The world was collapsing under the weight of the failed arrangement known as Globalization. Economically, environmentally, and socially. The World's few thousand billionaires controlled more wealth than two thirds of humanity combined. When the global financial system had exploded in 2008, it was replaced by a proxy economy of non-stop monetary intervention. A band-aid solution that had served to massively widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Global deflation was extant, featuring the lowest interest rates in human history.
Asset bubbles percolated one after another, chased by a hungry populace desperate for any rate of return no matter how ephemeral. The American Dream was morphing into a serial nightmare of reduced wages and benefits, longer hours, and non-existent job security. Companies borrowed as much as possible to fund stock buybacks to facilitate insider cash outs. The smart money was leaving the sinking ship. The fooled populace was left bag-holding a fantasy of retirement predicated upon an ever more insolvent corporate Ponzi scheme.
Disinformation spread unchecked over social media. Conspiracy theories abounded as to why the U.S. and the world were collapsing. It had to be a plan by the elites to take over the world. General IQ had collapsed due to a failed education system and a profoundly lazy population addicted to sports and entertainment. Into this rife environment stepped a well known con man viewed as a saviour from the encroachment of reality. Trump embodied all of the deficiencies of the age: corrupt, cynical, ignorant, crass, and deceptive to the core. If it hadn't been him, it would have been anyone else with the same qualifications. He was skilled at understanding fear and how to manage a gullible populace.
His approach was historically familiar - figure out what the desperate populace wants to hear and work backwards to the message. Place all blame on minorities and foreigners. Create an us versus them paranoid mentality. Lie constantly.
On the other side of the political spectrum, there was no capable response. Left versus right had become far more important than right versus wrong. The narrow stipulations of corporate politics required that the structural problems of the day remained off the table. What was left were short term gimmicks and false promises.
The corporate media were arguably the most responsible for propagating society's problems. What once had been a reliable source of news had been displaced by a 24 hour chat room of like minded mannequins. Each side of the political spectrum pandering to their own base of brainwashed subscribers.
The other source of problems was the university system which was churning out mindless clones on an industrial scale. At an exorbitant cost. The college degree had morphed from a higher education into an obligatory entrance pass to the corporate country club. Except not all degrees were created equal - most were merely low value facsimiles that guaranteed a lifetime of penury. Out of this system of bypassed higher education, emerged a sociopathic leadership class focused solely upon who you know, not what you know. Having the sole goal in life to control the rest of the population to their own ends. It was all just social stratification in the Third World tradition.
When the global pandemic struck it was merely the last straw that broke the camel's back. The warning signs had been evident for years and decades. Nevertheless, the lying went into overdrive. The monetary euthanasia went into overdrive. The bubbles went parabolic. And the stoned populace never once questioned "the system" to its last day.
Mother Nature had won. Thank God.