Zeitgeist

I recently had the opportunity to speak with an acquaintance of mine who is a serving police officer, albeit in a small town that will go unnamed in order to protect his identity and possibly his job.

This particular town, like so many others, is now festooned with a modern, oversized Homeland Security Center (formally known as a police and fire station). In response to my question as to how he liked the new digs, he told me that they were quite spacious and even a bit luxurious, complete with automatic lights, water taps and even toilets. He also told me that the building was set up so that, on a moment’s notice, an entire emergency federal task force could be moved in, plugged in, and ready to operate.

Further on in the conversation, he let it be known that the police department in this rural town, a place where anything more than the most minor of crimes is virtually unknown, will soon have its squad cars outfitted with special equipment allowing its officers to pull up next to a bank, school, or any number of other buildings and wirelessly tap into the security camera system to observe what's going on.

It was at that point that I couldn't help but comment, "You know, all of these sort of things are a bit concerning to the average citizen, wouldn't you agree?"

To which he nodded in agreement, before adding, "Personally, I'm a lot more worried about the corporations."

I like this guy, but that comment crossed a personal line with me, and so I said, somewhat stridently, "Seriously? Listen, unlike the government, which can force you to do things that you don't want to do – under penalty of jail or worse – corporations can't force you to do anything. In fact, they have to treat you right in order to earn your business.”

In response, he waved his hands to break into my modestly indignant diatribe and proceeded to clarify his position – tellingly, in a lowered voice. What he said caught me by surprise.

"No, you don't understand. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about are the corporations that are now working with us. You see, it's illegal for the government to keep certain kinds of data on the public without a court order. That's not the case for the corporations. Get it? Technically, we don't keep the data, the corporations do, we just access it. That's what worries me."

Before the conversation could go any further, we were called to our respective responsibilities and so left it at that.

I don't need to tell readers of any duration that this trend towards a ballooning interference by the military-industrial complex in US society is deeply concerning to those of us who value the rule of law and the sanctity of individual liberty. But it is becoming increasingly difficult for any thinking person to avoid coming to the conclusion that something is seriously amiss in the institutions that have positioned themselves on the upper rungs of society.

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced readers to friend and fellow La Estancia de Cafayate owner, Pete Kofod, through the vehicle of his excellent article The Rise of the Praetorian Class. In that article, he very competently described the emergence of a distinct class of enforcers who, while serving their political masters, believe themselves to be cut from different and better cloth. And so it is not just the politicians, who have always been liars, but the praetorians who now undertake the same sort of machinations my friend the cop referenced, seemingly without reservation, to get a leg over on the average citizen. The trend seems to be reaching perilous levels.

In fact, the entire zeitgeist of this nation is changing. For those of you unfamiliar with the term zeitgeist, it refers to the prevailing ideas in a particular place at a particular time. In America today, the zeitgeist is one of fear of authority. Even worse, it has devolved, for many, into a sycophantic relationship with the praetorian class that is the strong arm of authority.

As you can imagine, given our rather large readership, we receive an awful lot of mail. Much of that mail contains articles and reports that dear readers think we will find of interest, and usually do. Earlier this week, I received an email containing a link to an article that I found profoundly disturbing. To be clear, when I use the phrase "profoundly disturbing," it is not for dramatic effect, but rather a completely honest description of the emotions evoked.

The article refers to an excerpt from a new book written by an ex-soldier who proudly advertises himself as the "most lethal sniper in US military history.”

To give you a sense of the excerpt, the following is a snippet in which he describes his feelings after having shot an Iraqi woman who, according to his assessment, was about to toss a grenade in the direction of the invading American forces:

My shots saved several Americans, whose lives were clearly worth more than that woman's twisted soul. I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job. But I truly, deeply hated the evil that woman possessed. I hate it to this day.

Savage, despicable evil. That's what we were fighting in Iraq. That's why a lot of people, myself included, called the enemy "savages." There really was no other way to describe what we encountered there.

People ask me all the time, "How many people have you killed?" My standard response is, "Does the answer make me less, or more, of a man?"

The number is not important to me. I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging rights, but because I believe the world is a better place without savages out there taking American lives. Everyone I shot in Iraq was trying to harm Americans or Iraqis loyal to the new government.

I don’t even know where to begin evaluating the comments of this man. For example, the fact that it made no impact on him that, subsequent to the war’s end, it was clear to all that the underlying rationale for invasion was unjustifiable and the outcome both devastating and counterproductive. Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, and even if he did, he couldn't have deployed them against the United States anyway. Furthermore, by removing his unifying presence (heavy-handed though it may have been – their problem, not ours), the US opened the door to a much larger role for Iran in the region, pretty much the exact opposite of stated US foreign policy.

