“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” Richard Feynman
The Greater Fool Theory depends on there always being a Greater Fool willing to pay a higher price for whatever’s perceived to be valuable while an invisible social contract anchors us on being the Greatest Fools.
Laser-focused on the immediate, Greater Fools hurry-scurry to overpay for what they buy because they assume the pool of Greater Fools will just keep growing. Rising prices then attract more Greater Fools. Don’t understand what you buy? No problem because in your excitement, you will just want to pay more. So, everyone gets rich reselling increasingly overpriced goods until they run out of fools or the fools run out of money. Then the government bails out the “Too big to fail” corporations with money from taxpayers. If so, doesn’t that make you and me the Greatest Fool of all?
Based on hearsays and fairy tales we tell ourselves and each other, Greater Fools are self-organized to believe they alone can predict their siloed future. Isn’t that why the ‘tulips mania’ from 17th century Amsterdam has gone on to fuel our housing markets, stock markets, Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, startups, etc. through the centuries?
The ‘boom and bust’ pattern of Greater Fools systemically growing the world economy with numbers got an exponential boost when US President Richard Nixon unpegged gold from the US dollar and unceremoniously shoved humanity into a global fiat currency experiment.
Exponential population growth then super-speeded Henry Ford’s pilot to have corporate persons with no greater god than growth pay us humans a salary to buy the goods and services we produce. Because currency is the key tool for systemically transferring wealth, any wonder transnational corporations today control most of our means of survival?
The above is a cloud observation of how we are globally self-organized to perpetuate the Age of Nonsense aka how the system we depend on impacts our behaviors based on ‘I win, you lose.’
Two very different ways of approaching problems
Karl Popper, the great philosopher of science, once divided the world into how people approach solving problems: As Clock or Cloud thinkers. Clocks are neat, orderly systems that can be solved through reduction while clouds are an epistemic mess, “highly irregular, disorderly, and more or less unpredictable.”
The mistake we keep making is to pretend that everything is a clock so we get seduced again and again by false ‘clock’ promises. For instance, we want to believe we will understand nature if we can find the exact right tool to cut its joints. But that approach is doomed to failure. We live in a universe of clouds, not clocks.
To truly be able to learn something, you need time to digest and to connect dots instead of just focusing on ‘clock’ dots. But how is that possible when the info you get online comes at you like a ton of flying bricks? Since that molds clocking thinkers, most will miss the ‘cloud’ context:
“It became difficult to find the proper bricks for a task because one had to hunt among so many … It became difficult to complete a useful edifice because, as soon as the foundations were discernible, they were buried under an avalanche of random bricks. And, saddest of all, sometimes no effort was made even to maintain the distinction between a pile of bricks and a true edifice.” Bernard K Forsher, 1963, the Mayo Clinic
On social media platforms, ‘clock’ bricks confuse and overwhelm so you learn learned helplessness which drills yourself to look for heroes with instant ‘clock’ solutions. Greater Fools just want constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth. They tune out when you raise discussions that demand deep thinking and complex ‘cloud’ solutions. Willfully blind, they rush other Greater Fools to usher in the Age of Surveillance and to make our data the future of (no) money. That’s the latest Business-as-usual Gold Rush.
So easy to fool Self-Deluded Greater Fools
VICE’s Oobah Butler shows us how pretentious, shallow and gullible people can be, believing an illusion is reality. In less than one year, he’s gone from living in a garden shed in London, struggling to pay rent and living on a diet of boiled eggs to winning awards and being featured on TV globally.
While writing fake restaurant reviews, Oobah started to market his home as the number one rated restaurant in London. Over the course of eight months, he used an assault of fake reviews to get his ‘restaurant’ to the hallowed top spot on TripAdvisor. The Shed at Dulwich didn’t even exist but foodies, celebrities and bloggers all clamored to get a table. With his phone perpetually ringing, PR agencies begging to represent it and TV crews pitching shows, Oobah decided to open its doors for one night only. That was how he shot to fame, showing society’s willingness to believe in utter bullshit.
