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Economics Essay Political

All the World’s a Doom Loop…

…and all the men and women merely Doomers.

But seriously, I recently read a little piece over at Of Two Minds and Mr. Smith spends a lot of time defining Doom Loops, but not really explaining how we should be reacting to them. So, I figured I’d contribute a little analysis, and maybe some advice.

First off, Doom Loops are an inevitable consequence of the statist system. Though it may take hundreds of years for the Doom Loops to come home to roost, the creation of a group of people morally permitted to commit aggressive violence always attracts progressively worse people and expands its claimed powers over time. In short, as long as somebody is allowed to rough you up and steal from you, that guy’s always going to get worse and want more, in the long run.

Small, temporary victories are what they are.

However, to keep things to a more practical level, let’s get into the final stages, before things become unlivable for reasonable human beings. Things to look for are:

  • the government giving up its pretense of protecting your rights, and instead encouraging criminals and parasites to make you a victim
  • the government trying to forcibly overwrite your cultural preferences and replace them with ones that serve government interests
  • the government eliminating or curtailing your right to self-defense
  • the government claiming ownership of your children
  • unsustainable public debts
  • policies that encourage dependency on the government or any particular corporation

Once a couple of these policies have raised their ugly heads, you can expect things to get significantly worse on a timeline you’ll notice. So what do you do?

Unless you live in a very lightly populated area, you won’t have a huge amount of political pull. The items listed above all represent turning points where the government is actively destroying the society it is supposed to be protecting. These policies will encourage the people to wander down the primrose path of the Doom Loop. To put it bluntly, there may be nothing you can do to stop it, at this point.

So, what’s the solution? The solution is to, as best you can, prevent yourself from being drawn into the Doom Loop. At the very minimum, this means actively preserving any and all cultural artifacts (books, etc.) that you think are important. But it can go much further.

Loudly identifying the problem policies may not slow them down, but it will create a record of what’s happening, and rally people with similar ideas to your side. Another benefit of identifying the problem policies is that it allows you to consciously avoid falling into the incentives it produces. The temptation will be there, to fall into whatever degeneracy is currently being promoted–after all, you’d be so much more prosperous if you only fell in line, stole a little here and there, etc. However, this spells destruction for the very thing you’re trying to protect. Better to stay sane, even as the world goes nuts.

There are even some times when you might be able to get enough people together to stem the tide. Fighting the good fight doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win, but if you actually manage to accomplish something, so much the better, both for you and other like-minded people around you.

As a last resort, if conditions allow, get the hell out of there. Admittedly, this will frequently be off the table, if not prohibitively costly. But once the final turning point is crossed, if you can find a place that is even just a few years behind the curve, you might be able to escape, let the nonsense run its course, and let the parasites eat each other, instead of you.

As a rule, if you manage to escape, never disparage the people who agree with you but weren’t able to get out. The people who continue to fight behind enemy lines deserve respect, not scorn. Those efforts would be better applied to keeping the statist tide at bay in your new area.

Of course, it’s an old adage that the markets can stay insane longer than you can afford to be sane, and the same reasoning applies to governments maintaining their toxic hold on power in a rapidly deteriorating area. But it’s definitely better to watch the death spiral from outside, if it can possibly be arranged.

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