Welcome To The Unravelling

“All we can do, Scully, is pull the thread. See what it unravels.” – The X-Files

I imagine the guy who decided to use Velcro™ on shoes said, “Why knot?”

Well, that struck a nerve.

I’m never sure when I hit “post” how what I’ve written will be taken.  Some of the things I’ve written that I’ve felt were really good don’t have much of an impact.  I’m not complaining – when I’ve finished writing a post it feels like my soul is a bit lighter – like I’ve accomplished something more than turn oxygen into carbon dioxide for the day.

One clue that a post will be popular is when the post appears to write itself.  That was the case with my last post.  When I finished, I was in bed two hours earlier than normal.  I normally go to sleep when the cows wander back into the field, because that’s pasture bedtime.

The reason, I think, that post was so popular is because I just had the good fortune to write what many other people were thinking.

This is because we’re unravelling.  We just don’t have words for it.  It’s not just as a nation, it appears to be all of Western Civilization.

What the media would have people believe is that there is a great, monolithic consensus.  Prior to the Internet, that might have been achievable.  There was only One Acceptable Opinion, and it was presented to you live, in living color on three networks.  The local paper (generally) also had some version or other of the One Acceptable Opinion.

Elvis Presley’s last big hit?  The bathroom floor.

That meant that stories could disappear from the public view fairly easily.  Ruby Ridge?  I heard of that story on a local talk radio station.  The person who was telling the story, honestly, sounded crazy.  Here they were talking about this crazy story of a man being framed and then Federal agents killing his family.

The guy really did sound crazy.  Here he was, telling a story that I hadn’t heard of.

Crazy.  It sounded like a conspiracy theory.

The government used to be considered a trustworthy source by, well, everyone.  Looking back, I’m pretty certain the government never did tell us the Truth.  But the important thing was everyone believed the One Acceptable Opinion.

After her boyfriend went missing in the forest, what conspiracy did Barbie® believe in?  Kentrails.

Oh, sure, there were failures now and then.  When Tail Gunner Joe pointed out, rightly, that the State Department and Hollywood® were filled with commies, people were upset.

Leftism was generally viewed as bad.  It was so obvious that Stalin was a bad guy that even the New York Times® couldn’t hide it, as they had swept the human cost of the Holodomor (In The World Murder Olympics, Communists Take Gold And Silver Medals) under the rug two decades earlier.

In the World Murder Olympics, Communists Take Gold and Silver!

The way the Left did that is they went to their normal playbook.  How do you trump logic and facts?  A plain appeal to emotion:

“Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last?” was how they went after Senator Joe McCarthy.  They tried to make his dogged pursuit of Leftism appear to be an unhinged attack against ghosts.

But McCarthy was . . . right.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, it was shown that Joe was right about the scope and scale of Soviet infiltration.  Where?  Everywhere Joe had said.  McCarthyism was just what you and I would call, “Telling the truth.”

Again, McCarthy was right.  Leftism had infiltrated the Federal government.  Stalin had better progress reports on the atomic bomb than those that were given to Truman.  There’s a reason we celebrate Juneteenth around my house.

Why did Julius and Ethel Rosenberg cross the road?  Because they were never on your side.  (meme: not original)

Leftism has burrowed inside of our country.  For decades.  When Reagan was shot we couldn’t watch it on TV.  There were no televisions in our classrooms.  But some teachers had radios and instead of listening to a lecture on social studies, we sat and listened to the news on a tinny AM radio.

Would President Reagan live?  No one knew.  All we knew was that he was in the hospital.

One kid, whose parents were Leftist professors at the local college, said, simply, “I hope he dies.  Maybe then the Senate will choose Ted Kennedy as Vice President.”

The split we see now isn’t new.  It’s been festering in our country for decades.

I could come up with example after example.  But if I were to try to create a scenario where people would be on each other like Karens on a manager, I couldn’t create a better scenario than what I see today:

  • Multiple cultures forced together in small spaces.
  • Actual propaganda presented as nightly news.
  • Dogs and cats, living together.
  • An Internet where people can check facts for themselves.
  • A demonization of the Culture that created the place.

My fat parrot just died after a long illness.  It’s a huge weight off my shoulder.

I actively don’t believe anything I hear anymore.  For months, Google®, Facebook™ and Twitter© would ban anyone who said that the ‘Rona came from a lab in China.

Ban.

Now, that’s the current One Acceptable Opinion.  The previous version has been tossed by a Winston Smith-type person into the memory hole.  But we remember.

And now we know that the entire “conspiracy theory” smear tactic was created, explicitly, so people wouldn’t ask questions.  Wonder what really happened to JFK?  Dunno.  There are still nearly 500,000 pages yet to be released.

