Life in the feedlot, or on God's green earth?

Key Markets report for Monday, 9 Jun 2025

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of joining my friend Matthew Ehret and Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski on Pluralia Dialogos podcast. The full recording is below.

We discussed the general state of things in the world, but toward the end of our session we addressed some questions from viewers, and one of them asked about the periodic mega-transition cycles of human societies, whether we are experiencing one now, and where things go from here. I believe, in fact, that we are at the beginning of a very significant transition - one which might mark a total break with the last 500 years’ of history.

It is very hard to fathom what the nature of such a transition could be; the whole question reminded me of something I addressed about two years ago, upon returning from a conference in Samarkand (Uzbekistan). I found myself at a loss about how to convey the difference between living in a tightening and increasingly psychotic matrix of Western societies and the more “chilled out” ordinary civilized life. The realities experienced in one environment might be incomprehensible to those living in the other.

We are free… so, so free!

Particularly for Westerners, the idea that living could be good and enjoyable in some of the backwards, or inferior places scattered beyond the golden West is so alien, it doesn’t even compute. The general sense is that we are soo lucky to live in the best, most advanced model of human society where above all, we are free. We are so free, in fact, we keep having to remind ourselves of it, and lest we forget, our media is there to remind us about it too - pretty much on a daily basis.

Well, I grew up in one of those inferior places, so living in a different society is not alien to me and “our way of life” in the West never struck me as particularly special. The “freedom” part in fact always struck me as a lie, which was obvious to me ever since I moved to the U.S. at the age of 17. Only I never quite knew how to articulate much of that or what the relevant differences were between one kind of society and the other.

In a way, those differences imply that perhaps a radically different way of life should be possible and should be considered; one that could perhaps render living an utterly blissful experience on the whole. To try to convey this, I thought I’d resort to a metaphor and comparing humans to chickens seemed to fit the bill (some found that offensive, of course). The the result was an article titled, “Life outside the western matrix: ‘it's never been better...’," and the relevant passage is below:

Chickens in a feedlot

To appreciate the realities and perceptions of people who live in the west, imagine for a moment the reality of chickens who only ever knew life in a modern industrial feedlot. If they could speak, they might dissipate endless energy in passionate debates about the layout of their coop, the design and size of their cages, the lighting and the quality of the fodder. They might have strong opinions about the conduct of other chickens and about their beliefs. Normie chickens might praise the farmers who obviously take care of them, feed them and keep them safe. The conspiracy-minded ones might scream that the farmers are really keeping them for slaughter for which, of course, there is no evidence, LOL.

The collective might even develop an ideology affirming that the feedlot was the best model of society ever devised for the chickenkind. Members of the community would probably be encouraged to admire the feedlot as a technological marvel and many well-meaning chickens might devote themselves to the study of life in the feedlot. Those among them who became aware of its flaws might strive to make the chicken world a better place by improving the design and management of the feedlot, demand larger cages, better quality fodder, or safer medications.

Those slightly more clever chickens who somehow mastered life in the pen to their advantage would even learn to enjoy the place as it had enabled them to rise above the other chickens. They’d learn to perceive themselves as more capable and more worthy than the ordinary chickens. They might convince themselves that if most other chickens struggled, it was all down to their own shortcomings, so their complaints could be disregarded. The clever, capable chickens would be held up as role models for others and proof positive that with the right attitude, hard work and grit, any chicken could succeed.

Meanwhile, appreciation of life outside of the feedlot would recede beyond the comprehension of the confined chickens. After a few generations in confinement, the living memory of any other way of life might get erased from the chickens’ collective consciousness. The idea of simply being and enjoying life in the abundance of God’s green earth would become an alien concept, wholly displaced by the pressing need to work hard and learn how to navigate the feedlot’s limited and limiting matrix and to carve out some semblance of success within its confines.

The chickens’ very self-perception of who and what they are, and what it means to be a chicken would become distorted beyond recognition. In that world, any chicken who suggested that life could be arranged in an entirely different way might sound like a raving lunatic and a dangerous dissident, especially to those successful, dominant chickens.

Perhaps a day outside under the sun might suffice to put things back into perspective and this is what my trip to Samarkand was.

Less prosperous, less healthy and less free in the west

Over the last 30 years, the deterioration in quality of life in the West has in some ways paralleled the de-evolution of chickens in our industrial farming operations. We are less prosperous, less healthy and less free than we were 30 years ago. Our health has decayed, rates of chronic illnesses, depression, obesity and drug use are exploding. We have fewer children and less time to be with them and enjoy bringing them up. Even our life expectancy is becoming shorter. And as we deteriorate physically, we are also deteriorating psychologically and emotionally.

As with chickens and other livestock, modern society is gradually becoming an industrial farming operation for humans also. Some of those tendencies are clearly discernible, including living under constant surveillance and the idea of penning us in 15-minute cities. Authorities in the West have even been working on the introduction of insect protein-based fodder, mandatory vaccinations and so much more.

We are God’s divine creation

Thankfully, our current matrix is coming apart at the seams. It is clearly not suited to humanity, and it is not by chance that the high priests of Davos felt that their plans, if they were to work out, required a fundamental change in what it meant to be human. As Yuval Noah Harari explained it, the idea that we have this divine soul, etc - that’s over! We are now hackable animals, as far as they are concerned. But those decisions never were, and never will be up to the European degenerate hereditary oligarchies.

We are part of the natural world which is God’s divine creation and, as we can all witness, every part of that creation is majestic and beautiful. So how could humanity be anything less than majestic and beautiful? For sure, once we have freed ourselves from the malignant parasite that’s draining our life’s blood, we will be - because we are!

This place is our inalienable birthright. We need not ask anyone’s permission to build whatever future, whatever social or economic arrangement as seems appropriate to us. It is indeed our duty to simply claim that birthright for ourselves and to make sure that future generations are never deprived of it. The beauty of the world around us should give us faith that we too will become a beautiful part in the brilliant symphony of life. Indeed, how could we not be?

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Today’s trading signals

With Friday’s closing prices we have the following changes for the Key Markets portfolio: