In recent months, there has not been a day without an agitated discussion of the current coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 has affected, directly and indirectly, millions of people around the world. Every family member, friend and co-worker talks about it.
Whether you believe in the official story, are reasonably skeptical or think it is a full-blown hoax, the fact of the matter remains: the consequences of the event are going to be in history books. Politically and economically, the situation is no different from a major war or cataclysm. As a rule, such events provide ample opportunity for governments around the world to tighten the screws in many areas of life.
"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."—Rahm Emanuel
What can we reasonably expect when we get to the other side?
A Not-So-Unexpected Future
Economy Reset
Today's global financial crisis is already worse than 2008, and it may be just the beginning.
However, as many bitcoiners and goldbugs know, this has been coming anyway. The amount of money printed by central banks since 2008 has been staggering. But nothing compares to what is happening today.
Nick Timiraos and Julia-Ambra Verlaine
CNBCnow
It is no wonder that the "told you so" attitude is quite common among us. Central banks created a monster that devoured productive people's wealth and enriched anyone close to the printer. Having created the problem, they are the ones providing solutions, of course! This time, by giving "free" money.
The Federal Reserve created a high velocity trash economy & destroyed the concept of saving, fragilizing families, businesses, and jobs across the economy, leaving them desperate for any politician to bribe & buy their allegiance with the wealth stolen from them.#TheFiatStandard https://t.co/xS3IQs6wDc
— Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean) March 18, 2020
I am not an economics or traditional finance expert, but some things only require intuition and common sense to be understood. What is happening now is not difficult to grasp. The pandemic situation, in my opinion, is being used to transition to a new financial system. Or, rather, put a new skin on the old beast.
Meanwhile, enthusiastic bitcoiners tout the end of the dollar and the fiat system. But if you are more reserved, then you may consider that global central bankers have something else up their sleeve. The dollar may simply "reset" (as it happened with the rouble in Russia in 1998), and a new world reserve currency, possibly Special Drawing Rights, will take its place in international relations. Do not get me wrong: I do believe bitcoin is the best candidate for this position, but not this time around.
Another, more local change that is likely to occur is the introduction of Universal Basic Income. UBI is an old socialist idea of wealth redistribution in a new shiny wrap: free, unconditional money for all. What could go wrong?
#YuriQuotes @titusgebel pic.twitter.com/jZbXvxD6iV
— Yuri de Gaia (@Y_deGaia) March 19, 2020
Increased Totalitarianism
It is not a secret that whenever governments impose temporary measures, they often remain permanent. Materialistically speaking, if you rent a Ferrari for a short period, you feel sad going back to your Toyota (even though it is a great car). One thing nation-states are good at is keeping their Ferraris even after the lease expires.
Consider the Patriot Act that was enacted in the USA after the 2001 terrorist attack. For the most part, it was supposed to be temporary. Not only its consequences persist, as experienced by everybody who travels, but similar models have been adopted globally. You cannot travel without being almost strip-searched anymore. All because of those omnipresent terrorists!
But now we have a more dangerous threat: an invisible virus that absolutely anybody can be carrying. This calls for more inspection!
The world is at war with a hidden enemy. WE WILL WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2020
You see, some people exercise their God-given right to think for themselves and question commonly accepted narratives. Some have decades of experience covering medical and political issues, others come up with bogus conspiracy theories, yet others simply like to joke around. But the Ministry of Truth will not have it. And just like that, the issue I described in my previous post (the war on privacy), is back on the table.
Joe Mullin
Hadas Gold and Donie O’Sullivan, CNN Business
Additionally, the thought police pressures private companies that run social networks like Facebook and Twitter to further clamp down on opposing opinions. This tidbit from Twitter's recent blog post is particularly interesting:
"Broadening our definition of harm to address content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information."
In other words, trust the experts or else! The topic of experts was briefly covered in How to Scam the Planet, Part 2: Democracy.
Now that all your communications are up for grabs, what else would the Parasites want? Your whereabouts, of course!
The Israeli government approved today a measure that will allow police and national security to track any Israeli citizens using location data from their phones, without the citizen’s permission / court order.
— Udi Wertheimer 🇮🇹 (@udiWertheimer) March 15, 2020
Officially it’s to help find potential carriers of the virus.
When they cannot retrieve your location automatically, manual measures are not out of question: SMS with questions about where you are, where you have been and who you are with, random visits at door. Outside, police and even drone patrols are becoming a norm.
In most places, a state of emergency will have to be declared to enforce new rules of the game. This gives the ruling class virtually unlimited powers.
"A state of emergency allows governments to exercise extraordinary powers that essentially suspend rights during the time of the crisis."—CBC News
Enough said.
Many of these things are, unfortunately, not unexpected. In my opinion, further limitations of freedoms were just a matter of time. Such is the nature of any government: like cancer, it will only keep growing if not dealt with. The ongoing pandemic is a perfect scapegoat.
(Want to take things to their extreme? Watch what KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov had to say years ago about "crisis" being a phase of a more complex plan.)
Light Is Born in Darkness
What do we do? I am uncertain because this is likely a once-in-a-lifetime event, similar to a world war. As bitcoiners, we are supposed to be ready for such calamities. Not all of us are extreme preppers, but we all expected something like this to happen.
As mentioned in Bitcoin's Two Economies, we now have the necessary tools to create a parallel economy that does not depend or depends very little on the shenanigans of centrals bankers. A lot of bitcoin entrepreneurs are used to working remotely. In the event of a global quarantine that may last a few months, work will not stop. On the contrary, inspired by money printer go brrr, our resolve may get an incredible boost.
The result will be a rapidly growing non-complaint bitcoin economy and a decoupling of an expanding segment of the global market from the legacy financial system.
If there is any positive twist in everything that is happening now, it lies in the opportunity to accelerate the big exit. Perspective matters. Open your eyes and see the light at the end of the tunnel. We must take advantage of the situation. We must show the world why bitcoin was born in the first place. We must act now.
"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger—but recognize the opportunity."—John F. Kennedy
