its influence on the world stage. The dollar's days are numbered. A new shift is taking place, I don't have any better words to state this better. Maybe somebody with knowledge of foreign affairs would know more about this.

This all could not be true. The current mild economic crises led to people choosing the current government. If there is some huge economic trouble in the future, how would people react? I like "Doctor Dooms'" take on the current economic situation. "Pessimism porn". Anyways, more of the same.

Change comes to Japan!

I am not familiar with politics in Japan. I don't think that the current conservative party that has held power in Japan for all but eleven months since 1955 were very conservative, they were called liberal Democrats. I came across this news article on yahoo news and I noticed this headline on the front of a Newspaper. Japan is facing a similar economic down turn that America is facing and it seems like people in Japan reacted in the same manner as Americans did--vote out the ruling party and replace it with a more liberal party that promises change.

Some goals of the new party, "The Democrats are also proposing toll-free highways, free high schools, income support for farmers, monthly allowances for job seekers in training, a higher minimum wage and tax cuts. The estimated bill comes to 16.8 trillion yen ($179 billion) if fully implemented starting in fiscal year 2013 — and critics say that will only further bloat Japan's already massive public debt." Critics of this policy of spending state, "But with Japan's public debt heading toward 200 percent of gross domestic product, the Democrats plan has been criticized as a financial fantasy that would worsen Japan's precarious fiscal health." Two hundred percent is rather high, I think America's is around 40%. More government handouts--sounds like our version of hope and change. Japan also has an aging population and a dwindling population. This means there will be less tax revenue at the same time the government will have to be taking care of an increasing older population--not good for the economy. It looks like Japan will be having the same issues with national debt that America faces and it will be coming to the fore front around the same time. The same economic troubles and bad policies are being carried out in other major economic powers of the world, maybe not the whole world, but these economic problems could be an issue shared by the whole world at some later point in time.

It looks like there might not be a major shift in foreign policy, "In foreign relations, the Democrats have said they want Tokyo to be more independent from Washington on diplomatic issues, though they have stressed that the U.S. will remain Japan's key ally and that they want to keep relations good, while also strengthening ties with their Asian neighbors." But according to his other statements, one could see a major shift, "Party leader Yukio Hatoyama, set to become Japan's next prime minister, has been vocal about distancing the country from Washington and forging closer ties with its Asian neighbors." It might just be political talk and there might not be any major foreign policy ramifications.

Fox news, "The Democrats' solution is to move Japan away from a corporate-centric economic model to one that focuses on helping people." I just love hearing politicians bashing and demonizing capitalism. Those evil corporations don't stand a chance over there in Japan. I believe Japan has the highest corporate tax rate, America takes the second spot. From these facts, one can see a bleak economic future for Japan.

I thought this was interesting because it shows how the current trends in America are occurring in other parts of the world. This could indicate a global trend, and the negative effects of these trends could be felt by the whole world at a later point in time.

Some interesting videos from hot air dot com about America's future and some new deficit figures.

This guy is a trend researcher and he supposedly has a good track record of being correct, he predicted the current economic conditions. He predicts a bleak future and a big economic collapses within the next decade. It appears to agree with some of the other sources I have read. Some of his doom and gloom outlook can be viewed on his website. He states their will be bands of robbing marauders, boss kidnappings, and social unrest that will lead to a revolution.

I think there is some element of truth to his outlooks; but I think he is playing a little off of people's fear and uncertainties about the current economic situation, and I don't think it will get as bad as he describes it. I don't think there will be a total collapse of society. An interesting question he asks is, "what will all of the college students do when they complete school"? I hope the economy will be better by then, but from the various sources I have read that is somewhat doubtful. The current policies and direction this government is taking America will have some major ramifications for us latter down the road. This is worth listening to and maybe you can gleam some bit of truth out of his gloom and doom predictions.

By the way, the White House ten year budget deficit projection is now up to nine trillion dollars up from the previous seven trillion dollars, "The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to approximately $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday." This was was the original figure of the CBO, but the news is that the White House is admitting the fact.

"Record-breaking deficits have raised concerns about America's ability to finance its debt and whether the United States can maintain its top-tier AAA credit rating."

It goes on to say that higher taxes are on the way which will further slow economic recovery and growth. It is worth noting what is coming our way. I am sure things will change for the better.

Ronald Reagan's thoughts on socialized medicine.

I got this off of Rush Limbaugh dot com. The video starts off with a quote from Norman Thomas:"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."

The main point that I get from Reagan's speech is how socialized medicine is a way to turn America into a socialized nation: "One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism 0n a people has been by way of medicine. It is very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggest medical care for people who can not possibly afford it."

This is a very good video that relates to current events. Reagan shows how socialized medicine is a big step towards statism and relates this to history. Worth ten minutes of your time. If socialized medicine is established in America and after this, "other Federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have know it in this Country until, one day, as Norman Thomas said, 'we will awake to find that we have socialism'. And if you don't do this, and if I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset ears telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in America when men were free." The statist, central planners, big government people, socialist, communist, fascist, and any other name you want to call them have been trying to establish tyranny in America for a long time. The current attempt to enact health care reform is just another attempt, even if those who are pushing for it and supporting it don't realize this. One must remember that America is a fluke and an exception to the rest of the history of mankind that has been marked by tyranny. The statist, utilizing the "useful idiots", the ignorant, and human nature, will not give up until they accomplish their goal of destroying the world's shinning beacon of freedom-- doing it under the guise of taking care of you and proving for you.

Nazis and environmentalism.

(Pawing off of others' good work, with a little spin of my own.) I found this interesting article linked from Rush Limaugh.com. It states how the Nazis used environmentalism to gain control over Germany.
"It has been elaborately pointed out how the device of environmentalism is especially favoured by tyrants as a means of controlling their subjects. The current 'green' movement, as we know, is no exception...Throughout the 20th century there have been multiple examples of tyrants implementing a very strict environmental policy to which their subjects had to conform, sometimes through the collection of taxes, sometimes at the barrel of a gun; usually a subtle mixture of the two. It is a well documented though seldom highlighted fact that the Nazis were very much into environmentalism- not for environmentalism's sake of course, but rather as a means of oppression and control. As it turns out, environmentalism fits the form of tyranny like a well tailored suit."

"Once Hitler consolidated his position and that of his party, the true face of Nazism had to be masked somewhat to appease the people who generally desired an age of peace instead of another disastrous World War...But in order to realise his grand scheme, it can be credited to the cunning of the dictator that he realised he could not submit the German people by terror alone...As Hitler reasoned, lots of trees and wide-open spaces would take the minds of his subjects off the war he was preparing and the liberties they had lost along the way."

"In the 2005 published book _How Green were the Nazis?: Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich_ the authors explain the Nazis received a warm welcome by the existing environmental organisations as there was 'an ideological overlap between Nazi ideas and conservationist agendas'...But the hardcore environmentalists who had found their champion in the person of Adolf Hitler were soon to be disappointed. By the end of the 1930s, with a World War imminent, Hitler abandoned most of the environmental pretexts he had used to trick the masses, hook, line and sinker, replacing it with a war-ethos of sacrifice for the greater good and 'lebensraum'."

"It will not be necessary to further point out the many similarities to our own time, where any and every environmental 'good intention' is hijacked by the elite for the advancement of its own objectives. It is true; most environmentalists love collectivism and are prepared to marry almost every regime that claims to work for a clean and green environment. That makes this group extremely susceptible to the arguments of tyrants."

It is not so hard to believe Patrick Moore when he stated that the environmental movement has been hijacked by communist and socialist. Another good illustration on how communism is creeping into America though the EM. History is just repeating itself. Hopefully, this is nothing mind blowing or hard to comprehend for people, especially when looking back on history.

An interesting Organizing for Health Care reform picture.

This is the official poster of the President Obama's health care reform. I think it is interesting because of the rays coming from the sun and a mass of people standing behind and in support of the "one".

This has touch of a messianic, religious connotation to it. This illustrates the cult like following of President Obama and the state of the American people. I am sure there have been such posters in the past--I don't know--so maybe I am looking at this through a narrow perspective, but it is still interesting in my view.

Nancy Pelosi stated that all of the protesters showing up at these health care meetings are Nazis but sweetness and light.com shows how this logo is similar to the Nazis swastika. I am reading _Liberal Fascism_ by Jonah Goldberg which states that at the core, modern day liberalism is the blood brother of Nazis and Communist. Anyways, this does not mean a great deal to me; but, again, still interesting.

A good video clearly illustrating President Obama lying about the purposes of Health care and why people can not comprehend tyranny.

I got this video from Hotair.com. The video clearly shows the main goal of health care reform--creating a single payer system. Obama stated that this is not his purpose, but from his and other Democrats earlier remarks, we can clearly see that he is lying. They have to hid their real intentions because they know they won't get support for this bill otherwise.

Health care reform seems to becoming unpopular, as shown by public reaction. There is also a poster in LA of Obama. There is some hope that people turning against the "one". From the public reaction, I think that health care reform will not pass in its current form but maybe in a watered downed version.

There are people in this country who are trying to remake American into some centrally planned country. Obama was honest when he said that he wanted to fundamentally change America. Too bad people were caught up in their emotions and not able to think about this statement. Most people are naive and just can not comprehend that there are people who want to control them. People think that everybody else operates according to the same thinking as they do. This prevents them from realizing this. Rush Limbaugh has a good statement about health care reform stating why people can not comprehend this: "They're going to control family planning... But, it's about controlling everything. People just can't understand. Americans, the average American, you tell 'em, for example, this guy's[Obama] purposely destroying the US economy. That doesn't compute. People do not understand. They can't think that there are Americans who would do that. They can't think they've actually elected a president and have members of Congress who genuinely want to deny the basic liberty and freedom our US Constitution and other founding documents have proclaimed."

"When I have people tell me this, I point out world history to them. The history of the world is tyranny. Human beings are viciously mean to each other. The history of humanity is tyranny, torture, dungeons, dictatorship, fear. The exception has been the United States of America. That's the whole thing behind American exceptionalism. The exception to human nature and world human history is the United States of America. The people that want to control others so that they have more power, the people that want to limit liberty around the world, they're all over the place. They've always been all over the place. They surround us. That's why we're despised and feared. We represent the only opposition to them, and they're everywhere. They're in the Middle East. They're in Europe. They're in Asia. They're in South America, Central America. They're all over. We are surrounded. And now we have a president who's sympathetic to those people and is engaging in policies that will replicate the same kind of loss of freedom and liberty that has been the traditional lot in life for the average human being since the beginning of time."

"So you tell the American people, "Okay, they've finally done it, these statists, these tyrannical types, they've finally gotten their foot in the door of the United States of America," they have. And this has been something that a lot of Americans have been fighting for a hundred years, these people have been around, we fought it 50 years, certainly. But they never stop. The quest for this kind of power is insatiable. These people are no different than whoever the bad guy was in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Sauron. No matter what they get they're never happy. They have an addiction that can never be satisfied or quelled, by definition addictions can't. And most Americans with a historical perspective that begins with the day that they were born just can't fathom the idea that people of the likes of people in world history who have been tyrannical dictators and torturers and murderers, that doesn't happen, that's what's America. Well, people have been trying to create this in America for a long, long, long, long time."

Hopefully Americans will wake up and realize what is happening. Most won't until their lives are directly affected. I think most of this will be defeated, but those that want power will never stop--look back at world history. There is a war going on between freedom and tyranny that is as old as humanity. You can trace it back to its fundamental generalization if you want. It is time for people to wake up!

Is Sarah Palin, the shinning beacon of conservatism, a conservative or a modern day progressive similar to Theodore Roosevelt?

(I know the theme is old, but it is coming from a new source.) This was sparked by hearing Sarah Palin stating in her farewell address that America is a democracy and her earlier remarks and actions about returning the oil wealth back to the people of Alaska. Democracy means people rule; the belief that America is a democracy has helped to destroy freedom and helped to bring about a larger government and, ultimately, leads to tyranny. Roosevelt was a big progressive that helped carry America towards bigger government. Her statements fit within the shift in the nature of our government that Theodore Roosevelt helped to implement and has been occurring these past one hundred years. Read Roosevelt's speech _the Right of the people to rule_. Roosevelt remarked once, " to hell with the constitution when people want coal." You have to read some of his speeches, some are motivating, to see the shift in the nature of our government that he helped to bring about in order to be able to see how Palin might carry on the same shift in our government as shown by her remark about America being a democracy beliefs regarding oil companies in Alaska.

Some excerpts from Roosevelt's speech that illustrates the shift in the nature of the American government, "Mr. Taft again and again, in quotations I have given and elsewhere through his speech, expresses his disbelief in the people when they vote at the polls. In one sentence he says that the proposition gives "powerful effect to the momentary impulse of a majority of an electorate and prepares the way for the possible exercise of the grossest tyranny." Elsewhere he speaks of the "feverish uncertainty" and "unstable determination" of laws by "temporary and changing majorities"; and again he says that the system I propose "would result in suspension or application of constitutional guaranties according to popular whim," which would destroy "all possible consistency" in constitutional interpretation. "Well-meaning, short-sighted persons have held up their hands in horror at my proposal to allow the people themselves to construe the constitution which they themselves made...
"Until within the last sixty years they were treated as having specific meanings; "property" meant tangible property; "liberty" meant freedom from personal restraint, or, in other words, from imprisonment in its largest definition. About 1870 our courts began to attach to these terms new meanings. Now "property" has come to mean every right of value which a person could enjoy, and "liberty" has been made to include the right to make contracts[read the appendix: Man's rights in _Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal for a better explanation]...the political history of man may be grouped about these three terms, "life, liberty, and property." There is no act of government which cannot be brought within their definition, and if the courts are to cease to treat them as words having a limited, specific meaning, then our whole government is brought under the practically irresponsible supervision of judges[ this statement is aimed at destroying the foundation and basis of judicial review which is necessary to maintain the rule of law which this in turn is necessary to prevent an arbitrary rule of some leader, see _The Constitution of liberty_ to better understand this]."
(William Draper Lewis supporting Roosevelt):[ If a persistent majority of the people of New York State want a workman's compensation act, they should have it...."I would have been very proud to have been the author of that plan, although I want to emphasize the fact that it involves no new principle, only a new method....
"Friends, our task as Americans is to strive for social and industrial justice, achieved through the genuine rule of the people. This is our end, our purpose. The methods for achieving the end are merely expedients, to be finally accepted or rejected according as actual experience shows that they work well or ill....
"We stand for 'the rule of the many in the interest of all of us,[collectivism]
for the rule of the many in a spirit of courage, of common sense, of high purpose, above all in a spirit of kindly justice toward every man and every woman."
(This is a deep topic and I want to read some books that were written about this. Hopefully from these quotes one can catch the drift in the change the Roosevelt proposed--a larger more active government.)

This is a transcript of the Hannity and Colmes show showing how Palin wants to return the oil wealth back to the people. I first heard this a while ago and it sparked my interest.
HANNITY: The average citizen — if I was a resident of Alaska, you would write me a check every year for $2,069?
PALIN: Well, depending on how the stock market is doing. Over the last five years — an average.
HANNITY: And then you also gave recently an extra check for $1,200?
PALIN: I did. Because the price of a barrel of oil is so high right now that state coffers are growing, but the family's checkbook is being decimated because of the high cost of energy.
HANNITY: I have to move to Alaska. New York taxes are killing me.
PALIN: Well, what we're doing up there is returning a share of resource development dollars back to the people who own the resources. And our constitution up there mandates that as you develop resources it's to be for the maximum benefit of the people, not the corporations, not the government, but the people of Alaska." Who determines if it is being developed for the maximum benefit of the people? The government will determine this. The government can use this "benefit of the people" excuse to control a energy source and increase the its power and influence.

Palin talking about oil companies developing Alaska's oil resources in her farewell address said, "we now insist that those who hold leases to develop our[Alaska's] resources that they do so now on Alaska's terms." A business operating on the government's terms. This was a big theme in _Atlas Shrugged_.

According to the Alaskan constitution the oil does belong to the people. The question is if that is the way things should be? An interesting fact is that the more oil companies have to pay the government to develop oil the more they charge for it. So those "checks" that are given to the Alaskan people just cancel themselves out and increase the cost of oil for everybody else who buys the oil. So the government owns a resource and demands that a business develop it according to its terms and charges fees for it that is passed on to the consumer.

The problem is that the developed oil doesn't belong to the people. It takes a private oil company to come along and develop these resources using private capital and private knowledge. Without the efforts of the oil companies, the oil just stays in the ground and is of no use to the Alaskan people or anyone else. Ayn Rand on talking about the property status of airwaves in _Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal_ chap 10': "Any material element or resource which, in order to become of use or value to men, requires the application of human knowledge and effort should be private property--by the right of those who apply the knowledge and effort."

Although Palin is certainly more conservative than just about any other elected Republican, the main point of this is to illustrate that she will continue the big government tide that has been advancing and occasionally receding these past 100 years or so in our country--she has a streak of progressivism, and if elected to a national office she will continue the progress of the shift that our country and the world has been and is headed towards. The shinning beacon of conservatism holds these progressive beliefs. Whether under conservatism or liberalism, the slow and gradual direction that we are headed does not change. I could be wrong about this. I just don't agree with her premise about telling oil companies how to do business and returning the oil wealth back to the Alaskan people. I also don't agree with her statement about America being a Democracy. I know the theme is old but it is worth noting, in my opinion. It seems to me that in order for one to be elected to the Presidency they must hold certain beliefs.

Government to control how much executives at all publicly traded companies are paid.

(This picture is relevant to a lot of my post. It sums up my points fairly well.)

A Government appointed pay Czar will be determining how much executives at companies that receive bailout money are paid. The government forced some of these banks to receive bailout money; thus, leading to the government controlling these industries. "The Obama administration says excessive executive compensation must be better managed to prevent the sort of risk-taking that jeopardizes the economy." "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday the Obama administration wants Congress to pass new laws giving securities regulators power to force companies to let shareholders have more say in setting executive pay." This means President Obama also wants to control executive pay for "all" publicly traded companies. This is taking control of these businesses out of the hands of the businesses and putting the control in the hands of the masses. Who will be controlling the masses by stoking wealth envy? This is a new era for America with this level of government control over the economy. Ronald Reagan once said, "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!" This level of government involvement in the economy will be with us for a long time even if the conservatives gain back control of the government. Unless people demand action.

The government is using wealth envy as a smoke screen and an excuse to gain more control over the economy and our lives. The government is pandering to the worse in human nature and using it for its own purposes-- gaining more control.

This will create a "brain drain" that will drive out talent in these businesses. This will lead to lead to poor management of businesses; thus helping to contribute to the poor performance and downfall of these businesses and creating a vacuum. The government will step in and fill the vacuum. Ultimately this will lead to more government control of the economy. This sounds like what I read in _Atlas Shrugged_.

Another point to illustrate that the government is gaining more control of America, and another indicator of where America is heading.

Is the World reaching a boiling point of some sort?

Toejamm made an interesting observation in the form of a question, so I would like to state my opinion about the matter. I like to put things into perspective. If you were living a thousand years in the past, you would notice that people were more likely than not saying that the end of the world is near and they would be saying how horrible things are. Mankind has been believing that the world has been coming to an end and the current situation in the world, especially their own world, is bad or getting worse.

I would think those people living during the decline and the fall of the Roman empire, or any other empire or nation, believed that the world was coming to an end. And from the prospective of those people the world was coming to an end; it was just their little slice of the world.

I think that men saying the end of the world is coming to an end or is near is their way of putting changes that are constantly occurring whether the changes are political, economic, climate, or the change of the current state of affairs of their nation or land in perspective. There is some truth to the statement, and all throughout human history the world has been changing and nations have fallen and the little slices of people's universe have come to an end.

Maybe it seems like our slice of the world is coming to an end with the current state of affairs. I have not lived for a long time, so I have a rather short,narrow perspective on the current state of affairs as compared to the historical picture. The human life is too short to really comprehend or notice the changes that are occurring in the world over the course of history, and too few people devote their life to the study of history, nor do they have any effect on the direction of the world. Most people are swept up in the tide of change. John T Flynn states: "Human societies come under the influence of great tides of thought and appetite that run unseen deeply below the surface of society. After a while these powerful streams of opinion and desire move the whole social mass along with them without the individuals in the mass being aware of the direction in which they are going. Up to a certain point it is possible to resist these controlling tides and to reverse them, but a time comes when they are so strong that society loses its power of decision over the direction in which it is going." I believe that the tide that is coming is some dictatorial rule--not the brutal Hitler or Stalin rule but the soft, mild, and parental dictatorship-- of some sort engulfing the whole world. One that the whole world will willingly and eagerly bring about and submit itself to.

The current state of affairs could be no different than what has happened throughout history. But the current state of affairs are different from those of the past ; much like the past, from that point of history, state of affairs have been different from that past . The current state of affairs are very unique from those of the past. Technology has advanced at such a rapid paste throughout the past 110 years and is continuing to expand at amazing rates exponentially. For example, the rate of computer processing power. Look at the JOE 2008 report. No doubt the world ten years from now could be very different than what it is today from due to the rate of change occurring in technology. The question is if mankind can keep up with those changes?

Nuclear technology is a deadly and new weapon that changes the nature of war and the how nations relate to each other. No longer is it likely for major warring states to have an all out battle. Now warring or competing nations will try to take each other over through peace, diplomacy, collaboration, and infiltrating each others political structure to bring about change from within their opposing state. This is a catalyst to bring about the need for world wide collaboration and unity. A fundamental change in how nations relate to each other. Look at how China is building itself up by linking its economy with America's and their constant hacking of the pentagon's defense systems, and one should note the previous attempts of the communist to take America over from within. To deny that this happened is to gloss over historical facts. Today the communist and socialist fall under the liberalism banner. Six time presidential candidate for the socialist ticket stated that: "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." So in effect the socialist have been successful in their attempt to take over America by taking control of a major political party and implementing most of their ideals. Notice that they brought this about by appearing to be something different than what they are. Disguised.

From reading the JOE 2008 report you can ascertain that the world is very volatile and there is a lot of potential for conflict and for trouble spots around the world to erupt into major situations, and that these eruptions can easily impact the world as a whole. Globalization is another factor that makes the current sate of affairs different from the past. Globalization is a fact of life-- it is here to stay. The world is now interconnected and more dependent on each individual nation. What happens in one little part of the world could easily effect the whole world and warrant action by the whole world. The world is becoming one, more united, and more interdependent. This affects the current state of affairs by the fact that an event or societal change or a collapse of one nation, especially a major world player, has potential to effect the whole world by becoming, in effect, a world wide situation; whereas in the past these events would be relatively isolated to a particular region of the world. The changes that are occurring in one part of the world will effect the whole world and warrant a united action on the part of the world, so the fate and direction of the world as a whole is more united. Listen to the various speeches of the most powerful man, for the time being, in the world, Barack Obama, to get a general feel for the direction of the world-- globalization, the need for the world to work together and unite behind a common cause, terrorism, climate change, health care crises, and economic crises etc. There is still a lot of tension in the world that would prevent a truly united one world government to occur without a major event happening to force this to come about but the general direction of the world is headed towards that one world rule.

There is no doubt in my mind that if America doesn't change course--Big IF, America will become a centrally planned country ruled by a select few. There is a very real threat of America having an economic collapse, IF America doesn't change course. Look at my other posts. The world's economies are very interconnected, look at how the current economic crises started in America then spread throughout the whole world and cause a world wide economic recession. If America's economy were to collapse that would cause a chain reaction throughout the whole world and warrant a united action by the whole world. The economies of the world are being built on a foundation of debt, and to understand where this is leading you must understand what deficit spending is and the end result of it. Current events are an illustration of the fact of globalization; and that coupled with the changes taking place in the world shows one where the world is heading. The current economic conditions could eventually turn into a catalyst that would force the world to unite for a common purpose and bring about some new world order or rule.

