The Devil's
Holiday Letter: 2015
Ignorance, My Poor Dear Americans, Will Not Save You
By Charles Hugh Smith
The Devil pens
a holiday letter.
December 21, 2015 "Information
Clearing House"
- Through
means I am unable to disclose, I have obtained a
copy of the Devil's Christmas letter. Yes,
Satan too sends a Yule letter, and no, I was not
on his mailing list. I think Satan's Holiday
cheer should give us all pause.
"To my
fallen angels Beelzebub, Lucifer and Leviathan,
princes of Hell's demons, and to my minions,
lackeys, toadies and sycophants on Earth:
Due to the
high cost of postage, please accept this miserly
digital version of my holiday missive.
As you know, this time of year
usually finds me quite despondent,
as the Prince of Peace's influence waxes most
atrociously around his birthday. But this year I
am in fine spirits, nay, let me even declare
myself absolutely giddy, for the destruction of
the United States of America by its own
citizenry and government draws ever nearer.
Though my
minions have long sown festering seeds of hate
and disharmony in that now-benighted land, my
favored weapons of destruction--leverage, debt,
half-truths and endless, self-serving
justifications for greed, sloth, lust, pride,
envy, anger and gluttony--have wormed their way
into the stricken heart of that Republic and are
now the default setting of American culture.
My minions in the Federal
Reserve--such loyal servants!--continue feeding
an orgy of leverage and debt, spreading
ruination under the false guise of prosperity. What
a delicious irony, that the fools doomed to
eternal damnation in my Empire believe
themselves prosperous as they absorb the poison
of exponentially rising leverage and debt.
My lackeys
in the Central State have made a mockery of the
rule of law, letting financial crimes go not
just unpunished but rewarded. The blatant
injustice that roams the land like a foul,
slobbering beast--there are two sets of laws and
two sets of books now, one for the financial
Elites and their political toadies, and another
one for the tax donkeys beneath them--this will
eventually ignite the firestorm I seek.
American extravagance has
surpassed even my highest expectations, as
purveyors of luxury goods reap record profits,
and the childish desire for instant
gratification has become the unspoken ruler of
the land. Convenience
is now worshipped as a god, sitting triumphant
beside entitlement, greed, indignation and
willful ignorance.
Convenience is, as you all know, the name of a
peculiarly slick slide into Hell.
One of my
favorite sins, gluttony, is running amok, with
half of the people groaning under their own
weight, sickened and weakened. My loyal minions
in the fast-food and packaged food industries
have followed my plans to perfection, and my
lackeys in the marketing and media have fueled
the instant gratification and ignorance which
insidiously undermine even the greatest empires.
Pride--oh,
how the Americans excel at hubris and pride! The
Federal Reserve chairperson, bless her doomed
soul, has declared herself 100% confident about
an economy that is nothing but a confidence
game. Oh, what joy to hear her lies spoken with
such confidence!
The mere thought of the word
greed cause me to chuckle delightedly, as the
U.S. excels as a haven for greed without bounds,
a greed so boundless that the entire universe
would be insufficient to satisfy its bankers,
hedge fund managers, high-frequency traders,
Imperial factotums and politicians. How happy I
am to see their greed grease their way into
Hell.
I feel
like dancing a jig when I hear the unbridled
sense of entitlement which has poisoned the
American spirit. Yes, let greed and avarice be
cloaked with rationalizations--"I was promised,"
"It's my right," "I deserve it"--it is wondrous
indeed how my secret invention, "free money,"
debilitates once-independent souls.
Anger is now overflowing
everywhere, building my empire with every
thoughtless word. Politicians
rage against each other, the people rage against
the politicians, and behind the scenes my
servants in the political action committees feed
the anger with billions of dollars in campaign
donations. How amusing to see the politicos lay
claim to noble ideals even as they scramble on
their knees to collect the millions tossed at
their feet to do my bidding.
Oh yes, my
bidding, for their greed, pride and anger are my
bidding. By all means, politicians, do my work:
give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, let
financial crimes go unpunished, allow the
financial Elites' looting to go unhindered,
transfer the wealth earned by the citizens'
sweat to the financial Elites when their
trillion-dollar bets go bad--fuel the anger
which will tear you from power, and tear the
country apart.
This chart of rising wealth
inequality warms my heart, for it will foment
revolution as night follows day.