Oobah then faked his way into Paris Fashion Week. Amongst A-Listers and fashion inner circles, Paris Fashion week is THE place where you are sold all the next big trends. It’s the crème de la crème of fashion weeks. Posing as Georgio Peviani, Oobah became the toast of town. He took the fashionistas by storm — partying with A-Listers, selling his denim to Milan’s most exclusive buyers and the inner-circle wanted him at their showrooms. Except Oobah wasn’t the real Georgio Peviani.
He then auditioned people and sent fake versions of himself on a global press tour to improve his brand, set up a website so you can “Book an Oobah” and wrote a book on Bullsh*ting your way to 21st century success.
The Greater Fool Theory
“The greater fool is actually an economic term. It’s a patsy. For the rest of us to profit, we need a greater fool — someone who will buy long and sell short. Most people spend their life trying not to be the greater fool; we toss him the hot potato, we dive for his seat when the music stops. The greater fool is someone with the perfect blend of self-delusion and ego to think that he can succeed where others have failed. This whole country was made by greater fools.” Aaron Sorkin
“Our lives increasingly involve products or services from companies that do not, and may not ever, earn a profit. As the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson recently pointed out, if you wake up on a Casper mattress, take an Uber to a WeWork office space, and have your lunch delivered by DoorDash, you’ve interacted with companies that lost a combined $13 billion last year. If a company is losing money and still selling its product, someone is subsidizing it, and by extension, subsidizing your cheap rides and the beer at your co-working space. As it turns out, the person doing the subsidizing could be you. The reason these companies can stay in business is the money they get from investors — usually venture capital firms that fund startup companies.” Allison Schrager
Georges Van Hoegaerden, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, venture capitalist turned innovation economist and futurist explained “how nine levels of greater-fools enable venture to be “modern-day robbery.” Greater Fools include “Limited partners,” “Venture capitalists,” “wannabe entrepreneurs” and “the public who has had no prior insights.”
“VCs won’t simply admit that they’re in a giant Ponzi Scheme. And then, they have to play along, because they’ve taken money from their investors, and their investors expect a certain return, but it’s no longer an honest game. That’s why it feels like 1999 again.” Steve Blank
“The stock market is similar to a Ponzi scheme because it is a system where the current investors’ profits are dependent on the inflow of cash from new investors. The myth is, profits from stocks come from the earnings and growth of the underlying company. The reality is, profits from buying and selling stocks come from other investors who are buying and selling stocks. When one investor buys low and sells high, another investor is also buying high and needs to sell for even higher. The truth really is just that simple. But, some of you might be thinking, “But stocks are ownership instruments, some stocks pay dividends, some companies buy back shares, people have made money, etc.” I’m familiar with those ideas because I used to work in finance and defended the legitimacy of the stock market with those same textbook responses. But then, I thought about it for many years at very deep levels — researched the history of stocks, studied S.E.C. filings — and realized that there is a massive difference between the textbook ideas from school and what actually happens in practice. People also have a tendency to rationalize and ignore the obvious when it goes against what they want to believe.” Tan Liu
Who is more easy to fool than one who sees an illusion but believes it is reality
“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.” Leo Tolstoy
Since Business-as-usual entities still dispense wages and fees and you need money to survive, will you really understand anything when your livelihood/ego depends on not understanding it?
Cognitive dissonance is particularly evident when an individual’s behavior conflicts with beliefs that are integral to his or her self-identity. For many, a large part of your identity comes from your career. Preoccupied with meeting KPIs, your job may even drill you to forget that you are a human being, albeit to take everything personally.
So, you may not realize the ultimate dream of domination is having the dominated (Greater Fool) exploit one another or that the Greater Fool Theory hides how our world legally operates Pump and Dump in plain sight or how digital oligarchs are experiments to entice us into working for free vis-à-vis:
In March 2015
“Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.” Tom Goodwin
In January 2018
“The world’s largest taxi firm, Uber, is buying cars. The world’s most popular media company, Facebook, now commissions content. The world’s most valuable retailer is now Amazon, and has more than 350 stores. And the world’s largest hospitality provider, Airbnb, increasingly owns real estate. Things change.” Tom Goodwin
Or how the latest Business-as-usual Gold Rush is luring us into a future of no money, no trust, no paid work, no ownership i.e. likely one where most humans will have no value.
