Nothing is more powerful than people who decide to stop living in fear.

I recently became a fan of a popular TV series.  Everyone else on the planet has seen it except for me but at the time it originally came out (and since) I simply did not want to make time for more TV.  However, on a recent business trip I talked to a co-worker who told me how good it was and so I decided to watch on Netflix.  Of course, that is the only way to watch a series.  No commercials.  No five minute recap of last week's show at the start of every new show.  No need to fill up your DVR disk to the point where other stuff can't be recorded.  No getting led up to an important point in the story only to have to wait for next week to see how it turned out.  Heck, Netflix even cues them up in order and auto-plays the next episode if you like.

Perhaps by now you guessed from the title of this post that the series is Breaking Bad.  Yeah, I know, it's old news to most people.  But importantly the series began in 2008, right into the teeth of wave 1 of the financial crisis.  The story line reminds me strongly of Gerald Celente's oft-used line that "when people have lost everything and believe that they have nothing left to lose, they 'lose it' ".  For Walter in Breaking Bad, that point was getting lung cancer while working two crap jobs that didn't compensate him for his brilliance simply because he was not one of those aggressive personalities who could go market himself well.  The world of debt Ponzi based economic "growth"  greatly favors the liberal flamboyant, the Hollywood actor, the public personality.  I can't tell you how many people who I consider smart in all other ways would tell me that Ron Paul rightfully lose elections because he didn't have enough flair and panache.  Never once did these people stop to think that these qualities do not help someone lead a business.  Never once did the stop to consider that they are the stock and trade of con men.  No, the credit was flowing and so we had to have egomaniacs and narcissists running the show.  Not just in politics but at all levels of business.  Old Walt just didn't fit the bill so he got passed over and kicked aside.

In any case, after watching most of season 1 and 2, it seems the show it about an awakening that is facilitated by the liberating act of losing your fear.  While it delves into the dark drug trade I think it says a lot about the human condition in general.  In fact, today's story about a lady who decided to take vigilantism into her own hands is right in line with this.  If you read the article you will find out that she stopped the escape of a bank robber  by ramming his vehicle with hers.  Like Walt, she has bad cancer.  In addition, she was driving an old truck.  In other words, nothing left to lose.  While Celente might say that "she lost it" (and in a way she did), another way of looking at it was that all she really lost was her fear of losing something.  Some might not consider that a loss at all but rather a gain.

I expect this kind of thing to play out many times in our society and at all levels in the coming years: people doing unexpected things, some good, some bad, because the collapsing credit has taken away the larger than life prosperity that they were enjoying.  In other words, once they are no longer living off of the future generation's wealth (which is what debt based society is actually doing), some feel they have nothing left to lose.  Bankers, for example, step off of buildings.  People begin taking other kinds of unexpected risks.  People taking charge of their lives, whatever that means to them personally.  It does not bode well for government which has become accustomed to the ridiculous belief that it can control everyone and everything.  That silly notion will certainly prove to be a casualty of the great debt Ponzi bust.