The Great Reset, Bilderberg, Advent, and the Liturgical Year
“The rational creature . . . cannot wish not to be happy.” STA
The buzz phrase this week?
“The Great Reset.”
It's scary, but let's be clear: it's not a conspiracy. Folks like Justin Trudeau are declaring it openly. Conspiracists don't do that.
But it is an exercise in the adage, “Don't let a good crisis go to waste.” It's the kind of nefarious mindset that informs Robert Higgs' excellent Crisis and Leviathan.
The Great Reset appears to be an idea among the global elite that COVID gives them an opportunity to “reimagine” economic systems, along the lines that the elite think more appropriate.
The problem is, there is no such thing as an “economic system.”
People naturally pursue happiness. To paraphrase St. Thomas: A person cannot be so unselfish that he does not desire his own happiness. In pursuit of happiness, he or she will have many different pursuits, ranging from religion to bird watching, from writing poetry to raising children.
In order to pursue happiness, a person needs a level of financial security. (“Detachment” is a kind of anti-security and the first rule of the spiritual life, but that's an entirely different matter.)
In order to obtain security, most people will seek prosperity.
“Prosperity” is merely a level of security. The prosperity can be a little bit of security (barely living above poverty) or a lot of security (being rich), but it is a type of security.
Prosperity is what people pursue in the market: with their labor, their ideas, their risk-taking, their innovation, their brains.
It's that simple: People desire happiness. They therefore pursue security. They therefore pursue prosperity. They therefore enter the market.
There is no “economic system,” unless you call the glorious mayhem of billions of people pursuing happiness a “system.”
I don't think Klaus Schwab likes the mayhem.
He's on the radar screen big-time these days and not just among the Illuminati-fearers. I heard him mentioned on two podcasts, including Ben Shapiro's, and saw him referenced numerous times over the past month.
He appears to be the poster boy of the Great Reset.
It's hard to imagine a better villain. I mean, his name is “Klaus.” That's enough by itself to make you squirm a bit.
He was also born in 1938 . . . at the height of Hitler's powers. Yeah I know, such a thing is totally irrelevant, but it's fun to point out.
He's also active in the Bilderberg Group, which has become the lightning rod of every conspiracy theory of the 21st century, whether from the left or right. It's a group that (i) admits elites only, and (ii) insists on secrecy.
There are legitimate reasons the Bilderberg Group admits elites only and requires secrecy. The problem is, there are illegitimate reasons as well, and the illegitimate reasons, if true, far outweigh any good that could come from the legitimate reasons.
And because it's all secret and its members spout things like the “Great Reset,” those of us who aren't invited to things like Davos ought to be at least a little concerned about what they're up to.
Whatever it is, the folks who spout “Great Reset” aren't interested in just leaving us alone.
The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.”
Hilaire Belloc, The Servile State
A quick aside about capitalism.
It's a bogeyman. There is a type of capitalism rightly condemned by my heroes Chesterton and Belloc, but it was first and foremost a type of capitalism born of privilege bestowed by government. That's the type of capitalism symbolized by GKC's villains, Hudge and Gudge; it is the type of capitalism brilliantly vilified in Belloc's Servile State.
I'm afraid both Chesterton and Belloc went past the point of Hudge and Gudge and embraced a thing called “Distributism,” and, to be honest, they and I part ways at that point, but I believe that, if it weren't for the atrocities born of Parliament and Big Business in England, their romantic commitment to Distributism wouldn't have existed or would at least have been much more mitigated.
The above Belloc quote is featured at the beginning of Chapter Seven of Hayek's Road to Serfdom.
Happy Advent
On a brighter note, it's the first day of the liturgical year. Advent starts today, at least for me (I plan on attending Saturday evening Mass).
It's really a wonderful time of year, if you remember that it's supposed to be penitential.
The tension is glorious. The secular celebration combined with the Catholic penitential approach.
It's really the best of both worlds.
You should be fasting and praying, but you'd be a dick if you eschew the secular world's gun-jumping celebrations, so you have to break the fasting and praying for a lot of fun.
As a result:
When other people reach Christmas with no gas in the tank and thankful to be done with it all (I've seen people toss their Christmas trees to the curb on December 26th), you've just been priming your tank.
When other people put on seven pounds of weight from Thanksgiving to Christmas (the average, I heard on the radio yesterday), you should've stayed stable.
When other people are done exchanging gifts by 11:20 AM on December 25th, you can keep the season going with another 11 days of Christmas.
When other people are out of sorts because their existence is off-cylinder with the liturgical year, you're hitting on all cylinders.
That last one (living in accord with the liturgical year) needs some explaining.
Unfortunately, I can't explain it, not by reason anyway.
I've long ascribed to the notion that the liturgical year has a sort of mystical rhythm. By following it, you bring your existence (your being) into its rhythm.
It's that simple. It's a subtle thing, but I sincerely believe it's a thing.
If you don't believe me, just make that concept a chair in your mental furniture and try sitting in it this coming liturgical year. See what you think.
Until next week, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing.
Eric
