Apocalypsis

It is official: we are participating in the collapse of the world.

First there was the bumbling of Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch minister who, presiding the meeting of the Eurozone in March, has considered it a good idea to announce that the stealing of the money from the depositors of Cypriot banks is a model that would be extended to the European Union, to save distressed banks.

But, on the day that the announcement was made, the European stock markets shook, the Euro tumbled against the dollar, and the cost of insuring banks against risk rose sky high.

On the same night, the same Dijsselbloem said that "no, the measures dictated by Europe in Cyprus, are an exception and that they are not a model that would be passed in the entire European Union.

The same man - a minister in his country and also a high ranking European official -, on the same day, answered both "yes" and "no" to a question that concerns all of us.

In reality, the Eurogroup has been working on this plan since last summer, so it was visible that Dijsselbloem was lying when he said that the theft of the depositors' money would not be extended to all the banks in the European Union and that he was saying the truth when he said that it would.

Which was actually confirmed later.

In June, the European Union accepted the draft of what the specialists call "bail-in" (and bank depositors call simply "theft"), planning to put into implementation starting in 2021, but then changed its collective mind and set the deadline at 2019.

But one month later, Joerg Asmussen - a German from the executive structure of the European Central Bank - said that even 2021 would be too late, and that Europe should become "Cypriotized" (well, the expression comes from me, but it has the same meaning as what he was saying), until 2016, preferably on January 1st, 2015.

Well, on Thursday, his statements became a European legal document: in a communiqué of the European Commission for the European and monetary policy, we are being informed that the Directive concerning the "bail-in" will come into effect on January 1st 2015, and the bail-out system will come into effect on January 1st, 2016.

I have written all about these facts in BURSA at the time they were happening: I don't want to bore you, I just recounted everything, to emphasize the bumbling, the hypocrisy and the desperation of the European authorities when it comes to the lack of solutions to the European and world crisis.

The lies, the bumbling and the hypocrisy of the authorities are familiar to us - there is only a small difference of "class" between the behavior of the European politicians and that of our own politicians, but their disgusting character is the same.

This so-called "bail-in" represents the official acknowledgment of the inability to heal the system that we are living in.

It is the end of the world.

It is the Apocalypse.

• The world as a fish

If you've never seen a lunatic in the street yelling "You are all sinners!", "Repent!" or "Wake up!", you must have seen one in the movies at least.

Usually, they are some paupers who have lost their mind.

I try hard not to act like them, but I have taken it upon myself to warn that we are in the middle of an Apocalypse, that the world as we know it, is over and we need to shape another.

I've already said it in the pages of BURSA, starting three years ago.

Recently, I said again in the articles titled "...of Cyprus" and "The world is over".

The public gave them an attention that honors me, but still, I don't think that they represented any turning point when it comes to the manner in which they interpret the current moment of the crisis.

At the last two conferences of BURSA, I found the opportunity to explain the end of the world.

Once again, the public paid attention, but, as I came in direct contact with people (rather than through the newspaper), I have noted a bit of hesitation when it comes to accepting the idea - people insist on speaking about the future, as if it were going to be the same as the present.

They don't believe that we are no longer living in the world of our parents and that we have taken a step into a world that we know nothing about.

Of course, it is a reaction of defense against the unknown.

Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl told a story about how, on the ship of the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947, there was also a biologist on the team, that his teammates shook up to wake, so they could show him the strange fish they had pulled out of the depths; the biologist looked at them with his bleary eyes and said "Something like that doesn't exist", and then he went back to sleep.

It was later proven that he was right: that species of fish did not exist in any of the scientific classifications.

It is the same process of denying reality, since we have changed the meaning it had in the times of our parents, of their parents, and of the parents of every era, going back to the ancient times.

Our world revolves around the notion of credit.

Our world is a civilization of credit, regardless of whether it is slavery, feudalism or capitalism.

