Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [158]
Similarly, the Pareto Principle models how relatively small forces and effects can wield outsized influence on larger systems: when 20% of the people are unemployed/opt out, then the effect on the employed 80% are outsized; when 20% of a neighborhood's homes are in foreclosure/abandoned, the neighborhood tips into a phase shift in which abandonment gathers momentum, and so on.
4. Citizen pushback to Elites over-reach. The Federal government's interest in limiting dumping of toxic materials and other visible environmental dangers was non-existent in the 1960s until rivers caught fire and the public roused itself to demand protection.
In my analysis, this was citizen pushback introduced a new negative feedback loop which did not exist before against capital/industrial over-reach (unfettered dumping of toxins because it was the cheapest way to dispose of industrial waste). The State, happily partnered with industrial polluters and other Elites, was forced (over extreme objections of the industrial corporations) to meet the demands of the voters/taxpayers for protection.
In other cases, it is State over-reach which generates citizen pushback in the form of tax rebellions like Prop 13 in California. Until that citizen rebellion, the State was delighted to raise property taxes more or less at will to fund its swelling fiefdoms.
In the case of citizen pushback, ideas which have been percolating in small groups (according to the Pareto principle, groups of around 4% of the populace can have outsized influence on 64% of the populace) suddenly crystallize in the public consciousness as the solution to a problem which suddenly presses on a majority of the citizenry.
It is thus of critical importance that these ideas circulate in advance of crisis.
5. Cultural transformations. The forces of internal and cultural transformation need not have a financial or economic foundation; for instance, consumption of alcoholic beverages rises and falls in cycles which do not correlate that closely to prosperity and depression, but which nonetheless affect legislation, enforcement, sales of alcohol, etc.
In a similar fashion, religious and spiritual movements can arise with profound effects on the body politic and the economy.
In the current era of interlocking crises, I believe it is inevitable that the propaganda, simulacra, ersatz "reforms," looting, collusion, embezzlement and fraud will engender a pervasive loss of institutional legitimacy and fatally erode trust in private and public Elites alike.
Such a movement gathers force not in the streets but in the minds of those whose belief in the system has faded to the point they choose to opt out rather than support a self-serving, over-reaching State and Plutocracy with their labor and taxes. This in a nutshell is how empires collapse: one person at a time changes their mind when they realize the system no longer serves their best interests.
Key concepts in this chapter:
The New State
Experience of change
Process of Internal Transformation
Information asymmetry
Citizen pushback
Chapter Twenty-Four: The Principles of Systemic Response
For those of you who skipped over the tedious analysis to "cut to the chase"--the goal here is what I term full-spectrum prosperity: health, well-being, and a meaningful life.
If this analysis is sound, then the pervasive devolution I have predicted will soon be apparent to us all. If this analysis is wrong, then we shall soon see a return to the debt-based prosperity of the past three decades.
It is an odd trait of both markets and human beings that by the time collapse is unfolding, it is too late to change the momentum or set up alternative plans. The Chinese have a proverb that expresses this very concisely: "When you're thirsty, it's too late to dig a well."
Essentially we face two basic choices: either complacently habituate to devolution and fatalistically