The West Is One Big Pyramid Scheme
The Collapse Will Be Catastrophic
After the two World Wars of the 20th century, the European and Asian empires of old lay in rubble, and only the United States of America and Soviet Union remained as global superpowers. Two industrial behemoths, two opposing ideologies. The Soviets offered their vision of a socialist Utopia, while the Americans sold their infamous American Dream.
The Soviet model was built on the concept of collectivisation and centralised government. The American version championed ‘small government’ and social mobility, insisting that even the poorest, most unfortunate person was capable of becoming a millionaire. One model promised security, the other, the stars. Nowhere was this more clearly symbolised than on the flags of the respective empires: The hammer and sickle of the communists told you to work hard for the mutual prosperity of you and your brethren, while the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ had you believing that you could rise above your peers, and into the stratosphere of wealth.
The Soviet Union collapsed first, with the state model growing bloated and stagnant in the face of the West’s infinite-growth capitalism. The rest, as they say, is history — except for two problems.
Firstly, history is written by the winners, and it is Western propaganda which insists on unbridled capitalism as the superior economic model. Secondly, history is not done yet. We are currently in the midst of a rapidly-developing epochal shift, and the truth of the matter is that the West is running on borrowed time, with America’s debt barrelling towards $40 trillion, while the planet teeters on the edge of overshoot-induced collapse.
Looming ahead for all of us is a climate crisis, political chaos and a 21st-century World War to secure resources and hegemonic pole position. Furthermore, the Western model is slowly rotting from within, rife with illusion, financial speculation and predatory business practices. Infinite growth requires infinite resources, of which humans are included. That is, for Western capitalism to survive, it needs to suck us empty of our time, resources, vitality, and even dignity. For that, it needs to keep us engaged. And what better way than by selling us the dream of comfort and success?
A Gold Rush Of Illusion
It is now eighty years since World War II ended, and the US Empire seems to have achieved a socialist Utopia and American dream in one. Amazon Direct Publishing allows any budding author to bypass the traditional publishing houses while offering one-click, same-day delivery of anything you desire. An Uber or DoorDash is only a swipe away. Even YouPorn and OnlyFans allow anyone to monetise their body and sexuality. Facebook and Instagram have opened the masses to the ‘attention economy’, offering virality and influencer status to those most innovative at getting people to pause their scrolling. Infinite new frontiers have opened for all, delivered by the free market of capitalism.
And yet, much like Stalin’s socialist Utopia, this brave new world created by monopolistic oligarchies has been corrupted by the consolidation of power in the hands of the few.
A closer look reveals the predatory nature of this apparent capitalist/socialist Utopia. In all of the above examples, the playbook is the same. First, you offer a platform for free for anyone to ‘make it’, and encourage creators and sellers to flaunt their successes, demonstrating how much money or attention they have gained. This comes in the form of OnlyFans girls showing off the houses they bought and cash donations they received. Amazon self-published authors gleefully post their earnings online. Influencers go viral with millions of likes and followers. Even newly-minted cryptocurrency millionaires are known to post photos of themselves with their luxury cars.
Next, you offer hyper-convenience, and then game the system to exploit the power of intermittent reinforcement, hence hijacking the consumer’s dopamine system. This comes in the form of bright-red notifications, an infinite feed of delightful and emotion-inducing content, and random ‘rewards’ via receiving likes, matches or instant delivery.
With this two-pronged strategy, the platform gets consumers, creators and sellers alike to flock to it. Meanwhile, all competition is crushed, having been abandoned by their customers, lured by the promise of convenience, rewards and success. Finally, as the platform swallows the market and swells towards critical mass, the squeeze begins.
In the case of real-world delivery services such as Amazon and Uber, the platform exploits its monopoly by gradually raising prices while cutting the workers’ pay checks and demanding inhuman productivity. Online, the platforms extort their creators and sellers by offering paid advertising. If you want to remain on top, you will need to pay to play.
Bids usually start low for early adopters. Over time, those who were accustomed to a constant stream of dopamine begin noticing a drop-off in earnings and clicks. Eventually, they realise that paid accounts are being given preference in the search rankings and feeds. So they join the rush, trying to outbid the other creators and sellers, leading to a scramble for the top. Meanwhile, the bids increase and increase, eventually crystallising into a pyramid, where those who pay the most get to be on top. You see this in clear action with the ‘sponsored posts’ of mediocre Instagram influencers trying to get beyond one thousand followers, having coughed up a small fortune to get their photos in front of more eyes.
This is the US Empire’s secret sauce. Reward the masses with a whiff of the American dream, then gradually pull the carrot away from them while their panic increases and they scramble to remain near the warmth of online success. In the case of dating platforms like Tinder, you start the user off high in the pyramid, and then gradually bring them lower, causing their initial matches dry up. Finally, you offer them paid options to ‘boost’ themselves, as they empty their wallets more and more, chasing that dopamine high of romantic validation.
A Pyramid Of Delusion And Death
The destructive consequences of the West’s predatory capitalism remain anaesthetized by a buffet of pharmaceutical drugs, streaming services, and of course, the promise of ‘making it’ in the online American dream. Yet this giant pyramid, fuelled by delusion and desperation, will inevitably collapse. Cryptocurrency pump-and-dump frauds have robbed countless people, with politicians and celebrities encouraging the masses to invest early, before those at the top cash in and leave the masses dry. Online gambling is running rife in the West, even corrupting the minds of children via the celebrity endorsements of their favourite internet personalities. YouPorn, OnlyFans and online dating have destroyed reputations and left people riddled with shame and suicidal thoughts. Some went through with it, while the silent majority are left to live in disgrace. The American dream has grown perverse indeed.
Is this the world we want to live in? Do we want to give the best of ourselves and our children to an insatiable, predatory machine which weaponises our envy and desperation against us? All of this should be enough to awaken the masses, not to mention the American Empire’s genocidal rampage through the Levant, and its destabilising and exploitative projects throughout Africa, Eastern Europe and Central and South-East Asia, with Iran and China directly in its crosshairs.
We live in an empire which is slowly murdering our souls while exploiting us and syphoning our wealth to its elites, and which then uses that power to destabilise and conquer the world, leaving millions destitute, broken, maimed or dead. And rather than slow down and consider that it is leading us towards doom, the West has chosen to double down on its approach, relying on its tried-and-tested playbook of the American dream to keep the masses on-side, all but ensuring the eventual implosion of the world economy, heralding a global dark age of disillusionment, societal collapse, mass migration and apocalyptic war.
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