The current state of the vast majority of people is interesting. Ayn Rand stated that: "Culturally, we are approaching the point where anyone can take over, provide his doctrines are sufficiently irrational." The people of today are ready to follow and be ruled over by some "rock star." Look at how people blindly followed President Obama with a god like reverence and how people emotionally fall in love with pop stars. All throughout the various books I have read there has been a theme that runs throughout all of them, and that theme--the fact that their point is not to prove this particular point makes it more compelling to me-- is that from the perspective of various authors the world or a single nation in the past eighty or so years has been approaching a point of decline or standing on an edge of a cliff about to fall into some form of socialism/communism/fascism or some form of world wide dictatorship. The parental dictatorship. Not some Hitler bringing death and destruction, but through peace and under the guise of taking care of you and saving you from some disaster. Not the end of the world apocalypse version of anarchy and roaming bands of marauders and utter ruin. Nor the world being consumed in fire and brimstone. But the world existing much as it does today only that it will be ruled by some one world political system that people willingly submit themselves to. It is conceivable that if the world is provided with a catalyst people would be willing to submit themselves to some one world rule. Look at how America reacted to a relatively mild economic crises-- they chose a bigger government to solve this problem and are giving up a lot of their freedoms in the process.

The themes throughout movies and pop culture are another indicator of the direction that America and the world is heading and is helping to prepare the minds of people for some one world rule--usually one man saving the world from a worldwide disaster by uniting the world. People are so eager to hero worship some person. Look at the plane pilot who landed in the New York river or how eagerly people label servicemen heroes not for going beyond the call of duty but for only doing their duty--the term now has no meaning. I believe the current state of people that is reflected in movies and pop culture is another proof of the fact that people will follow one man or one political group if a catalysis presents itself.

Religion is also helping to prepare the people of the world to accept some form of one world rule. Most religions are looking for a return of some deity that will set up some paradise here on earth or take them away to that paradise. Most people are waiting in hope for a deity to appear. What if the state or some government equates itself as this world savor and usher in of the paradise and people equate and incorporate this with their religious views? The leaders of Iran believe that their deity will return soon but first Israel and the west needs to be destroyed. Communism and socialism have already tried to create this utopia in the past.

There is an attempt to destroy the foundation of our society through the education system, economic realm, pop culture, religion and the education system and rebuild it into some form of a united world ruled by some one political group. Read Toohey's speech in chapter 14 in 'part 4' of _the Fountainhead_ to learn the methods of subjugating a people to a political system. You will find that these methods are being implemented by the political systems of the world and President Obama's speeches, min 12 is good place to start, are very similar to Toohey's.

Overall, the state of the people is at the point where it is very possible for one political group or some new world order to take over the world by having people willingly submit themselves to this rule provided there is some major catalyst such as a world wide economic crises or some unique threat to the whole world or this is possible to happen over the natural course of history without a major catalyst to push the world to that point. The current direction the world is heading--IF things don't change-- shows that decades down the road the world could united and under the thumb of some one world political system. It will be brought about by peace and appearing to be something other than what it is. I don't think this is necessarily some big scheme but just the natural evolution of human affairs playing itself out, not some big "uu and awe amazing out of this world conspiracy theory". Most of mankind is and has lived under some kind of brutal rule by a small group of men. The global, united nature of the world today will just lead to this rule being a world wide situation although in a much more mild form.

Is the world coming to an end? Not anymore so than it has in the past. Mankind is still here and will be for a very long time in my opinion. What will the world be like that mankind of the future will be living in? Not some death camp but maybe similar/milder to the world of _1984_ like Tocqueville talked about. One where we will still have lots of freedoms but with some big brother watching over us. Most people are unconcerned with the tides that carry us to our future and will be blindly swept away to wherever it will take us. I hope to be one that is aware of that tide that is rolling beneath the waves, possibly to hit land and manifest itself, and the direction it will lead us. Hopefully I am over stating the tide. An interesting extreme take on the current events that might make one see things differently. Some constructive criticism would be helpful. Anyways, a fun and interesting take on things, although overstated.