The 1975 documentary Grey Gardens followed two women, mother and daughter, who lived in an East Hampton mansion — in squalor, surrounded by garbage. Two members of the Bouvier family, socially prominent and formerly affluent, related to a First Lady, lived in a mansion in a neighborhood of mansions, but in a state of poverty and decay. They had the forms and markers of status, and a famous name, but not the actual lives of high-status people. Their mansion rotted.
Yes and think the root of the problem is that the whole broad population is ignorant of the fact they live in a mansion that required planning and building with no small measure of science and skill and requires constant maintenance.
The inhabitants of our mansion love to swan around and boast they live in the greatest mansion in the world but they have no real understanding of how great it is nor of what's required to maintain it.
Which is why in the last two years the population has totally failed to play its natural role in a democracy and call to account all pertinent parties.
They failed to monitor. They failed to fulfill their half of the social contract. They failed to use the levers of control: their elected reps and their control over them.
Malfeasance is the one common thread through all the improprieties and injustices rampant in the USA and most particularly in the last two years.
Malfeasance.
Which essentially means: Keep your word. Do your duty.
But keep your word and do your duty are meaningless phrases in today's world I think.
A fine mansion was constructed and the constructors naively thought everyone who inhabited it would understand how fine it was and how it needed looking after and how they'd have to play their part in keeping it clean and good.
But it didn't work like that.
The level of the mansion far outstripped the level of the inhabitants.
Like a bunch of stone age savages moving in. Well that's an exaggeration.
Love the inherited mansion metaphor. My variation on previous commenter is elites have decided, and are trying to convince half the population, the mansion is stolen and must be dismantled brick by brick. They're never clear on what we'll live in after that but we must trust them. Eminent Domain without limits, if you will.
"Like a bunch of stone age savages moving in. Well that's an exaggeration."
No, unfortunately it isn't an exaggeration at all. These people wouldn't know civilization if they tripped over it. Many appear to be candidates for a locked ward.
... like a bunch of stone age savages moving in. Totally the right direction. You nailed it. Not only did they "not build it" (Obama declaration to his base), they can't respect it. In another way, they cut off their nose to spite their face. Oh, off with everyone's nose and the mansion they respect and value.
Hmmmm, I am not so sure that “Stone Age savages” is an exaggeration, though I truly wish it were. Forgotten, too, is “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance” - we have not been vigilant in protecting our beautiful mansion. Hiring competent, honest, and trustworthy craftsman to ensure that she runs as designed.
Yep. My hope is that venues such as this are a sign of something good. Replacing MSM for a start. Perhaps mini 'think tanks' ? And nurturing increasing numbers of individuals getting the message and getting on the right path.
It’s consistent with a fourth turning of generational cycles. This generation doesn’t understand what it took to build the mansion, the institutions, society, wealth, etc. so they fall into or actually create the crisis that is the fourth turning. Then, after the crisis, we will have a first turning - an awakening or rebirth, if you will. Those coming of age post crisis will build the next cycles institutions.
Some of this woke shit will solve itself economically.
Those law students will seal their own fate. The people they hate most are exactly the people who hire lawyers.
These little idiots claim to love the people who can't afford to hire lawyers. But after they try to work as a public defender, they'll find to their horror that poor defendants are highly religious and culturally traditional, extremely unfriendly to feminism and "trans" and "LGBTQQ2AFJLDFJKL".
So the little idiots will have to choose between making lots of money defending people they hate, or making only a little money defending people they hate.
Great point… However, the “woke shit” may dwindle in those who wake up to reality as they enter the workforce, but, it will only get worse over time.
I believe the woke narrative is just another narrative cooked up by think tanks hired by ultra rich Globalists, (billionaires) who strongly believe that the world is overpopulated. Think Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, etc. I believe their ultimate goal with these ridiculous outrage cultures that they exacerbate through constant corporate media attention is to erode and destroy the Christian foundation/principles on which this country was built. If they truly want to ignite a “Great Reset” well then surely they need to chip away at America’s values and beliefs in order to push us toward catastrophe that would then leave everyone searching for a solution. Their solution, which is to form a New World Order. They want and need us fighting each other, hating each other and taking steps toward civil war or perhaps just weakening ourselves to the point where a foreign Government and military could finally have a chance to take us on and possibly win. I could on for hours on this topic.
