The biggest winner of the 2016 election is the anarchist. Despite what you think of Trump, there can be no doubt: globalism is dead. The anarchist’s centuries long battle against the centralization of power has finally turned in his favor. The power elite may never recover from this defeat.
However crude his presidency may turn out to be, Donald Trump’s election stopped trade deals like the TPP and shattered any hope of a global government in the near future. Very likely, we will soon end Obamacare and its mandate for people to buy a criminally overpriced product. Massachusetts, Nevada, and California legalized marijuana for recreational sale and use and it’s likely to spread further. In every respect, the enemies of government have won.
It is not an exaggeration to suggest that this election may signal a new political and economic paradigm for the entire human race. If you think this is a shocking overstatement, hear me out.
The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization
Ever since the age of the pyramids (and perhaps before), civilizations have tried to centralize as much power in as few hands as possible. For the elites, this self-serving activity has two major benefits. Obviously, it makes them as individuals wealthy and powerful, but when successful, it also makes the civilization as a whole more powerful as well, usually at the expense of foreign people.
And while the project of civilization has had its ups and downs, Western Civilization, for all its horrors, is by far the most successful civilization ever. Where most civilizations follow a predictable pattern of prosperity, followed by complacency, and finally collapse, the western world since Rome has continually managed to reform itself just in the nick of time.
Let’s go back 700 years to the late Middle Ages. The period of 1200 to about 1400 saw the European continent dominated by entrenched interests like the Catholic Church, and suffering under the great heresies, the Black Death, and class conflicts. The feudal system was no longer producing adequate wealth to suppress these societal uprisings. Ready to replace it was the nation state, somewhat weak then, but steadily growing in strength.
(In France, this was most notably marked by the 1307 attack on the religious order of the Knights Templar by King Philip IV, who saw them as a “state within a state.”)
Just as the threat of invasion and the failures of the Crusades were at their most debilitating, Europe suddenly discovered merchant capitalism, reinvigorating the society just in time. It meshed well with the rise of the state and eventually displaced the feudal land system that was dominant at that time. Western Civilization had been reborn with new customs and centralized leadership, something that would give it long legs far into the future.
After 500 years, the wealth generated by merchant capitalism became constrained by tariffs, militaries, and laws. When that appeared to be breaking down in favor of anarchistic social movements, as well as the French and American Revolutions, industrial capitalism and bureaucracy appeared, producing new economic gains and again breathing new life into the civilization.
You see, Western Civilization’s ability to reform is its most important asset. As in Darwinian evolution, it isn’t the strongest that survive, but those best equipped to adaptation. The west has benefited from an influx of cheap energy (for example, coal and oil) as well as new social-technologies (for example, bureaucracy and the internet), which has allowed it to transition to new modes of growth when it needed it the most.
The End of Globalism and Financial Capitalism
Two hundred years after industrial capitalism first took over the Western world, a “new world order” was formed under the guiding star of the United States and its economic model, which we call “financial capitalism.” It, along with globalism, promised new economic growth, just as the old system of factory production of trinkets seemed to be falling away.
Today’s financial capitalism uses debt to accomplish all of its growth. The attempt to create a global government has failed over and over again because the energy inputs required to centralize authority have evaporated. Instead of a steadily growing economy, we have a stagnant or shrinking economy being sustained with rapidly increasing amounts of debt, low interest rates, and government intervention. Economic policy looks more and more like a ponzi scheme every year.
There’s no doubt that globalism works. It is very efficient in managing global resources. But in their pursuit of wealth, the global elite completely disregarded the rights and liberties of people around the world. They continually sought to lower wages in the US and displaced the cultures of native societies. But that wasn’t what ultimately killed globalism. Globalism died because it didn’t work well enough to pay off all the people it was disenfranchising and demeaning. Globalism was already on hard times, but yesterday, the American public shoved it into the grave… bigly!
But without globalism, there is only one direction to go: backward, away from economic “progress” and instead move towards individual freedom. Of course, freedom always has a cost in treasure or blood, usually both. There is no going back without pain. In fact, its a necessary and unavoidable component of decentralization of power.
Trump the Unwitting Anarchist
You see, this has nothing to do with Trump the man. The forces at play are driven by limitations on resources. Trump could end up doing everything “right,” and still fail to stop the impending chaos caused by decades of can kicking. Whether he wishes it or not, Trump has become the harbinger of a new age.
As an added bonus, we get to see our enemies suffer. In 16 months, Trump and the movement he fostered destroyed two political dynasties beyond repair. The electoral and lobbying reforms he will (hopefully) introduce, will destabilize the controlling powers of this country even further. Silicon Valley tech giants are already talking about funding a campaign to have California secede from the United States. Everywhere you look, the system is cracking.
Coupled with the economic efficiency loss of globalism, we are looking at a very ugly and unstable economy. NYT writer and economist Paul Krugman is already declaring “a global recession with no end in sight.” It might seem odd to many readers why this would be seen as a positive, but the only alternative is to move forward into slavery. We cannot accept this.
I can certainly understand why most people don’t see it this way. Either their guy won and will “make America great again” or they are totally depressed and feel that he will ruin the country. But I view things in a broader, civilizational perspective. Mark my words, this is the dawn of a new age of humankind. Just as feudalism gave way to merchant capitalism and merchant capitalism gave way to industrial capitalism, financial capitalism is now giving way to something else. Total collapse? A new dark age? Not likely. But it will be a decentralized chaotic mess for the forseeable future. Hardly desirable, but certainly better than what Hillary Clinton and her elite supporters would have in store for us.
Trump’s election is perhaps the greatest victory in the entire history of anarchism. The challenge now will be to weather the coming storm, the collapse of the global ponzi scheme which has been radically upset by Trump’s victory. It might not be a bad idea to prepare.
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