Internet radio host Charlie McGrath of Wide Awake News warns that for those looking for a singular set of events that presage a paradigm shift into the far-from-equilibrium event we could refer to as “collapse,” then simply pay attention to what’s going on around the world and right here at home. Though we’ve previously discussed that the collapse occurred in 2008 and we are in the midst of the big bang’s explosion as of right now, history will mark certain events as having been the defining moments that changed the world as we know it. These events will often times play out in perceptively slow motion because we’re living them minute-by-minute and day-by-day, but in hindsight, they will be clearly understood as the harbingers of the disaster that followed.
When people are broke and hungry, and without a government capable of managing the crisis, then the people lose it and all hell breaks loose. This is not conjecture – it’s historical fact. The question to answer is: are we really at this point in our history today? Is all hell about to break loose?
Charlie McGrath weighs in:
(Video follows excerpts)
My message is simple, if you haven’t prepared – you know what, I don’t even know if you have time.
…These high prices in food are truly what’s causing the unrest around the world. The high prices to fill your belly is what’s causing the Egyptians to riot, causing the people in Libya to riot. The absolute and utter failure of their governments to represent the people of those nations has led to them being hungry and they’re pushing back.
That is coming to this country. If you believe it or not, it doesn’t matter. It is coming to this country.
It’s starting out in Wisconsin. These people are out in the streets protesting by the tens of thousands right now because the government is telling them what they can and can’t do with negotiating their contracts. When it becomes a matter of ‘they can’t put food on their table because we’re having a 100% increase inside of a year in their food bill’, the push back is going to look a little different than it does in Wisconsin right now and it’s going to look a whole lot more like it does in Libya and Egypt.
I’ve never come out in a video and said “this is it, this is the collapse.” But I’m saying it now. This is it. The world is coming apart by the actions of a bunch of central banksters. They’ve tried to cover it up. They’ve tried to pretend it isn’t their fault. They’ve tried to pretend the world economy is getting better. And, a lot of people fell for their con game. But guess what? The rubber is going to hit the road no matter where you’re at.
We have been within a collapse of the world as we know it since 2008. The unsustainable system based on unlimited consumption made possible through pulling forward decades of time-energy yield no longer exists. Both, individuals and governments, have pulled forward and leveraged too much, and the system has broken down. For those who failed to realize what was happening around them, and to this day haven’t a clue that what they are seeing are warning signs and symptoms of a collapse, it may be too late.
- One eighth of the US population required food stamps to survive, and this dependence on the government for basic necessities is accelerating.
- Multiple millions of homes are either in foreclosure or defaulting on payments, not to mention the millions more that will come as the second wave of the mortgage meltdown accelerates throughout the rest of this year and into 2012.
- Millions of people have lost their jobs, and many millions more are no longer counted in the official statistics.
- The US government, via The Federal Reserve, has taken on some $30 Trillion in debt for stimulus, bailouts and emergency measures that have failed to recover the system – and perhaps make it even worse through the leverage and manipulations in financial markets.
It can be argued that Americans have become apathetic and lack any motivation to take to the streets to enact any real, long-lasting change. This is because up until this point, Americans have, for the most part, been comfortable. We’ve had a roof over our heads. We’ve had decent, quality food in our stomachs. We’ve actively engaged in a community driven reality show known as Keeping Up with the Joneses. This has been life in America – until now. For many, the Joneses game has now ended in catastrophic personal debt collapse. Luxurious cars, iPods, and fancy weekend dinners have been replaced with tight budgets, FM radio and frozen pizza – a psychologically destructive effect for those who didn’t see it coming.
When the time finally comes that tight budgets no longer help, and it becomes difficult to impossible to put three squares a day on the dinner table, then the people will assuredly get off their couches. Apathy will be replaced with desperation, and subsequently, rage. The rage will, sooner rather than later, be manifest on the streets of America. Higher crime, more violence, riots – it’s all headed our way.
We facetiously referred to the protests in Wisconsin as Egypt in Milwaukee when we reported that the governor had alerted the National Guard to the possibility of riots resulting from the decision to cut off collective bargaining rights for Unions. Jesse Jackson and other progressive leaders have made the same claim – that Wisconsin is Egypt in America.
Realistically, we haven’t seen anything close to Egypt yet. The unions and others protesting in the streets right now are but a foreshadowing of what’s to come from those who can no longer feed their families. Austerity measures – translated as government spending cuts – are happening, voluntarily through political action as we are seeing in Wisconsin, or involuntarily through free market defaults and/or monetary debasement as we are witnessing with out-of-control price increases for essential goods.
Most choose not to disturb their preconceived notions of the American Dream – many are simply non-contemplative, meaning they don’t even realize that there is a problem or that what they are seeing are warning signs of what’s to come. Regardless of whether they believe it or not, it really doesn’t matter.