On a more human level, if the tides had been turned and it had been Iraqis marching through American streets, the sniper would have been the first to call the woman he describes as being so evil a freedom fighter and a hero.

Then there is overt religiosity expressed in his views. It is, in my opinion, one thing to find solace in the quiet meditations and communal warmth of your local church, synagogue, temple, whatever – it’s an altogether different thing to claim that it is God’s will that you travel to foreign lands and shoot people through the head.

But that’s not what’s most concerning.

What is most concerning – and the reason I mention zeitgeist – is that this article was posted on Huffington Post, a website whose audience has been considered very liberal-leaning and mostly antiwar. Moreover, rather than evoke any sort of intellectual discourse or adamant pushback, the follow-on letters and comments at the bottom of the article were almost entirely unquestioning and enthusiastically supportive.

A representative example:

It is good to see and hear of the bad guys being taken out by this sniper. Those evildoers want to destroy America. Americans must stop them. Good work, boy. God Bless America. In God We Trust.

I am perfectly serious when I tell you that I no longer know what it means to be an American – the principles we stand for have become blurred, to say the least. To me, it appears that there is a large and seriously deranged subset of people living in this country without any moral compass whatsoever.

Can it be long before I’m rounded up and dealt with in a manner that doesn't technically break any laws – wink, wink – but ultimately has a very bad result?

When you have the readers of a "perfect planet" website such as Huffington Post agree with the hardest of the hardcore aficionados of a scorched-earth foreign policy, it should come as a surprise to no one when the nation finishes its slide into authoritarianism. Of course, as America is still viewed as a "thought leader" for governments around the world – much of the world will likely follow down the same slope.

I apologize for getting tangled up in this topic again, because I’m sure that by now I am sounding like a broken record in expressing my concern. Ultimately, though, there is only one way to protect yourself, and that is by diversifying as much of your money, and your life, over a variety of political jurisdictions.

That way, come what may, you should be able to access your wealth and enjoy your life without constantly having to look over your shoulder. On the other hand, if somehow the praetorians and their masters in Washington are called to heel and things settle back down, you’ll end up with a globally diversified portfolio (remember, there’s always a bull market somewhere) and a nice crib to spend part of the year in – so taking the steps to internationalize is a win-win in the truest meaning of the phrase.

Here are some additional resources to get you started:

• InternationalMan.com. A site we have helped support that offers a variety of resources on topics related to internationalization. Within the next week or so, they are scheduled to launch a paid service, the World Money Analyst, featuring a global team of top analysts (China, India, Europe, Latin America, etc.) whose sole purpose is to uncover deeply undervalued investments.
  
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• The Upcoming Harvest Celebration Events at La Estancia de Cafayate, Argentina – March 6-11 and March 12-17. Join Doug Casey, Sen. Juan Carlos Romero, Terry Coxon, Bill Bonner, Olivier Garret, Jeff Berwick, Pete Kofod, and a likeminded group of subscribers at this always excellent annual celebration and conference. I’ll be there for the second set of dates and will be happy to show you around my house site. For more information on these always sold-out events, click here.
  
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Speaking of Jeff Berwick, he just sent me over a video interview he did at the recent Cambridge House conference on the importance (and the adventure) of internationalization. In addition to writing the Dollar Vigilante, Jeff is a fellow owner at La Estancia, and in his interview, he also touches on what attracted him to Doug Casey’s version of “Galt’s Gulch.”

(As an aside, the interview was conducted by one of the folks from Silver Circle, a production company that Jeff tells me is about to release a film about the need to abolish the Fed and return to precious metals-backed money.)

Now let me make it clear, I see no need to panic. The sort of unraveling I am talking about usually takes a fair bit of time, though all bets are off if there is another 9/11-scale “incident” or even a perceived serious national threat (a shooting war with Iran that sets undercover operatives into action?).

As that could happen at any time, there is no time like the present to begin taking steps to diversify. After all, the way things are going, even if you have a bolt hole, it might not be so easy to get to it – for example, if you happen to end up on the exponentially growing US government “no fly” list.

Even if nothing so dramatic as that happens to you (and the odds are against it), you’ll find more and more regulatory and legal barricades being set up to trap your money within national borders… barricades such as the FBAR rules, which go into effect this year and which will make it particularly painful for overseas banks to take US accounts. How much longer will it be before all the major countries have the same sort of rules in place? As they are all cash starved and so don’t want to see their citizens’ money leaking out, it will probably happen sooner rather than later.

It’s important to be rational about all these sorts of things. Which is to say, don’t get overly worried or panic and make decisions in haste. But it would be equally foolish to be complacent about what’s going on around us. Action is required, but carefully thought-out and measured action.