The nation bleeds itself with
unwinnable wars, sacrificing its youth on the
altar of endless war--how can I not rejoice at
this orgy of death, destruction and sowing of
hate? The feeble liars
at the nation's helm print endless sums to fund
war and to prop up vile tyrants, but offer
nothing for libraries or literacy or the curing
of malaria. How can I not rejoice at a nation
which finds trillions for war and next to
nothing to fight the diseases of the poor
residents of former colonies, including that
Prince of Disease, ignorance.
As for
sloth--that millions are being paid to sit
around watching television instead of being
productive creates the perfect breeding ground
for resentment, malice and envy. How perfect to
pay people to sit at home and rot away, with
only their discontent and despair for company.
As you
know all too well, idle hands end up doing my
piecework for free.
It was
almost beyond my dreams to find the nation's
wealth and politics so dominated by a tiny
handful of wealthy financial plutocrats--they
are doing my bidding without hindrance, though I
see by their troubled sleep that they know where
their greed and rationalizations are taking
them. To channel the nation's wealth to a few
hands--what better way to nurture envy and
anger?
If ignorance were treasure, the
American political class must be declared
wealthier than Midas,
for its ignorance and hubris have reached a
pinnacle I can truly admire. Ensnared by their
lust for power, blinded by their greed for fame
and perquisites, they look no further than the
next election cycle, dooming their nation to
division, disharmony and the desolation of
permanent conflict over the dwindling productive
assets of this once-great nation.
The people cry out to be saved by
the government, as if it was a Savior instead of
a vast machine consolidating the wealth of the
nation in the hands of the few at the expense of
the many, "investing"
it in corruption, parasitic financial schemes,
military misadventures, Homeland "Security"--ha,
isn't that a jewel, as the nation withers from
within--and the unyielding oppression of the
remaining productive members of society.
The leaders are themselves
leaderless, blank, hollowed-out souls doing the
bidding of their parasitic masters, focused
only on keeping the corrupt and venal status quo
together for a few more months, never looking
out ten years. Political expediency is my
favored tool, and it is now the default mode of
the nation's corrupted political class.
I delight
in that shortsightedness, that abject fear of
change and transformation, that clinging to
failure and pride, that refusal to face reality.
For the U.S.A. is now an Empire
of Debt and Lies, its
fraudulent financial system built on
misrepresentations of risk and value, and its
economy a con game based on illusory wealth,
parasitic skimming, and government protection of
privilege.
This
adolescent desire to believe the lies, because
in believing the lies then nothing need
change--this might be my most powerful
destructive tool.
A hunger for fantasy and
illusion, a fear of adaptation, a childish
demand for instant gratification--these
are forces I can rely on to lead the once-great
country to absolute ruin.
And here
is the beautifully evil part, my minions--no
external enemy is required. The Americans are
destroying themselves with their reliance on
leverage, debt, denial, half-truths and
overflowing servings of the Seven Deadly Sins,
all of which they have elevated to "assets" in
their hopelessly twisted values. To be supremely
unproductive, a churner of lies and financial
trickery, is now the most rewarded and admired
state in America.
The spiritual rot is now so deep
and pervasive that the people no longer even
recognize the decay--they
have been lulled into a false belief that this
culture of fraud, embezzlement, manipulations,
propaganda and parasitic financial Elites has
always held sway. This is precisely how a people
act when they have lost their way, spiritually
and morally: they elevate sins to virtues, and
forget the lessons of their past.
And of
course everyone claiming that there is no
spiritual vacuum sucking the nation dry, that
the status quo is simply "business as
usual"--they are doing my work, too, for
habituating to all that is corrupt and
reprehensible, all that is lacking in integrity
and honesty, this is doing my work most
admirably.
Americans
no longer hate me, they hate sacrifice, with a
passion that enlivens my enthusiasm for their
self-destruction.
How can I
not be pleased this season? At long last, the
destruction of the United States by its own
citizens is close at hand. Give me ten years,
minions, and I shall insure they will finally
begin reaping what they have sown.
Ignorance, my poor dear
Americans, will not save you, nor
will your endless parade of excuses,
justifications and rationalizations. Indeed,
they are my weapons which you drive deeper into
your nation's heart with every lie, every
excuse, every frantic justification for your own
entitlement.
I await
2016 with high expectations.
Most sincerely yours,
Satan
Charles Hugh
Smith is an American writer and blogger. He is the
chief writer for the site "Of Two Minds". Started in
2005, this site has been listed No. 7 in CNBC's top
alternative financial sites.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com |