Not words.  Pages.

I guess everyone knows how Kennedy died.  That one is a no-brainer. 

But does that really matter?  Kennedy is dead.  What really matters is that the Feds created the entire idea of mocking people who believed in anything other than the One Acceptable Opinion.  Think the COVID-19 mRNA treatment is as sketchy as sharing a needle with Johnny Depp?

You’re a conspiracy theorist.  You must not believe in sCiEncE!  There is One Acceptable Theory.  Anyone who disagrees is stupid or evil.

But now in 2021, we have the Internet.  In 1982, or in 1952 this might have worked.  The sheep would go back to grazing.

Now?

It’s just more energy to help the country unravel as the One Acceptable Theory is just like the famed Emperor Who Had No Clothes.

Is there anything left to unravel?

Author: John

Nobel-Prize Winning, MacArthur Genius Grant Near Recipient writing to you regularly about Fitness, Wealth, and Wisdom - How to be happy and how to be healthy. Oh, and rich.

23 thoughts on “Welcome To The Unravelling”

  1. There is a lot left to unravel, and the big one is that most of the population still thinks we will pull out of this by some feat of magic. Enough of the system still works in enough places to keep things under control. Why aren’t people checking names off their lists? Because you will likely still get punished for it but when the threat of consequences fades?

    It is a sobering thought that in the middle of middle age, I have come to realize that everything I have been told my entire life is at least partially a lie.

    2. >I have come to realize that everything I have been told my entire life is at least partially a lie.

      Same here. I felt bad about this for a while (quite some years ago now) and now am mostly over it. I’m not quite at the point of calling it “liberating” or anything, but it doesn’t get me worked up any more. Maybe it’s numbness? Dunno.

      The funny thing (for values of “funny”) is that increasing numbers of liberal-leaning friends are coming up to me and saying variations of “You know that XXX stuff you were telling me about two years ago and I said you were crazy? Well, looks like you weren’t crazy after all….” On the other hand there’s the smaller number of progressive acquaintances I had considered at least neutral if not somewhat friendly, who just plain and openly hate my guts now. Too bad, but I’m bearing up bravely under the pressure.

  2. As we know from third-grade biology, research requires:
    * a) a control-group not receiving the experimental drugs, and
    * b) test-subjects pumped full of experimental drugs just to see what happens.
    .
    Paranoid hypochondriac:
    * a mental-ill individual convinced I am personally responsible for TheEpidemic© [aka ‘this phase of this Economic Lock-Down’] because I will not join the test-group evaluating experimental research by getting inoculations… instead of remaining a member of the non-inoc control-group.
    [includes image of thumb resting on nose while fingers wraggle defiantly]

  4. Excellent point that the execution of the Rosenbergs occurs on Juneteenth. It appears that Wikipedia is trying to canonize them. Typical corruption that Wikipedia has become and part of the unraveling

    BTW: we disagree on the spelling of unraveling (in title). Another indication of the unraveling ;>)

    Wuhan Virus original:
    Obviously, it cannot be the weapons-grade viral research lab a couple of blocks from the wet-market. They only conducted studies of enhancing bat viruses and have had only 3 or 4 lab leaks in the past. No, can’t be the lab even though it is known that animals were “liberated” out of the lab to sell in the wet-market. And it was only done on a regular basis. And perhaps even disposed of dead ones this way. It has to be an intermediary animal to the bat spreading the virus, even though this mythical beast has not been found. And we have to believe the 2 guys and the CCP funding the Bat Lab that the lab had nothing to do with it. And of course, FaceButt is never wrong in its censoring, nor are its “independent,” expert reviewers.

    1. Good links. The TSN link is an excellent aggregator of sites and info. Thank you.

      I’m headed toward [Local Gummint name] Designated Pariah* status at work (timed to kick in right around my birthday. 😋) for not being willing to share my medical background OR not getting the experimental Covid-treatment shot.

      We’re looking for a possible new home. I’d prefer in state (though we suffer from Governor Venal, Ignorant, but politically Canny with a vote-by-fraud electorate) since the county governments are still mixed. But … short-term thinking, nu?

      Never wanted to live anywhere but here since I was 13, and my family is scattered across the Americas. 🤔

      (*Might just write that on my mask.)

  6. Changed my handle, Green Acres is a little more fun.

    I’m elated this blog remains open.

    I thought for sure this site’s provider had canceled it based on Friday’s cathartic post.