Instead, think of this as a final thought. If you need a small but clear example that all of this BLM, woke outrage and cancel culture is absolutely fabricated and weaponized bullshit, consider that Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada, after being exposed for having worn Black Face no less than on three separate occasions, not ONE representative from any of these narratives has said ONE NEGATIVE WORD about it or him. Not one “true hero of the minorities” has demanded his resignation for his clear disdain and ridicule of minority groups.
Why? Likely because he is a star pupil of the WEF and they obviously protect their own. They only finance the push to destroy anyone not in their circle of trust.
Unfortunately, the moneyed class that controls the major institutions that pay big salaries to lawyers are woke themselves. There's an inverse correlation between financial reward and real production: the closer you are to the financial sector or the levers of government, the more money you make, but the less real goods you actually produce. These Yale law grads will be working for NGOs and think tanks and hedge funds and woke corporations. And as the real estate tycoons who started out as BLM founders show, there are massive profits to be made from nonprofit advocacy.
“A republic if you can keep it”. Great piece, and nice illustration with the mansion. We once had a grand mansion, but you are right. Places like that need virtue, wisdom and work to maintain.
That we have "fact-checkers" who unironically fact-check critical geopolitical developments like why someone laughed and at what they were laughing is the bone-dry dipstick inside the motor of what was formerly known as civilization.
Nov 30, 2022·edited Nov 30, 2022Liked by Chris Bray
Great analogy re: Grey Gardens, and it's all so hard to watch - a blood-drenched theater of the absurd reinforced by 24/7 propaganda gaslighting us into believing this is all normal. Few stop to interrogate the supposed goodness or inevitability of all this - or the malice behind it, lest they be called crazy. Much easier to go along to get along. But it IS crazy.
As for me, I tend to my physical and spiritual health the best I can. I read and listen to (and engage in) long-form journalism and discussion to get as deep a sense of understanding of our sick world as I can stomach on any given day. And I head to the beach at every opportunity to let the waves carry my troubles away. I look for beauty, goodness, inspiration and a good reason to laugh. I must find spiritual and human connection and peace on this Earth while I can in spite of it all.
But there's no stopping this runaway train, I fear. It spans the globe in such a way now that no one of us can dismantle it. It will have to crash for us to remember how to build functioning track again.
I too am turning to things eternal as the transitory things begin to crumble. So family, nature, classics of the arts, the spirit of the great religions. Listening for the voices of wisdom from the long deep history of humanity as well as leaning into the eternalness of the Life force, ( here it’s impossible to put into words) pulsing in nature perhaps most tangibly.
It is still an immense gift and privilege to be alive and I share my gratefulness with the people close to me - particularly the young ones.
Strengthen mind, body and spirit for whatever is ahead. Cultivate love, joy and equanimity because this is our one precious life! ( though my girls tell me they can remember also being birds in another life, and such imaginings....anyway point still holds!!)
Cormac McCarthy and The Road in particular is calling me!
How to see the apocalypse coming whilst still deeply drinking in the beauty and grace of Life, particularly in the small things!! What a task is before us!! There is wisdom out there to gain comfort from, both human and the ...cannot be named!! Or put into words!!
Lovely response. Feeling you back! What else is there? We must focus our energies on historically, spiritually, and naturally important and impactful things, which give our lives meaning, in the face of the ever-increasing insanity of our time.
To add to the metaphor on behalf of the “broad population,” I think the elite titleholders (including the ubiquitous media monsters) have convinced an ever-increasing number of the said population that maintenance on the mansion truly isn’t necessary when it can be knocked down and rebuilt way better. And if we choose not to believe it, we will be sent to the basement where the shackles are awaiting.
I haven't laughed so hard at the lawyer reference in days. Bravo! Chris, you nailed it..I hold up a 10 card from my judges podium, even though I'm not a judge and have no podium, but gosh I went college 55 years ago and am judge worthy.
California is Grey Gardens. The infrastructure fails all around us because the people in charge cos-play at being knowledgeable. Newsom knows he's incompetent. That's why he goes on vacation every state emergency.
