Let us talk about control. Individuals, elites, businesses, governmental agencies and governments themselves all like to feel that they are in control.
Sometimes they are. Often, eventually, they are not.
It was both fitting at the time – the mid-1960s – and prescient anticipating our present day circumstances, that the spy spoof TV series “Get Smart” had the hero agent working for CONTROL. It was a fictional counterintelligence agency that seldom, either with agent Maxwell Smart, or in total, was in control of the situations. It was ironically funny.
Loss of control these days shows in various ways, from the individual shuffling after his truck being taken away on a flatbed, pleading for a halt in a true Shane! Come back! moment, to headlines that greet us daily.
The elites of our Federal Reserve Board of Governors believe they are in control of the bond market with their machinations. The runaway rise in interest yields Wednesday and Thursday, despite the Fed types holding their fed funds rate constant in a Wednesday afternoon announcement, says otherwise.
People who earn their living specializing in following bonds are amazed at the volatility in what used to be a sedate, measured investment arena.
This inability to control the rise of interest rates is coming from the same people who thought just over a year back that they could control inflation. “Transitory” they called it then. The huge rise last year in prices and the continuation in 2023, albeit at a milder level, speaks to anything but control.
Our war hawks think they can control the situation in Ukraine, as they feed hush money to Zelenskyy. But NATO allies are growing tired and our coffers are growing low on reserves, leaving the Napoleonic Zelenskyy (a height and ambition reference) shaking a begging bowl short on fresh alms.
Someday, in the not-too-distant future, these hawks might awaken to a reality that control of our proxy has been lost and the Russians have been dealt provocation sufficient to unleash nuclear weapons.
Those in positions of power in left-wing cities think they are in control of their fates. They believe they can pander to illegal immigrants with promises of being sanctuary cities, but recoil in horror when those illegals take them up on their offer and they find their city resources unable, or unwilling, to meet the challenge.
Our government and many families think they can spend well beyond their means indefinitely, without consequence, either by running ever-increasing budget deficits, or by maxing out credit cards.
The government declares “crises” in order to divert attention and maintain control. Pandemics are created or imagined. Social media, with its typically leftist ownership and staffing, is utilized to censor dissent.
Lapdog news media outlets are co-opted to maintain the official narrative, no matter how it might conflict with the facts.
But what happens when the desired control is lost, both economically and politically?
Those fluent in Johnstown history can appreciate the metaphor of strained dams finally succumbing to the inevitable, with devastation to follow.
When control is lost, when the dams burst, damage is immediate and indiscriminate.
Likely those who would seek to control already are aware of that eventuality. You would do well to consider it, too.
Sam Ross Jr's site 