Feelilng testy?

Credit, AKA consumption before production, is a societal drug; it is artificial dopamine.  We are now at the point where the credit drug first loses its efficacy and then the doses actually begin to shrink.  At some point they leave the markets with very little artificial dopamine.

As this expresses itself in society we have to expect that people will, in general, begin to get testy, frustrated, angry, and expressive about it.  I'm talking about people who are normally pretty easy going and reserved who just suddenly begin to speak out in unexpectedly negative ways, perhaps lashing out at everyone around them.  To the complainer, nothing the other guy is doing is any good and of course the other guy is failing and it is dragging the complainer down too (at least in the mind of the complainer).

The complainers of course are not even really aware that they are doing it, and far less aware of why.  The grief cycle is a wave just like everything else.  Everyone has to go through their own version of it when something bad happens or when they fear subconsciously through the receipt of myriad herding signals that something bad is about to happen.  Some people just become irritable and testy but others will simply fall into a depression and anger wave so deep that they, as Gerald Celente likes to say, will "lose it".  Of course, you can never know in advance who is going to do what.

 

The reason I expect this to happen is that the mood of the herd is turning dour.  Not just dour but also fearful.  In fact, fear might be driving the other outward manifestations.  Fear of losing ones job or having one's pay cut.  Fear of losing one's retirement savings.  Fear about the possibility of war with Russia and China.  The herd does not react well to the relentless receipt of fear signals. 

Many of the reactions are subconscious for long periods of time until they are suddenly blurted out in an uncontrollable fit.  This is why I expect to see road rage on the rise over the next few years.  If someone flips you off on the road, do NOT engage them.  Look down, look away.  These are the herding signs of submission and will probably get the offensive asshole to stop at just screaming at you from his car.  But if you engage them then the odds are now increasing rapidly that they will do something completely out of character despite severe consequences that will befall them and you as well.

Today's example of this "losing it" effect is from this article wherein an airline flight had to be diverted because a small herd of soccer players became offensive, uncooperative, threatening, disrespectful and unruly.  Why on Earth would six grown men decide to behave like that?  They will certainly be charged with federal crimes and made an example of.  It will quite possibly ruin their sports careers.  Yet there they were acting out as if they were invincible (or invisible).

Those players have no idea why they did it. They just felt like doing it and they egged each other on until it got out of hand.  When it finally did get out of hand, no logical thought was applied.  Consequences didn't matter.  They were superstars and everyone else, even complete strangers, were assholes.  This is just the beginning.  Disrespect for authority, after years of being forced to artificially respect authority which did not deserve such respect, tends to overshoot the mean for awhile until the herd gets used to the new normal. 

For several years going forward, the odds will continue to increase that really, really stupid things will occur even though there were obvious ways to avoid them.  This is why I watch the growing nationalism and militarism of China, the militarism of Japan, the increasingly anti-Japanese sentiment in China, and the close military relationship that seems to be emerging between Russia and China.  Volatility isn't just for the markets.  In fact, the markets are little more than a reflection of the mood of the herd.