    For me, it was powerful because Mr. Biden had advertised himself as a unifier and I knew people voted for him because orange man bad. Instead what happened thanks to those reflexive votes? We received a viciously leftist, racist presidency. The worst I have ever seen and I’m closer to the end of middle age. Thanks a bunch for that, really appreciate it.

    All the media sources I relied upon as a young adult are all corrupted and useless, bathed in a vat of leftist horse poo. Now I have to search mostly unorthodox sites to get a real picture of what’s going on.

    And it’s too bad really.

    1. Meant to say:

      (speaks to a random collection of not particularly interested Americans). Thanks a bunch for that, really appreciate it.

  7. I’m telling myself that we’re in re-trenching mode. We’re shoring up our defenses, converting our assets into ready cash (because I’m convinced that the first step on the last stop before open war will be an assault on our banking/credit system, that will UNFORTUNATELY cause us to TEMPORARILY not have access to our own money), and moving closer to family (many of whom are armed to the teeth).
    They aren’t quite ready. That’s why the riots are not happening (well, that and the fact that the ‘Officially Oppressed’ are still getting that ‘Rona’ money). They’re dialing it back, until they’re ready for the final strike.
    I’m picking the summer before the midterm elections. They will engineer “Proof!” that the Dissident GOP are traitors secretly plotting to stage a coup. They’ll toss them in unnamed jails, threaten them within an inch of their lives, and use their families for hostages.
    A ‘Righteous Patriot AntiFa’ will take out the leadership, before being dropped by our New Rainbow Military (who will suffer some non-fatal injuries that will be celebrated with Medals of Honor). The Traitorous RINO contingent will shake their heads and condemn ALL who oppose our New! Improved! form of government.
    Sounds paranoid?
    Prophetic?
    You decide.

  8. You are extremely gifted John. Always a pleasure to read here. Best thoughts for the future.

  9. One of the problems with tyranny is that it increases.

    Americans born today think torture, kill lists, groping, and wiretapping are perfectly acceptable.

    There was a time when you didn’t need a driver license. Later driver licenses were required. Driver licenses then needed a photo. Later you needed a written exam. A driving test was then required. Later you needed a medical test. A car inspection was required. Later you needed liability insurance. Driver license fees increased and fingerprints were required. Soon DNA samples, microchip implants, and vaccines will be needed to get a license.

  10. “Elvis Presley’s last big hit? The bathroom floor”. Brutal, I am not complaining because I like dark humor and I did chuckle.

    My belief is that with all that’s going on right now we are all busy processing what is happening. Some days the posts are read maybe with a little better outlook and some days with dire concern for family and loved ones. Comments probably depend on those two things. I like your writing and the insight it provides because it helps with my daily discernment.

    I told the preacher Sunday that that was the third time I heard the word transformation and to pray for a boatload of it to come upon me, as I could use it.

    I have owned the book The Fourth Turning for a couple of years but only recently read it. I wanted to read their take on history. It goes back many centuries at times comparing history. It adds to the comment most of us have heard all our lives, history repeats / rhymes (Mark Twain). The neat thing about it is that it was written in 1997 and they estimated the next crisis, or fourth turning would be about 2005 give or take.

  11. Unravelling?

    Sort of.

    If Andy and Opie became real, and popped into today from Mayberry, they wouldn’t be that confused by most of what goes on.

    The time to worry is when you reach the point that if Taylor from Planet Of The Apes or Col. Neville from The Omega Man became real and popped in, and would feel right at home. That’s unravelling.

    1. Well, that does look like Mayberry on a Saturday night. Except everyone’s in bed.

      Oh, wait . . . .

  12. It was an “Ah ha!” post. Part of the unravelling is not perceiving the significance of a chunk of info until someone throws it into the spotlight. As Mr. Wilder did on Friday.

    My theory of how the commentariat and the various tech-gestapo put the genie of information-sharing among the proles back in the bottle is by flooding everyone with conflicting junk. Pick your poison

    It is also interesting how the lockdowns targeted places where locals gather to chat and talk: bars and churches, say, but not equally disease-spreading locations like strip clubs.

    Here’s a bit of follow-on to upthread comments on “what next?” What happens to Modern Mayberry and all those mid- and western- states withall those big empty states, when the Bidenreich and some NGO apparatchicks drop 300 Somalis, Hondurans, or… Whoever is most likely to be disruptive of trust and cohesion.

    Might be handy if you are involved with your church to have an assimilation plan; perhaps teams of members who adopt newcomers and bring them into the fold.

  13. “…But now in 2021, we have the Internet. In 1982, or in 1952 this might have worked. The sheep would go back to grazing.
    Now?”

    Martin Gurri expands on this theme in his book “Revolt of the Public”–highly recommended reading.

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