I’ll begin this essay with a bit of history, and then take a look at what I foresee in the near future of America.
The “Potemkin Village” [1] (Potyomkinskiye derevni) was an invention of Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski [2] to impress Empress Catherine The Second (“Catherine the Great”), while she was traveling through Crimea, in 1787. As the story goes, along the banks of the Dnieper River, Potemkin had workmen erect a fake village, peopled with paid actors. This village was designed to give Catherine with the illusion of economic vibrancy in the region under the prince’s rule, as she floated by. After her boat had passed, Potemkin would have his workmen disassemble the village and then hastily reassemble it, farther downstream, to be seen the next day. As the story goes (perhaps exaggerated) his ruse went on for several successive days. The phrase Potemkin Village is now used in both the economic and political realms to describe any construction or situational artifice built solely to deceive others into thinking that conditions are better than they actually are. In modern times, North Korea is famous for creating well-stocked fake storefronts [3], and non-functional computers [4], to impress visiting foreigners.
Sadly, 21st Century Potemkin Villages are not created by just Third World dictators. It is becoming common in Western nations. There is now a virtual Potemkin Village on the Potomac River. Unlike the movable village on the Dnieper, the Potemkin Village on the Potomac centers on boasts by the Biden-Harris Regime about a “strong economic recovery” [5] and the merits of a multi-trillion dollar “Building Back Better” spending plan. It is Joe Biden mandating inoculation with flawed vaccines. It is the Federal Reserve creating trillions of dollars out of thin air. And it is the media and academia perpetuating the whole charade.
The governments of most western nations have become a farce. They are led by power-hungry sociopaths and financed by extorted tax dollars of the citizenries. Their laws are willingly enforced by local, state, and federal police officers and agents who are more concerned with “officer safety” and their fat pensions than they are with protecting our constitutional rights. Meanwhile, the leftist stooges of the mainstream media blather on endlessly, repeating their socialist mantras.
One of the most glaring symptoms of the dysfunction of 21st Century America is the unequal application of the law. Just look at the Kid Gloves treatment of the Perpetual Protestors of Portland (PPP), versus the Iron Fist treatment that was dealt out post facto on the January 6th protestors in Washington D.C.. At last report, more than nine months after the day of protests there were still 53 Capitol protestors (or “Insurrectionists” according to the Democrats) still languishing in the D.C. Jail, awaiting trial.
Potemkin Politics
The Powers That Be have dropped the pretenses of a representative form of government, free and fair elections, and restraint from governmental repression and censorship. Most recently, they’ve shown that they are in denial about supply chain collapse. The mass media has fully abandoned accurately reporting events or correctly recounting recent history. The mass media have become co-conspirators. Here is just one example: Biden spokeswoman: There was no vaccine program when Biden entered office [6]. Karine Jean-Pierre felt free to re-write history, to match her agenda, and to support her Dear Leader. Meanwhile, Chief Press Secretary Jen “Circle-Backy” Psaki has taken White House Lies to a new plateau. Every press conference that she presents is a confusing and often contradictory mass of propaganda.
Let’s face it: The United States is now verging on the status of a Failed State. Gross over-spending by Congress has become the norm. The Federal Debt Ceiling keeps getting raised so often that it has become a running joke. The government has colluded with the Federal Reserve banking cartel to destroy the value of the U.S. Dollar. We now have a Banana Republic economy, and a Banana Republic currency, to match. Understandably, State governments are pushing back on Federal vaccination mandates, abortion laws, the “trans” agenda, the “green” agenda, and the many other leftist schemes. The friction between liberal Blue States and the conservative Red States is clearly increasing. The signs and symptoms are all around us. Some sort of Balkanization now seems almost inevitable.
Nonconsensual Government
The Biden-Harris Era can best be characterized as an abandonment of the concept of government by consent. There is no more “consent of the governed” as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, for 21st Century Democrats. For them, it is all about regulations and mandates. In their minds, there is no more consent required. At its core, government without the consent of the governed is a lot like a sexual act without the consent of both parties. That is properly called rape.
The new Biden-Harris era of nonconsensual government is nothing new, on the world stage. It is something akin to the life of an everyday citizen, under the now-defunct Soviet Union, before 1987. In essence, the Soviet citizens said: “We’ll let you continue to pretend to competently govern us, while we pretend to obey your edicts and regulations.”
Our Way Out
One possible escape from the Biden-Harris administration’s Potemkin Politics is to Go Galt. It is only by creating a parallel economy that utilizes barter, precious metals, and private cryptocurrencies that we can both shelter ourselves from inflation and avoid the prying eyes of the government’s tax minions. With sovereign cryptocurrencies now just around the corner, we need to be ready to “go down periscope.” The inherent privacy of greenback cash will soon be taken away from us. The new Digital Dollar will have every transaction tracked – and both parties to transactions potentially taxed. A world with national cryptocurrency replacing cash will be a world with no financial privacy.
My advice? Avoid social media. Get ready to barter with your neighbors. Stock up on durable trade goods — especially common-caliber ammunition. Invest in generic silver coins — either pre-1965 U.S. coins or 1-ounce silver bullion coins. Acquire a bit of Bitcoin and keep it in a hardware wallet — NOT with an Exchange. There will be no functional Galt’s Gulches without viable alternative currencies.
The Potemkin Village on the Potomac is still under construction. It is just a clever facade. That facade will collapse in the high winds of reality, shortly. We need to simultaneously build something genuine, for ourselves. Someone must be ready to recover and rebuild when Biden’s fantasy economy collapses.
I believe that we can both shelter ourselves and stand ready to recover and restore, in the aftermath of the inevitable collapse of the Potemkin Village on the Potomac. Get ready: Stock up, team up, and train up. But first, pray fervently for God’s intervention. Our fate is in God’s hands. – JWR