Rather than pay close attention to the real or pretend clues dripping out about Epstein — how he died, if he did; the “young woman” he supposedly spent two private hours with behind locked door; his gal-pal Ghislaine spotted at a hamburger joint on the west coast, after being placed in a seaside mansion near Boston; all those broken hyoid and other bones; the one guard that turned out to be not a regular guard; on and on, these items drop into the polluted collective psyche and we eagerly slurp them up, try our damndest to figure out what happened, and when, and why, and how, and by whom — yes: rather than pay close attention to any of this I decided to back up, way up, and look at the Fall of Rome, and how it parallels the ongoing Fall of the U.S. Empire, and why. Why? Mostly internal rot. Which the Epstein saga demonstrates.
And of course, all this in the presence of the Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Capricorn (exact in January 2020) looming ever closer, sounding the first bell in the historic karmic takedown that, if primal, death/rebirth Pluto lives up to its reputation, as it makes its first return to its own natal place in the U.S. chart after hundreds of years (2022-25), will detonate the foundations of this nation and, if we are fortunate, and aware, and each play our part, will lead to a resurgence, a renaissance, a world that is not just the poisoned aftermath of destruction, but a promising new beginning, decentralized, and, believe it or not, is it even possible? VIRTUOUS. I.e., everybody not just looking out for their own self-interests, but for the interests of those around them, at their own level of awareness.
Let’s face it. To choose between capitalism and socialism, as if one is better than the other, is to bet on a fool’s paradise. Either way, this polarity offers a false choice. Indeed, as I like to say, “capitalism and socialism are both fucked.” The first, with its celebration of the selfish individual, leads eventually to oligarchy, what we have now; and the second, with its celebration of the selfless group, leads to communism, another, even more bloated form of the centralized state, this one washing everybody into the same sorry, leaking boat, making room for no individuality whatsoever.
We need to be experimenting, in our tiny little experimental havens of happiness, our fragile little lily pods springing up from the rotting swamp, with forms of governance that play with a dynamic balance between capitalism and socialism, individual and community. Both are vital. Both are necessary. But what is the needed dynamic between the two? At least this is the question we are attempting to address here in Green Acres Permaculture Village.
All of which led me today to a number of posts by Charles Hugh Smith, and his Of Two Minds blog, as I attempt to situate the Epstein saga into much larger, historical context. Examples, and you might want to read them in chronological order, given below. There’s a lot of repetition, which is welcome, since his thought processes are complex, matching the complexity of what he’s attempting to describe.
Excerpt:
The hidden conflicts within the Deep State are emerging, and the resulting crisis will be explosive. Remember, the housecleaning must be public or the legitimacy of the state will go over the cliff. If the Deep State wants to retain its power, it must root out the corrupt degenerates before they bring down the entire rotten structure.
The Lessons of Rome: A Neofeudal Oligarchy
Following in Rome’s Footsteps: Moral Decay, Rising Inequality
Epstein and the Explosive Crisis of the Deep State
The Internal War in the Deep State Claims Its High-Profile Casualty: Jeffrey Epstein
Who Protected Epstein for Decades, and Why?