“The 21st century is starting to look like the (feudal) 17th century with fancier technology: tax farmers, mercenaries, and now rentier cities.” Paul Krugman
In 1976, Carlo M. Cipolla outlined why he perceived Stupidity is humanity’s greatest existential threat. His last law states: “A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.” His five fundamental laws of stupidity.
Our shared reality hidden in plain sight?
“The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.” The Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution
If so, wouldn’t any new technology or invention just build on what’s existing — where profit-maximizing corporate persons with no greater god than growth are legally prized over human beings? While artificial Scarcity and the Greater Fool Theory (our egos and insecurities) power their growth:
“In 2008, the debt based system broke. It died, it was done. The central banks, globally, put it on life support, and they have to create a new system … they want us cashless, and they want everything in digital form. They want to dematerialize wealth at least for the masses. I am 100 percent certain that this Bitcoin craze, and all of this, is about getting people used to digital currencies. So, when they shift us from the debt-based system to the digital system, we are more comfortable … and more familiar with it.” Market analyst Lynette Zang
“In May of 2009, a secret meeting of billionaire philanthropists took place in which they sought to coordinate how to address the world’s environmental, social, and industrial threats. Each billionaire at the meeting was given 15 minutes to discuss their preferred cause, and then they deliberated to create an umbrella cause to harness all their interests. The end result was that the umbrella cause for which the billionaires would aim to give to was population control, which would be tackled as a potentially disastrous environmental, social and industrial threat. Among those present at the meeting were David Rockefeller, Jr., George Soros, Warren Buffet, Michael Bloomberg, Ted Turner, Bill Gates, and even Oprah Winfrey.” Andrew Gavin Marshall
Of central banks, Zang opines:
“They are not going to give up their power just like that. We’ve had a great run, and now it’s your turn. Hey, population, yes, we’ve taken 96 percent of your wealth, but here we’re going to let you have this piece. It doesn’t work like that. The system doesn’t work like that.”
“The goal is to capture your wealth, and when they say this is the LAST wealth transfer mechanism they mean it because they want it all. All of it.”
On June 21 2018, the Bank of England’s Mark Carney proclaimed, “Data is the new oil” and called for “a new world order.” It’s possible Carney was articulating what’s been in the works for a very long time.
Best-selling author on oil and geopolitics F. William Engdahl shared how Carney was “a key actor in efforts to make the City of London into the financial center of global Green Finance.” Both Carney and ECB outgoing President Mario Draghi are Goldman Sachs’ alumni.
“Goldman Sachs recently unveiled the first global index of top-ranking environmental stocks “to lure investment funds, state pension systems such as the CalPERS (the California Public Employees’ Retirement System) and CalSTRS (the California State Teachers’ Retirement System) with a combined $600+ billion in assets, to invest in their carefully chosen targets. Top rated companies in the index include Alphabet which owns Google, Microsoft, ING Group, Diageo, Philips, Danone and, conveniently, Goldman Sachs.”
In his 2019 letter to CEOs, Larry Fink, head of BlackRock, the world’s largest investor, had urged: “Purpose is not the sole pursuit of profits but the animating force for achieving them. Profits are in no way inconsistent with purpose — in fact, profits and purpose are inextricably linked.”
Really?
“JP Morgan and 14 other trillion dollar giants are invested directly in Blackrock.” “Highly interconnected and inner invested,” they “hold 56–58 percent of Amazon shares.”
“ … They meet on a regular basis to maximize their profits. They are responsible for any illegal activities by their firms. JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Barclays, 13 other of the Giants were all implicated in the LIBOR scandal that falsified data used to create the benchmark rates going back to 2003.”
“The world’s total wealth is estimated to be close to $255 trillion, with the US and Europe holding approximately 2/3 of that total. Meanwhile, 80 percent of the world’s people live on less than $10 a day. The poorest half of the population lives on less than $2.50 a day and more than 1.1 billion live on only a dollar 25 a day.” Peter Phillips, Giants: The Global Power Elite
They also invest in Silicon Valley technology companies like Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Facebook.