But they don't maintain the "house" They instead keep spending on the HSR but not fixing the roads. Stopped expansion of 99 in Central Valley. "We won't need that everyone will be on HSR in 10 years" 20 years later not one piece of track laid and 99 is a death trap.
Stopped expanding the CA water system which planned for future water storage as the population grew. Didn't maintain the dams Oroville Spillway fails.
Biggest rain system in years but water storage we paid out for in 2014- not one project is completed to take advantage of the atmospheric River. Instead 10 million acre feet of water out into the ocean.
They coerce utility companies to build Wind & Solar Farms but never improve or maintain the transmission lines that carry that power we rely on from Colorado and Nevada (21% of our electricity is imported from coal fired generation plants. But it's not created here in California so it's Green Energy.
Highway 168 still closed after a week. Caltrans, no workers and no Gas snow blowers, no longer legal to buy in the state.
Mmm... to be fair, more and more people are peering behind the curtain, finally seeing this country's warmongering and propaganda for exactly what it is (and has been for a very long time now). So, we have a mansion that looks deceptively grand, and functional. But upon closer inspection, we realize it was constructed of bones, and blood, and horror. Some move in and rightly declare, "What the fuck!?!" and are bitter about the bill of goods they were sold. And now they don't know how to keep the mansion erect without the materials it was originally created with.
Having learned what fascism is in the early eighties the results of this trend towards totalitarian top down society governed by the fascist elite was easy to predict. Every innovation that made life easier to live just another loop in the snare. But take heart, the machine system vastly over uses resources and is due for a complete collapse here soon enough. Prepare yourselves by learning how to become a free tenant peasant to avoid the rush of it
Instead of trying to save the whole mansion, fix two or three rooms and live in those. A far more realistic goal. But I've had patriots chide me for talking about the need to strengthen mini societies and micro economies with secure food sources on the local level. It may mean our survival.
Too many would rather start a civil war to get "our man" in Washington. Exactly what Mr. Global counts on.
Excellently expressed and so accurately described. How have we as a nation, come to be led my such jokers and fools, that are supported by so many jokers and fools?
Yes and think the root of the problem is that the whole broad population is ignorant of the fact they live in a mansion that required planning and building with no small measure of science and skill and requires constant maintenance.
The inhabitants of our mansion love to swan around and boast they live in the greatest mansion in the world but they have no real understanding of how great it is nor of what's required to maintain it.
Which is why in the last two years the population has totally failed to play its natural role in a democracy and call to account all pertinent parties.
They failed to monitor. They failed to fulfill their half of the social contract. They failed to use the levers of control: their elected reps and their control over them.
Malfeasance is the one common thread through all the improprieties and injustices rampant in the USA and most particularly in the last two years.
Malfeasance.
Which essentially means: Keep your word. Do your duty.
But keep your word and do your duty are meaningless phrases in today's world I think.
A fine mansion was constructed and the constructors naively thought everyone who inhabited it would understand how fine it was and how it needed looking after and how they'd have to play their part in keeping it clean and good.
But it didn't work like that.
The level of the mansion far outstripped the level of the inhabitants.
Like a bunch of stone age savages moving in. Well that's an exaggeration.
But it's in that direction.
Love the inherited mansion metaphor. My variation on previous commenter is elites have decided, and are trying to convince half the population, the mansion is stolen and must be dismantled brick by brick. They're never clear on what we'll live in after that but we must trust them. Eminent Domain without limits, if you will.
Good one. I like it. :)
"Like a bunch of stone age savages moving in. Well that's an exaggeration."
No, unfortunately it isn't an exaggeration at all. These people wouldn't know civilization if they tripped over it. Many appear to be candidates for a locked ward.
trouble is, you're not joking. it is no joke. is it....
... like a bunch of stone age savages moving in. Totally the right direction. You nailed it. Not only did they "not build it" (Obama declaration to his base), they can't respect it. In another way, they cut off their nose to spite their face. Oh, off with everyone's nose and the mansion they respect and value.
Hmmmm, I am not so sure that “Stone Age savages” is an exaggeration, though I truly wish it were. Forgotten, too, is “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance” - we have not been vigilant in protecting our beautiful mansion. Hiring competent, honest, and trustworthy craftsman to ensure that she runs as designed.
