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Trump’s been in the White House for about five months. Tariffs have been levied on many nations, with China’s being the most severe. I think we have yet to see the full price effects of that. Iran and Israel started trading blows using hypersonic missiles and such. Trump decided to bomb Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites to ostensibly bring peace to the world and prevent the Iranians from destroying America or Israel or who really knows.
I’ve been watching the YouTube lectures of Professor Jiang (let’s call him PJ). He’s a scholar of world history, politics, and the like, and he predicted Trump’s re-election and war with Iran about a year ago. PJ claims that America only wants to assert its military’s dominance to prop up its decaying society. A move born of Trump’s hubris. Combined with the US debt (about $36 trillion right now, but who’s counting?), war with Iran will be a trap, an over-extension that only further causes this country to collapse.
Much can be documented about the times we’re living in right now, but who knows the truth any more? The veil of propaganda is as strong as ever, and people are free to go down rabbit holes on the internet to try to find answers. We can’t get on the same page about anything, maybe unless you’re a Boomer. They still seem to hold solidly to the paradigms of a zeitgeist that has already died. We’re in a new era now, but the pensioners go on living life like nothing has changed. Man, their whole lives have been so easy, so entrenched in the ways of consumerism and self-indulgence. For example, their generation has been in political power as the debt has skyrocketed.
I can only speak to what I experience and what I have read. I’m not a voracious reader, but I hold tight to a few good ones: The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe; Disunited Nations by Peter Zeihan; Technofeudalism and Talking to My Daughter About the Economy, both by Yanis Varoufakis; Fear of Falling by Barbara Ehrenreich — these are probably the main contexts for my current thinking. You may be wondering what I’ve synthesized as a result. Nothing groundbreaking to report except that the future looks bleak, dark, and rocky.
Here is where I will make generalizations. Young people don’t want to work any more. They’re chasing TikTok fame or something. But really, who can blame them? The economy is going all “rentier” on us, and the generation coming up is priced out of housing. And that’s just housing. Everything else seems to be getting more expensive too. Admittedly, when I was younger, I hated the 8 to 5 grind knowing that I was just lining the pockets of the people at the top of the ladder, but at least at that time there was a ladder. Upward mobility still existed.
Now that we’re moving into a multipolar world in which America is no longer the unipolar global hegemon, we’re probably going to start seeing more wars abroad. And if this country is ever in a position to institute a draft, good luck getting young men and women to serve for a country that doesn’t give a damn about their well-being. Best case scenario: here in five or ten years, we’ll exit the world stage and retreat to isolationist status as we revert back to the cultural backwater that existed in the first few decades of the 20th century.
But what will be the catalyst the ignited the fire of rapid change? Will it be civil war? Will it be a prolonged conflict with Iran that PJ says we can’t win (for a number of logistical reasons)? That’s why I’m here — to document in real time as America implodes; however, there’s a silver lining in destruction, which is new creation. I believe in the spirit of this country and our collective ability to generate something better out of the ashes. When the next reconstruction period begins, I want to document that too.
This site is not for any type of monetary gain. It’s a creative hobby for me and something I’d like to leave behind for my family and anyone who might stumble upon these words with a desire to know what happened in the world before their time or to remember what they lived through. I am Robert Epperson, these are the Epperson Times, and You are Here.