Moody's Warns of 'Social Unrest'

Dominant Social Theme: Civil society will end, unfortunately.

Free-Market Analysis: We know we will read over the next months and even years, especially if economic problems get worse, of dire predictions about people being herded into prison camps and other containment facilities because society itself is facing a breakdown. The stories will focus on the lack of basic amenities such as food, water and shelter and deal with formerly middle class people who are on the edge of starvation now.

…Again, the power elite of any society survives by clever manipulation of the law, it seems to us. So long as society at large believes in these laws, the power elite is safe to rule, and even to use force. But if people don’t believe their underlying mythos anymore, if they don’t believe what they are being told and what their educational and religious establishments are telling them, then the ruling class that has created and promoted these themes is in trouble.

This is what is going on now, we believe. That is in fact the purpose of the Bell, to document and report on the ebb and flow of these themes and their success or degeneration in a time of informational challenges. We believe thanks to the Internet, that this is a very special time. So many of the West’s dominant social themes are under attack. Everything from central banking, to the war on terror, to peak oil and even the legitimacy of the democratic state as it is currently constituted is under some level of assault. There are many that might put this down to coincidence, bad economic times, etc.

It seems to us that it is obvious the Internet is having an impact on the elite’s dominant social themes. And thus we write with some certainty that while increased authoritarianism may be in the future or even near future for Western societies, this is not what the power elite ought to be worried about – and perhaps at a fundamental level it is not. In the near term, societies probably can be controlled by force, for a little while anyway, if it comes to that. But if you have generational wealth and power and control beyond the imaginings of many mortals you are not likely concerned with the near term. In fact, near term authoritarianism probably weakens the long-term potency of your control.

The Daily Bell