This is a sad time for Our great mansion.
Yep. My hope is that venues such as this are a sign of something good. Replacing MSM for a start. Perhaps mini 'think tanks' ? And nurturing increasing numbers of individuals getting the message and getting on the right path.
I hope. :)
This is one of the most outstanding pieces I’ve read in my almost 60 years on this planet. Thank God for you.
Completely agree!
It’s consistent with a fourth turning of generational cycles. This generation doesn’t understand what it took to build the mansion, the institutions, society, wealth, etc. so they fall into or actually create the crisis that is the fourth turning. Then, after the crisis, we will have a first turning - an awakening or rebirth, if you will. Those coming of age post crisis will build the next cycles institutions.
Some of this woke shit will solve itself economically.
Those law students will seal their own fate. The people they hate most are exactly the people who hire lawyers.
These little idiots claim to love the people who can't afford to hire lawyers. But after they try to work as a public defender, they'll find to their horror that poor defendants are highly religious and culturally traditional, extremely unfriendly to feminism and "trans" and "LGBTQQ2AFJLDFJKL".
So the little idiots will have to choose between making lots of money defending people they hate, or making only a little money defending people they hate.
Great point… However, the “woke shit” may dwindle in those who wake up to reality as they enter the workforce, but, it will only get worse over time.
I believe the woke narrative is just another narrative cooked up by think tanks hired by ultra rich Globalists, (billionaires) who strongly believe that the world is overpopulated. Think Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, etc. I believe their ultimate goal with these ridiculous outrage cultures that they exacerbate through constant corporate media attention is to erode and destroy the Christian foundation/principles on which this country was built. If they truly want to ignite a “Great Reset” well then surely they need to chip away at America’s values and beliefs in order to push us toward catastrophe that would then leave everyone searching for a solution. Their solution, which is to form a New World Order. They want and need us fighting each other, hating each other and taking steps toward civil war or perhaps just weakening ourselves to the point where a foreign Government and military could finally have a chance to take us on and possibly win. I could on for hours on this topic.
Instead, think of this as a final thought. If you need a small but clear example that all of this BLM, woke outrage and cancel culture is absolutely fabricated and weaponized bullshit, consider that Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada, after being exposed for having worn Black Face no less than on three separate occasions, not ONE representative from any of these narratives has said ONE NEGATIVE WORD about it or him. Not one “true hero of the minorities” has demanded his resignation for his clear disdain and ridicule of minority groups.
Why? Likely because he is a star pupil of the WEF and they obviously protect their own. They only finance the push to destroy anyone not in their circle of trust.
Unfortunately, the moneyed class that controls the major institutions that pay big salaries to lawyers are woke themselves. There's an inverse correlation between financial reward and real production: the closer you are to the financial sector or the levers of government, the more money you make, but the less real goods you actually produce. These Yale law grads will be working for NGOs and think tanks and hedge funds and woke corporations. And as the real estate tycoons who started out as BLM founders show, there are massive profits to be made from nonprofit advocacy.
🎯🎯🎯
“A republic if you can keep it”. Great piece, and nice illustration with the mansion. We once had a grand mansion, but you are right. Places like that need virtue, wisdom and work to maintain.
That we have "fact-checkers" who unironically fact-check critical geopolitical developments like why someone laughed and at what they were laughing is the bone-dry dipstick inside the motor of what was formerly known as civilization.
Thanks for yet another one, Chris.
Thanks Chris, great exercise for my weak mind, sent here by eugyppius.
Eugyppius sent me, too.
Excellent. Sent here by Alex Berenson.
Great analogy re: Grey Gardens, and it's all so hard to watch - a blood-drenched theater of the absurd reinforced by 24/7 propaganda gaslighting us into believing this is all normal. Few stop to interrogate the supposed goodness or inevitability of all this - or the malice behind it, lest they be called crazy. Much easier to go along to get along. But it IS crazy.
As for me, I tend to my physical and spiritual health the best I can. I read and listen to (and engage in) long-form journalism and discussion to get as deep a sense of understanding of our sick world as I can stomach on any given day. And I head to the beach at every opportunity to let the waves carry my troubles away. I look for beauty, goodness, inspiration and a good reason to laugh. I must find spiritual and human connection and peace on this Earth while I can in spite of it all.
