Amerika

Democracies generally last for a couple centuries or so. By the time that a system has become well-established, those who write and manipulate the rules gain the upper hand, and soon the actual purpose of the system is forgotten and it is replaced with a manic need to “keep order” by conserving control.

At that point, you get a creedal crisis like we are having now. Our elected officials keep following precedent even long after it has gone past the limits of sanity simply because they are experts in “doing the system” and therefore keep plugging away blindly. No one seems to be able to alter course.

To many, this seems like proof that we are living in some kind of simulation or controlled environment. However, it more accurately fits the fact pattern behind a runaway idea, in which a notion has become dogma and precedent therefore continues expanding and can never be checked.

This fits with what we know of egalitarianism. It takes over because people are socially afraid to criticize it because of the innate false dichotomy: “oh yeah, you don’t think people are equal? Why are you so special?” That is a bluff, of course, designed to silence those who note the obvious, that some are better than others.

A runaway ideological precedent chain like this naturally leads to the absurd. The ideology is more important than reality; if reality conflicts with the ideology, people deny and destroy reality. The dogma is more important to them because it is closer to mealtime. You get paid, and you can eat, if you affirm the dogma.

This is how civilizations commit suicide.

As far as our present situation goes, it fits the political machine more than an all-knowing conspiracy, which would not need us anyway and would rule strictly by direct power:

Tammany Hall, also called Tammany, the executive committee of the Democratic Party in New York City historically exercising political control through the typical “boss-ist” blend of charity and patronage. Its name was derived from that of an association that predated the American Revolution and had been named after Tammanend, a wise and benevolent chief of the Delaware people.

During the 1780s the leaders of the “aristocratic” and propertied elements of both New York City and New York state successfully managed to limit suffrage to freeholders and to strengthen the Society of the Cincinnati, a group of former officers of the Continental Army with centralist and monarchial tendencies. To resist these influences, William Mooney, an upholsterer in New York City, founded the Society of St. Tammany, or Columbian Order, on May 12, 1789, a few days after the inauguration of George Washington as the first president under the Constitution of the United States of America. Mooney’s purpose was to create a national society that would be native in character and democratic in principle and action. Its officers were given Native American titles: at its head was the grand sachem, chosen from among his fellow chiefs, or sachems.

Within a few years, however, the immigrant groups, organized into gangs, came under the control of the astute, unscrupulous, and engaging Fernando Wood, several times mayor of New York, who used them to break with and later control Tammany. Grand Sachem “Boss” William M. Tweed initiated complete boss domination of the Hall in 1868. Corruption reached a climax under Tweed, when New York City was plundered of more than $200 million. Tweed died in jail, but most of his confederates retained their wealth. Throughout the world, Tammany became synonymous with corruption and was the subject of some of Thomas Nast’s most effective cartoons.

There are no conspiracies but there is plenty of collusion. Roles that have power are properties; those who possess them will trade on those. If you make the rules about an industry, you will be tempted to take money in order to make those rules favor people who have money, including the general public and their attention.

For example, our politicians today rarely take direct bribes, but they often sell entitlements to the voters by promising lots of free stuff that someone else will pay for, and get votes in exchange. Biden pulled this one in 2022 by offering college loan payoffs that would get stopped in the courts, but only after the election.

We live in a federal Tammany Hall now. Politicians make promises so that diversity and impoverished voters queue up to vote for the latest free stuff. The government cannot pay, so it takes on debt. No one knows when this will be paid off and they have given up thinking about it.

This tells politicians that there is a bottom line: keep the free stuff flowing. Just like in the late Soviet Union or Weimar Germany, government would do anything to avoid interrupting the free stuff, because if that went away, Regime Change was sure to follow.

Instead they simply keep importing scabs and extras to fill in for their native population and by being tax cash cows, keep enough money flowing to keep government from having to default:

The UK should use immigration to solve worker shortages and boost economic growth, the boss of the UK’s biggest business group has said.

Tony Danker called on politicians to be “practical” about immigration at the CBI’s conference in Birmingham.

The economic “growth” they are speaking of is the circular Ponzi scheme whereby they pump up the GDP numbers by having more consumers, then tax those consumers and promise more benefits, while declaring the currency more valuable because demand for it is higher.

That, too, is a familiar scam; Tammany Hall did the same thing, offering benefits for votes, then bringing in more immigrants and more money, then repeating the cycle yet again. That is how you stay in power when your society has lost the plot and the voters are either asleep or you have so many minorities that the vote always goes to lies.

Late Stage Democracy tends to be a rudderless ship like this. The leaders must follow the dogma which is popular with the voters, and then both groups pass the buck on to the next generation. It goes on until society runs out of money, and then it is no one’s fault. In the meantime, the native population is replaced with extras.

Tags: democracy, dogma, late stage democracy, tammany hall