Armstrong Economics weighs in:
“… the central banks are TRAPPED!!!!! People have NO IDEA what we face. The system is unraveling but not even those in government have understood how it was interwoven to begin with. This is all part of how we are heading into a major Monetary Crisis Cycle and I fear they will misunderstand it once again and create more stupid laws that will bring the entire house of cards down by the time we reach 2032.
If you just play out what has taken place in socialism, there will be $400 trillion of unfunded liabilities by the time we get to 2032. That cannot be dealt with and I suspect we will see more authoritarian usurpation down the line.”
Invited to a major political dinner in Washington with Dick Fox, the former Chairman of Temple University in 2017, Martin Armstrong shared how they were placed with the heads of the various environmental groups. Assuming friendly company, they began speaking freely. When Fox moved the conversation towards the truth behind their movements, they admitted it was not about the environment but to reduce population growth
In February 2019, then-EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker publicly informed Greta Thunberg and sundry that the EU should spend hundreds of billions of euros combating climate change during the next decade. He proposed that “between 2021 to 2027: “every fourth euro spent within the EU budget go toward action to mitigate climate change.”
However, Engdahl revealed: “that decision had been made in conjunction with the World Bank a full year before in September 26, 2018 at the One Planet Summit, along with the World Bank, Bloomberg Foundations, the World Economic Forum and others.”
In May 2019, the IMF released a Global Financial Stability Report titled “Vulnerabilities in a Maturing Credit Cycle.” Is the IMF telling us the global fiat currency experiment is ending? So, similar to what Nixon did in the early 70’s, are we going to be shoved into the use of data? Possibly via a form of Universal Basic Income?
On November 1 2019, outgoing managing director of IMF Christine Lagarde will helm the European Central Bank to work on eliminating cash from the system. In a 2018 speech, Lagarde had already expressed she was “not entirely satisfied.”
On October 1 2019, Kristalina Georgieva, a top World Bank economist who grew up in communist Bulgaria replaced Lagarde as the new IMF head. Before joining the World Bank in January 2017, Georgieva was the commissioner in charge of the EU budget.
Is the European Union the experiment to regionally regroup the rest of the world around the Green New Deal with technology?
In August 2019, Carney told the Federal Reserve’s annual gabfest at the Jackson Hole Wyoming retreat that central bankers could develop a network of national digital currencies to create a new, basket-managed “synthetic hegemonic currency.”
That same month, the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of America’s largest companies headed by Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., stated that 181 top US CEOs realize companies need a Purpose beyond Profit.
Can this be an open push for a global bankers’ dictatorship? Of foxes guarding the hen house (us)?
If so, doesn’t post capitalism mean the Age of Surveillance through “developing literally trillions of dollars in new wealth for the global banks and financial giants who constitute the real powers that be,” with the civil society (NGOs) winning your heart, body and soul?
Don’t we need a new social contract first and foremost?
“Men are born free, yet everywhere are in chains. This man believes that he is the master of others, and still he is more of a slave than they are. How did that transformation take place? I don’t know. How may the restraints on man become legitimate?” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
So few owning so much is because we Greater Fools are unwittingly stuck in a social contract that legally and systemically enables that. It’s also centuries old. Since at least 1945, hasn’t the United Nations been working behind the scene to ensure “the restraints on man become legitimate”? Their latest push. In June 2019, they quietly signed a memorandum with the World Economic Forum — the backbone of the Fourth Industrial Revolution — to implement the Strategic Partnership Framework for Agenda 2030.
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Galileo Galilei
Do you agree we first need a new social contract that is legally more tailored for our wellbeing and empowerment? The Internet can also be the best tool for us to nudge our world leaders to kickstart redoing our social contract, walking their talk.
Because the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes. Unless you are ready to learn, you will not understand how the Greater Fool Theory has ensured that trust is systemically broken. So, take time to mull over how you have been the Greatest Fool and how you have been systemically self-organized to perpetuate the Age of Nonsense. Since nobody knows everything, please also do your own research and embark on your own voyage of self-discovery … so we may truly kickstart a world of True Abundance for one and all.
