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Paul B. Farrell Archives | Email alerts
Oct. 25, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EDT
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) "” The theme: Repent. Haunting images of fanatical serial killers warning, "The End is Near, Repent!" That message seared my brain as the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" rode into "Dexter's" dark world, the Miami Metro Police cable TV series. Now duty calls Dexter, CSI blood splatter expert by day, serial avenger by night.
Yes, the Four Horsemen, again. The perfect biblical metaphor for today's bizarre world, where irrational ideologies prey on us, driving America deep into a dark world we've seen before: Goethe's Faust, Dorian Gray, Dante's Inferno.
Evan Newmark talks to Euro Pacific Capital president Peter Schiff, who fears as bad as we think the global economy is, things might, in reality, be even worse.
How else to accept today's bizarre plot line: A decade ago Republican George W. Bush took our great nation into a $3 trillion war on lies. Today that party is mindlessly controlled by a cultish anti-tax pledge made to lobbyist Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform group, who once proclaimed: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
Yes, drown. Kill. Folks, this insane plot line has advanced into a no-compromise, scorched-earth vow to do everything necessary to drown the presidency and reinstall another conservative who will return America to the Wild West policies that sabotaged it in the Bush/Cheney years.
They've become a vengeful cult that will never back the president on anything, even their own job-growth policies. Will even destroy the economy to achieve their goals. They do not care about democracy. They want absolute control. And they're succeeding.
Yes folks, I am mad as hell. The America I believed in when I volunteered for the Marine Corps, went to Korea, that America has been hijacked by an irrational, dark force that's consuming our political system. We saw this coming a few years ago reviewing Jack Bogle's warnings in "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism." Buffett called that one: "There's class warfare, all right. But it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
Today that toxic mind-set is a metaphor visible everywhere, in images like Dexter's Four Horsemen, visions of America descending into a self-created Inferno.
My America is out of control, babbling nonsense, acting like a junkie, addict, very bad alcoholic. Been there. Now decades in recovery. Also worked years professionally with hundreds from Betty Ford Center. Today everywhere I see a nation consumed by addictions: self-centered, selfish, greedy, aggressive, power hungry, lost souls with no moral compass, in denial of their suicidal mission, incapable of stopping.
You know exactly what I'm saying: America is way off track. Our great nation is acting like a drunken self-destructive addict. Could use an intervention. But sadly we've drifted so far off our moral compass that only hitting bottom, a total collapse, near-death experience, only another meltdown bigger than 2008 and a depression will do the trick.
You know addictions turn even nice people into monsters. In the end they don't care who they take down with them. Nothing matters, not families, not nations. Protect your assets folks.
In Revelations, the Bible tells us the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are a warning of the coming "End of Days," of war, conquest, famine and death. In Dexter that powerful imagery of the Four Horsemen warns of a great battle coming between the good and evil, a powerful metaphor for today's America.
That battle also came to mind in reviewing a fascinating new book, "The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue & Prosperity," by one of my favorite people, Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute.
His CNN summary says it all: Already too many people in our world. Adding too many more every day. Not enough resources. Worse, nobody's solving the world's biggest problem, overpopulation: "How do we increase opportunities for all, leave a usable planet for the future?" Read Paul B. Farrell's take on the world's biggest problem.
The Four Horsemen kept racing through my mind. Suddenly it was obvious: Sachs is the leader of Four Horsemen, warning mankind of the "End of Days." The collapse is coming this century, in the next generation, possibly the next decade.
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Paul Farrell writes the column on behavioral economics. He's the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology, including "The... Expand
Paul Farrell writes the column on behavioral economics. He's the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology, including "The Millionaire Code," "The Winning Portfolio," "The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing." Farrell was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley; executive vice president of the Financial News Network; executive vice president of Mercury Entertainment Corp; and associate editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He has a Juris Doctor and a Doctorate in Psychology. Collapse
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