Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. Often, fear, greed, pride, overconfidence, and a desire to fit in cause us to suffer more than necessary. We want to defeat these inner demons to become better stewards of our wealth. Our gut leads us to make bad decisions based on “Fight or Flight” instincts, and we want to train our gut to rewire our reactions to make better investment decisions.
Logic works better when investing, but logic can also cause “paralysis by analysis”. For this reason, we want to develop mental shortcuts to be able to act quickly when opportunities present themselves. Daniel Kahneman, in his book “Thinking Fast and Slow,” talks about this phenomenon. Nothing is wrong with waiting for the “Fat Pitch”, but when it comes across the plate, you better be swinging.
More than anything, in investing and life, we become brainwashed. We think that just because everyone else is doing it, it must be the best decision. Time and time again, history proves that crowds are wrong, most often at extremes. This leads to mass hysteria, panic, and blindly following a “pied piper” that may eventually mean economic destruction.
How do we learn to think for ourselves, embrace radical transparency and radical truth, and know the truth when we see it? Ray Dalio talks about “Believability weighted decision making”. He has codified a way to gather input and opinions to weigh how believable each input is and make decisions that yield the most profits. His record speaks for itself.
We also want to learn how to discern the truth, not only for better returns but for better life outcomes and a better world at large. When everyone is saying that you “cannot lose” investing in tulip bulbs, it’s often time to become a contrarian, become a “devils advocate” and discover whether the counterargument holds more weight.
The video above covers many of these items in more depth.
This is not just an investing phenomenon. Outside forces are shaping our thinking in a way that may lead to destruction in more ways than one, and the more time we spend online in echo chambers that reinforce one viewpoint without considering the counterargument, the more likely we are to fall.
We are at War. It’s a war for our mindshare and an Economic War. We are fighting for our currency. We are fighting for Technology & Information Dominance. We are fighting for Trade. Tariffs have become increasingly a part of this War. We are fighting for our Financial Freedom, and our enemies hold much of our debt.
We no longer engage in warfare with just armed forces, swords, guns, tanks, and aircraft. Warfare has now entered the 5th Generation, and as such, we must understand how the enemy is attacking us.
The other night, I watched Braveheart with my youngest son, Walker. This movie has long been one of my favorite movies ever since I first watched it. I have watched this movie at least once a year over the past 30 years. Some enjoy the movie because of its historical roots, the romantic subplot, & the political maneuverings. Others enjoy the battle scenes, sometimes gruesome, sometimes humorous, always multilayered to build the characters, move the plot forward, and show the motivations of the various characters.
Historical Enemies
Motivations are rarely pure. Most wars are fought to conquer other nations. This conquest is most often fought to add to the wealth and power of those funding the war.
We can think back to the Babylonians, the Greeks & Romans, and more recently the Spanish, Dutch, and the United Kingdom. These nation states all grew to empires through the conquest of other nations. They all enjoyed the spoils of these conquests. Great armies in ancient times were eclipsed by great navies in colonial times. Spears & horses evolved to swords, ships, guns, cannons, tanks, submarines, airplanes, missiles & drones. Today, we fight in less obvious ways and not just via proxy wars.
Our country has destroyed many enemies from within. We destroyed their will to fight us by getting them to fight amongst themselves. The goal is not initially to kill, but to confuse, divide, and render them impotent. We’ve done this to destabilize other countries many times, often with unintended consequences. Our actions to overthrow rulers in the Middle East since World War II have led to the rise of some of our greatest enemies today.
Today, our enemies are seeking to destabilize our nation. If we fight amongst ourselves, we will grow weaker and weaker. In recent years, many nations, especially in Europe, have lost their sense of self and lost their patriots. How can we encourage our children and educate them so they do not fall into this same trap that many in Europe have?
How do our Enemies Seek to Destabilize and Destroy Us?
Our enemies want to encourage financial irresponsibility. Our population grows weaker as we go into debt to consume instead of learning how to be productive and responsible. If the nation continually bails out the failures of our citizens, cities, and states who refuse to become fiscally responsible, eventually there will be no-one to bail out the country. If our current debt trajectory continues, our country will start to see a max exodus from the United States similar to the exodus from some of these cities and states that have bankrupted themselves.
Warren Buffett said that he could solve the debt problem in the United States through the passage of just one bill that would force all Congressmen to no longer be eligible for election when they allowed the deficit to grow greater than 3%.
