2017-01-14

The Slow Collapse of the West

Yahoo: US woman dies of infection resistant to all 26 available antibiotics
A US woman has died from an infection that was resistant to all 26 available antibiotics, health officials said this week, raising new concerns about the rise of dangerous superbugs.

The woman, who was in her 70s, died in Nevada in September, and had recently been hospitalized in India with fractured leg bones, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The cause of death was sepsis, following infection from a rare bacteria known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which is resistant to all antibiotics available in the United States.

The specific strain of CRE, known as Klebsiella pneumoniae, was isolated from one of her wounds in August.

Tests were negative for the mcr-1 gene -- a great concern to health experts because it makes bacteria resistant to the antibiotic of last resort, colistin.
Socionomics takes a positive view of positive mood, and a negative view of negative mood. During periods of positive mood, people see the upside in everything. Immigration brings new entrepreneurs, GMOs will make us healthier, AI will free us from labor. Negative mood makes people see the downside: immigration brings crime, GMOs will give us cancer, AI will kill us. Socionomics also applies positive and negative values to the two groups. Openness is good, xenophobia bad. Reliance on science good, reliance on superstition bad. There is some objective value however: negative social mood does lead to more disease outbreaks and war, for instance, but that makes it all the more important to avoid situations that create extreme negative mood.

The Austrian economist's view of the business cycle is a good way to look at it. Most people, and most economists, think recessions are bad, but the Austrians "like" recessions because they remove the bad from the economy. For an alcoholic, a recession is the first days, weeks and months of going dry. It is painful and difficult, but a positive step forward. Continued alcohol consumption is the worst outcome. Similarly, declines in social mood can offset the excesses of positive mood. In the case of the economy, avoiding the buildup of debt (a decision backed by extreme optimism in the future) is also needed to avoid an extreme depression. Similarly, avoiding the extreme excesses of positive mood can counteract the negative.

The spread of infectious diseases is a direct consequence of peak social mood. It is considered xenophobic to stop migrants who carry diseases, in fact the United States doesn't check at all. The national news media doesn't connect the dots for you, but there are a growing number of local news stories around the country, reporting the spread of diseases long thought gone, but which are still common in Central America or other parts of the world. President Obama had a policy of flying migrant children into the country, the U.S. government picked them up on planes and flew them into the U.S. so as to help them avoid the dangerous journey by foot. These migrants, along with ones who came across the border, were then sprinkled around the country without any medical checks. Later, there were stories of TB outbreaks, enterovirus and measles, among others.

Tolerance also spreads disease. The AIDS epidemic exploded because it was considered homophobic to shut down gay clubs in cities, such as New York City, where the disease was spreading. Homosexual groups fought for social acceptance in the 1970s and refused to give up their gains. The result was millions of deaths around the world. Nothing has changed more than 30 years later.

Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy: Shigella in gay men growing more antibiotic resistant
Nearly a quarter of Shigella isolates tested in New York City showed decreased susceptibility or resistance to recommended antibiotics, and most of those infections were among gay men, researchers reported today in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

..."The introduction of this MSM-associated S flexneri 3a lineage into Taiwan in 2015 illustrates that the pathogen can spread rapidly across continents, possibly through intensified sexual networks among MSM," the authors write.
The rise of Trump, Brexit, Le Pen, AfD, nationalism, anti-immigration, this whole stew is not a temporary or short-term phenomena. It can't be dealt with as a problem because the source of the problem isn't the nationalist sentiment, it's the globalist, peak social mood excesses that people are reacting against. Even if no one connects the dots between ideology behind the rise of drug-resistant diseases, the democratic governments in power will lose legitimacy as the economy, society, and even basic science and medicine crumble.

Much of the "Establishment" in the West still has no idea of the level of change underway. There is a sense among the more alert that the religious indoctrination taking place on university campuses is out of control, but there's no sense yet that the ruling ideology/religion in the West is fundamentally flawed, or at least hijacked by peak social mood. Everything has become political in the West, and the correct decision is what is "politically correct," not what is scientific or logical or practical.

Against this backdrop, many look to China's rise as the new global leader. But more likely, at least for right now, is there is no replacement for the United States, and no change in leadership. There will be no smooth transition as there was from the UK to the US. Instead, order will transition to disorder.

Yahoo: Chinese leader meets Davos elite as voters revolt
In that context, it is noteworthy that Xi Jinping will become the first Chinese president to attend the forum when he gives a keynote speech on Tuesday that is expected to extol Beijing's efforts to negotiate new types of regional trade deals shorn of US influence.

This year's Davos "may be the start of China's new role as a leader in promoting globalisation and a speedy recovery of the global economy", as Western countries turn to "isolationist self-centredness", commentator Sun Ding wrote for China's official Xinhua news service.

IHS Markit chief economist Nariman Behravesh stressed China is in no position yet to replace the United States as a global hegemon, but told AFP: "In Davos, Xi will likely articulate China's vision for the world economic and political order."

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