"Oh no! Not our Slaves!"

Notes on National Karmic Culmination

Sorry Techbro. The rest of the world has to eat, too.

I have a confession to make, but seeing as how we appear to be going through a new chapter of Revelations every week now it's probably one of the best times in history to casually mention slightly embarrassing facts of little consequence. So it turns out I'm not actually a Druid in the official sense. Although I practice Druidry daily (Celtic Golden Dawn) I have yet to start the lessons for the Druid grade. It would be more accurate to call myself Kalihi Valley Bard since that's the last degree that I passed, but KVB just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Honestly when I started making the commitment to writing every week I figured within in the next few months I would be well on my way to the next level of practice, but unlike the admission of stolen valor I'm actually hesitant to admit the reason why I'm stalling. It's fear. Ever since I started cracking the green book I've experienced a regular pattern of very humbling injuries and illnesses, and even though the quality of my life has dramatically improved along the way it's obvious that there's still a big bag of unpleasant karma that needs sorting.

The other part of that equation is that I'm not really sure if I trust myself working with more advanced magical practices given the inherent instability of the karmic bag on my shoulders. If I stay in the safe zone things seem to work pretty smooth, but I royally cooked myself not too long ago while trying something out of my league. I chanted the words, I felt the power, it went to my head, I said some extra stuff that was off-script, and a transformer exploded outside at precisely the right moment. It was actually quite cinematic.

Uh oh. Someone is actually listening.

The next day I was feeling a big light headed, and exactly 24 hours later I came down with a world-class illness that knocked me out for weeks. For a while even reading and watching videos was out of the question. The most I could do was turn on a podcast and miss most of it as I dipped in and out of consciousness. On the plus side it was obvious what had happened, especially after the dramatic events of that fateful evening, and so it was clear I just had to take my lumps and ride it out. That made the experience a lot less terrifying since I wasn't tempted to got to the hospital where they have a financial incentive for murdering patients with flu-like symptoms. Still, it was a very unpleasant experience that kept me out of the water and set back my plans for at least a couple months.

That one stands out as a more recent memory, but there are several more that were just as awful and involved lots of pain with plenty of time to think. Even now I'm going through something thanks to a recent mishap on the job, which is really frustrating because I had just starting to feel comfortable surfing larger waves again and now North Shore season is pretty much over. This one is particularly confounding because it feels like I've been more-or-less sticking to the path, but that's exactly how Karmic Culmination works. As esteemed writer and Kalihi Uka superfan Mark Twain once quipped: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble, but the things you know that just ain't so."

Yup. I hate this game already.

While putting the arc of this article together it occurred to me; what if I'm also experiencing the karma for my inaction as well as for my actions? What if I'm supposed to be cruising in the fast lane on the magic highway, but instead I'm arguing with the meter maid as the parking tickets pile up? This process is what karmic culmination is all about, and the longer we delay the process the more painful and embarrassing the results. As the title suggests this reckoning also happens on the level of nations, but entire civilizations as well.

When a nation that makes up 5% of the global population consumes 25% of global output, that's the textbook definition of a serious imbalance. It doesn't matter that this arrangement might feel normal to Americans or that up until a few years ago most of us expected that (after a few hiccups) the good times would not only return but continue on forever. The laws of physics are very strict on this subject. Every imbalance eventually gets corrected, and more often than not in ways that make the previous situation nearly impossible to imagine for those who were not around to experience it.

Deep down we all know that the United States is an empire, but precious few of us actually made the effort to sketch out what that actually means. Peter Schiff recently laid it out in a pretty good parable on his podcast. Imagine a group of people from around the world who come together to make a feast, each one bringing something that represents their special product or skill. One country brings the meat, another brings the veggies, another brings the cookware, and finally someone shows up with the fuel to cook up the feast. In this process the only job given to the American is to eat.

Best job ever. Until you forget how to cook for yourself.

You see, everyone else uses American money and our federal reserve system can print as many dollars as they want. This is great for the American managerial class (at least for a while) since they have access to all sorts of free stuff and in exchange for typing a bunch of zeros on a computer screen. The fact that other countries as well as our own citizens suffered greatly under the weight of holding up the fake economy wasn't much of a concern. Those are other people's problems. If they want to improve their lot they ought to try being more exceptional.

When you take away the HR magic of hiding the truth underneath layers of administration, it's obvious that the proper name for this arrangement is slavery. The fact that we installed third world dictators to exploit their own people only makes the karma worse, as does the endless war for profit which has already killed millions worldwide and tarnished our national brand to the level of Bud Light. This isn't the kind of deal where one simply washes their hands, tells the rest of the planet to get fracked, and returns to a life of cruising the vast suburban wasteland with sub-$20 a gallon gasoline. Real pain is coming along with the humiliation of realizing that it was our "exceptionalism" and willingness to ignore unpleasant facts that sent us down the road to ruin. The only way through that karma is to accept it and ride out the consequences. Resisting will just make it worse, although it's inevitable some will chose to end up as roadkill rather than admit they were wrong.

Venture capitalist waiting for his new retirement plan.

For the rest of us there is a bit of hope once we've managed to get through the worst. Thanks to the recent election we've managed to avoid, or have at least postponed a civil war. As a result we're also not stuck as deeply in the Orwellian cuckhold nightmare that many Western nations have embraced, and the tsunami of hostile foreigners who were brought in to enslave and replace us seems to be on it's way back out to sea. It's actually a hidden blessing that we get to go through this decoupling from globalization first as there is still a bit of capital flowing around out there. It's not nearly enough, but could make all the difference for regions who have navigable waters and residents don't have to worry about dying if the air conditioning conks out.

The challenges are of course far more profound than simply learning how to relocalaize our economy after bankrupting ourselves at the empire game. As the Wizard pointed out today, we've burned through so many resources that our crumbling culture can't do much more than make a kabuki performance of reinventing itself right before the theater collapses. MAGA fans are going to be very disappointed to find out that "greatness" actually means taking a few steps down on the rungs of wealth and privilege to a level their ancestors formerly enjoyed. No, I'm not talking about the 1950's and 60's. Think about a hundred years before that. It won't happen all at once, but anyone who takes a moment to unglue their eyeballs from their personalized Distractiontech(TM) can see the process is already well underway.

Retro isn't just a fad. It's rapidly becoming the only stuff that functions reliably.

I'm trying to end this on a hopeful note but it's not really working out. The truth is that what we are facing is going to suck, as if our national spirit has been bedridden by chronic disease. The pain and malaise cannot be avoided, but if we are willing to make the appropriate lifestyle changes then it’s much more likely that one day we can continue living productive lives and possibly rediscover some lost meaning along the way. That means you and I are going to want to become far more active participants in ushering this strange new future, however. It doesn't make much sense to rest on past accomplishments that grow increasingly irrelevant by the hour, and the sidelines that a lot of us used to sit on no longer exist.