So why are we not doing this? We do not currently have the will to get our fiscal house in order, unfortunately. What will it take for our citizens to encourage more fiscal responsibility and hold our leaders accountable? We had a balanced budget during the Clinton Administration. We can do this again if we elect the right representatives who are focused on this.
Our enemies seek to destabilize our currency. They recognize that reserve currency status is the primary strength that lingers longest when great empires are in decline. We are no longer leading the world in education or trade. Our enemies now want to beat us where we are strong in the areas of technology, financial centers, our military, and our currency. They can continue to steal and reverse engineer technology, ramp up military spending, and improve their financial centers without fighting us head on. The currency can only be destabilized by developing competing alternatives, however. Most likely, this competitor to the dollar will be backed by gold or something else that many feel may hold its value even better than gold.
As a country, we want to protect our currency but also look to grow stronger in all these areas, including the ones where we are definitely falling behind (education and trade)
Our enemies want to engage in unfair trade practices at our expense. They want to win the economic war without having to fight a military war. They want to weaponize supply chains, hack our systems, steal our technology, & undercut prices.
Some of our biggest enemies from World War II are now our biggest allies. In past decades, the United States wanted to help the rest of the world rebuild. But many of our current enemies secretly or not so secretly plot our demise while pretending to be friendly.
Machiavelli, in his political treatise The Prince, wrote , “Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.” Sun Tzu also stated in the Art of War, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
To combat this, we want to unite our forces, grow secure at all points, develop superior strength, not grow temperamental or arrogant, and remain ever vigilant to be prepared for all the enemy’s attacks. This may thwart the designs of the most dangerous enemies who have studied the Art of War.
Our enemies continue seeking to steal technology and have devised other technologies to be dangerously addictive as well. Many now have difficulty weaning themselves away from devices, technologies, social media, and the self-reinforcing echo chamber that reinforces and encourages anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and self-centered behavior. In the process, our enemies gather data and intelligence to use against us through all means possible.
So how do we protect ourselves from these technological attacks? Refuse to use technologies from nations that are less friendly. Also, we can gather together and re-learn how to encourage fellowship through open dialogue and break bread together one-on-one, in family gatherings, and in small groups.
Our enemies want to destroy our families, separate fathers from mothers, and tear us apart morally and spiritually. Our enemies are trying to take the hearts, minds, and even the souls of our children. Often, families are destroyed from within when the father or mother abandons the family. Increasingly, today, mothers and fathers are ill-prepared to defend against the culture reframing personal beliefs as personal truths, denying objectivity, and calling anything that causes discomfort “hate speech”. And it works!
According to research, today, 1 in 2 adults is estranged from a close relative. 20% directly cite political differences as the reason. Among those estranged over politics, nearly half report that the break occurred within the past year, with many saying it happened during the months leading into the election. These disconnections often involve severing all communication, including through intermediaries, and blocking their relatives on social media.
Our enemies want us to focus on our differences, not on our similarities. They want us to hate those who are of different genders, races, religions, ideologies, and especially political affiliations. They want us to adopt a victim mindset. Those who are victims will never be able to defeat their true enemies.
Why not instead focus on loving one another, cherishing our differences, and being thankful for setbacks and the ability to become better versions of ourselves as we overcome these obstacles?
Our enemies want us to encourage unhealthy behavior, allow unbridled crime, feed widespread drug abuse, celebrate homelessness & mental illness, and intolerance of views that challenge our thinking.
Why not instead learn to grow healthier together, reward good behavior, and engage in lively, well-reasoned arguments and debate to encourage understanding?
Our enemies want to indoctrinate our young to hate our country, our founding fathers, and the principles upon which our country was founded. They want us to take God, prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance out of our schools. They want us to forget that Liberty and Justice are for all of us.
Why not strive instead to teach our children to love our country and remember the principles we were founded? Why not champion Liberty and Justice for all of us, even those we may not agree with?
Our enemies seek to silence, cancel, and even kill those who recognize the true enemy and can articulately sway others to wake up. In the movie Braveheart, King Edward the Longshanks remarked that most of the Scotch were “Sheep, mere sheep” that the Scottish uprisings would go away when he “struck down the shepherd.” In some cases, the enemy can cancel, smear, threaten, and effectively silence these voices. Often, this tyrannical behavior backfires, and voices find other ways to spread the message. Martyrdom often provides seeds to expand the movement.
It is likely that Robert the Bruce would never have led his countrymen to independence without the death of William Wallace. His death helped provide the spark that led to the independence of Scotland.