But there's no stopping this runaway train, I fear. It spans the globe in such a way now that no one of us can dismantle it. It will have to crash for us to remember how to build functioning track again.
Feeling you!
I too am turning to things eternal as the transitory things begin to crumble. So family, nature, classics of the arts, the spirit of the great religions. Listening for the voices of wisdom from the long deep history of humanity as well as leaning into the eternalness of the Life force, ( here it’s impossible to put into words) pulsing in nature perhaps most tangibly.
It is still an immense gift and privilege to be alive and I share my gratefulness with the people close to me - particularly the young ones.
Strengthen mind, body and spirit for whatever is ahead. Cultivate love, joy and equanimity because this is our one precious life! ( though my girls tell me they can remember also being birds in another life, and such imaginings....anyway point still holds!!)
Cormac McCarthy and The Road in particular is calling me!
How to see the apocalypse coming whilst still deeply drinking in the beauty and grace of Life, particularly in the small things!! What a task is before us!! There is wisdom out there to gain comfort from, both human and the ...cannot be named!! Or put into words!!
Feeling you!!
Lovely response. Feeling you back! What else is there? We must focus our energies on historically, spiritually, and naturally important and impactful things, which give our lives meaning, in the face of the ever-increasing insanity of our time.
To add to the metaphor on behalf of the “broad population,” I think the elite titleholders (including the ubiquitous media monsters) have convinced an ever-increasing number of the said population that maintenance on the mansion truly isn’t necessary when it can be knocked down and rebuilt way better. And if we choose not to believe it, we will be sent to the basement where the shackles are awaiting.
I haven't laughed so hard at the lawyer reference in days. Bravo! Chris, you nailed it..I hold up a 10 card from my judges podium, even though I'm not a judge and have no podium, but gosh I went college 55 years ago and am judge worthy.
California is Grey Gardens. The infrastructure fails all around us because the people in charge cos-play at being knowledgeable. Newsom knows he's incompetent. That's why he goes on vacation every state emergency.
But they don't maintain the "house" They instead keep spending on the HSR but not fixing the roads. Stopped expansion of 99 in Central Valley. "We won't need that everyone will be on HSR in 10 years" 20 years later not one piece of track laid and 99 is a death trap.
Stopped expanding the CA water system which planned for future water storage as the population grew. Didn't maintain the dams Oroville Spillway fails.
Biggest rain system in years but water storage we paid out for in 2014- not one project is completed to take advantage of the atmospheric River. Instead 10 million acre feet of water out into the ocean.
They coerce utility companies to build Wind & Solar Farms but never improve or maintain the transmission lines that carry that power we rely on from Colorado and Nevada (21% of our electricity is imported from coal fired generation plants. But it's not created here in California so it's Green Energy.
Highway 168 still closed after a week. Caltrans, no workers and no Gas snow blowers, no longer legal to buy in the state.
Like Grey Gardens, they live on the legacy
Mmm... to be fair, more and more people are peering behind the curtain, finally seeing this country's warmongering and propaganda for exactly what it is (and has been for a very long time now). So, we have a mansion that looks deceptively grand, and functional. But upon closer inspection, we realize it was constructed of bones, and blood, and horror. Some move in and rightly declare, "What the fuck!?!" and are bitter about the bill of goods they were sold. And now they don't know how to keep the mansion erect without the materials it was originally created with.
Having learned what fascism is in the early eighties the results of this trend towards totalitarian top down society governed by the fascist elite was easy to predict. Every innovation that made life easier to live just another loop in the snare. But take heart, the machine system vastly over uses resources and is due for a complete collapse here soon enough. Prepare yourselves by learning how to become a free tenant peasant to avoid the rush of it
Instead of trying to save the whole mansion, fix two or three rooms and live in those. A far more realistic goal. But I've had patriots chide me for talking about the need to strengthen mini societies and micro economies with secure food sources on the local level. It may mean our survival.
Too many would rather start a civil war to get "our man" in Washington. Exactly what Mr. Global counts on.
Great piece, Chris. Even more relevant today than when it was written. Thanks.
Excellently expressed and so accurately described. How have we as a nation, come to be led my such jokers and fools, that are supported by so many jokers and fools?