THE ACCOMPLICES
In ancient times, the Babylonians would take the best and brightest from other nations, change their names to Babylonian names, and indoctrinate them in the Babylonian way of life. Today, our enemies seek to do the same thing to better enable us to embrace them as allies while they plot our downfall. However, instead of taking children from their homes, the enemy brings technology into our homes. We want to be vigilant to watch what our children are consuming and engage in dialogue about these things.
Our enemies seek to infiltrate our largest institutions and government bodies. Our enemies may enrich those willing to choose wealth and power over their own countrymen. Businesses may grow sighted with boards that are controlled by political interests. Politicians may accept favors and “get in bed” with the enemy. They may tell themselves it is only this one time so they can be re-elected, but once ensnared, it becomes harder to extricate themselves.
In the movie Braveheart, we can see the Scottish accomplices who sided with the English king to enrich themselves rather than fight for Scottish independence. Many were willing accomplices who knew what they were doing. They turned against their own countrymen for more lands and titles.
Others were put into a position of being used unknowingly. Many peasants and servants fought for their Lords and did not bother to learn more about what was happening around them.
Unfortunately, today, many are told what to think and don’t take the time to look at other viewpoints and establish their own well-reasoned opinions. We know we are on the right track when we can defend our own point of view against other well-reasoned points of view, understand the other side, yet still have done the intellectual work to know why our viewpoint is objectively more defensible. Can we do this without calling names or demeaning those we are seeking to persuade? Hopefully, we can all get there.
THE FEARFUL
Many are motivated to just survive. They want to run from the enemy and live another day. This story plays out today the same way as it has for all of history. Many are too afraid to stand for what they believe. They are too afraid to answer the call. They fear what others may be able to do to them. They may be cancelled, they may lose business, they may even lose their lives.
The Holocaust Museum in Boston displays this quote from the Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoller.
“THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
THEN THEY CAME for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
The thoughts then and now are spoken loudly in the pre-battle scene from Braveheart when one soldier proclaims, “I didn’t come here to fight so they can own more lands.” Another answers, “Alright, lads, I’m not dying for these bastards! Let’s go home!”
But what kind of life are we living if we always run? William Wallace answers well.
“I am William Wallace, and I see a whole army of my countrymen here, in defiance of Tyranny. You’ve come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?
Soldier: “Fight? Against that? No! We will run! And we will live.”
”Aye. Fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live…at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance – just one chance – to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”
THE FAITHFUL
Many choose to fight against an enemy only to find out later that they have been fighting the wrong enemy. They have been fighting against those who wanted to save them while at the same time falling prey to the lies of those seeking to gain at their expense.
The true enemy is hidden, looking to incite civil war from the shadows, tear apart families, and profit while picking up the pieces. The true enemy comes as a wolf in sheep’s clothing while he demonizes those who seek to open others’ eyes to the light.
If you recognize the enemy actively causing harm, is it wise to befriend him?
If you recognize the enemy actively causing harm, do you want to hide and do nothing?
There are many out there who embody the spirit of William Wallace.
We want to make sure we are fighting FOR something rather than Against something. Wallace didn’t shout, “Down with Tyranny,” when he was dying. Those who fight against tyrants often invite another worse tyrant to take his place.
Wallace lived and died for “Freedom”. His death inspired his countrymen and Robert the Bruce to bleed and die for the independence of Scotland.
What principles and values do you find most dear? What do you want to live and die for?
We have not signed up for this war, but we are in it.
Do you want to be counted among THE ACCOMPLICES, THE FEARFUL, or THE FAITHFUL
Be careful not to be counted among THE FEARFUL due to inaction.
No choice is still a choice. You have chosen to be neither HOT nor COLD.
The LUKE-WARM suffer the same fate as the Lutheran Minister.
Eventually, they come for you as well.
Focus instead on being faithful to God, Family & Country
We are told to be wise as serpents & gentle as doves. We are sent out as sheep among the wolves, but not to become like the wolves. We want to become more like the lamb, but also know that we are victorious like a Lion by being obedient to His will rather than following the designs of the enemy.
Scripture tells us that if we put Him first, seeking His kingdom and His righteousness, He will take care of all of our worries. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
We want to focus on loving our neighbors instead of fighting our brothers and sisters. We can always find differences if we look hard enough. Why not seek instead to find things we can celebrate together? Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that we would all judge ideas by their merit and each other by the content of our character.
With God’s help, we can all work together to lift our country up as a shining city on a hill, once again.
For more on the 5Th Generation Warfare, please feel free to watch the video below:
Franklin Wealth Management
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