The European authorities have changed the meaning of the notion of credit present in dictionaries: if you deposit your money in the bank, for safekeeping, then the EU says that you lent it money; and if you gave it credit, the EU says, then there is a chance you will not get it back.

Therefore, we are in a world that is not yet unclassified in any manual.

It is a world like a fish of the depths.

And we can't say "This world doesn't exist", and go back to sleep, like the biologist of Thor Heyerdahl.

Or we could, but that would not make it disappear.

• Prophecies about the past

The inertia when it comes to the idea that the world is over comes from the fact that we do not understand the importance of dictionaries.

Just like we believe in God, we also believe in "reality"; we are certain that it exists outside of ourselves, and independently from us.

Which is debatable.

Everything we know about reality is tainted by our subjectivity, by the definitions found in the pages of dictionaries; compared to the notions therein, we create our attitudes and formulate opinions - rules which create a system of meanings.

Our world is a complex system of meanings.

Therefore, the "reality" isn't really that much "outside of ourselves and independent from us", even though it gets its revenge whenever we think we can give it orders.

The moment a central notion of our civilization - such as "credit" - receives a different meaning, then, the entire complex system of meanings it is a part of (the world itself), changes as a whole.

Is the notion of "credit" indeed so important for our world?

After all, the birds are chirping, cars rush along highways, the sun rises and we kiss our children and come in to work- what does credit have to do with our lives?!

Incidentally, yes, even though you may not believe it, even the sunrise depends on "credit": credit shapes up our world (and therefore, our complex system of meanings) from the very first time that ownership came to be: "what's mine" isn't "yours", but if you want it, then I can lend it to you.

This thing works differently or doesn't work at all in societies based on collective ownership - the primitive commune, socialism and communism -, where if what's "mine" is also "yours", there is no reason for me to ask for your permission to take it away, at least theoretically.

This observation combined with a dash of Christianity (but with God removed) have led to Marxism, Leninism, socialism and communism.

In each of those systems, aside from the fact that there was bloodshed, birds would still be chirping, the sun would keep on rising and we would kiss our kids and go to work.

But it was a different world, where the sun was a mere star in the dictionaries of astronomy and its sunset didn't mean that Ra was back from the dead, to witness the kindness, justice and truth of Maat.

Yes, the notion of "credit" is the cornerstone of our world.

The EU has changed it, and our complex system of meanings is transforming into something else, without us knowing into what.

• In the falling elevator

Another reason why we find it hard to believe that the world is already over, is because we are in the midst of this collapse: if the elevator is well oiled, it is somewhat difficult to realize it's falling, when you are inside it.

All the accessible benchmarks are in their place - we have a banking system, we have a central bank, we have a government and a president, we have a European Union and a bunch of Nobel prize winners - "they'll think of something, they'll figure out a solution".

When asked, they'll stick candlestick charts under you noses, they'll talk to you about CDSs, leverage, structured products, fractional reserve lending and interest rates, all the while, the bank will steal your money.

They'll think of what?

They haven't come up with anything so far, what are they going to find from now on?!

Any measure of healing they have applied, the system became even more toxic, the crisis has deepened all the way, going as far as resorting to legalized theft.

Under these circumstances, the logical conclusion is that the self-regulating of the system has disappeared; but there is no system without a self-regulation function; therefore, the system we were living in has been annihilated.

"Annihilate" comes from the Latin word "nihil", which means "nothing".

In other words...we are living in the midst of emptiness.

Actually, we are living in the middle of something, but we haven't found its name yet.

• Go back to sleep!

We have a European directive and we have a national law that both require us to keep the companies' money in the banks and to conduct our payments through bank accounts.

The authorities justify these laws by claiming that they help fight money laundering, combating illegal trafficking of any kind, fighting terrorism and hence combating evil in general.

Let's see how these interpretations become their direct opposite, as soon as the authorities change the notion of "bank", meaning that if it is ready to default, then they can resort to the "bail-in", in other words make off with the depositors' money.

The new meaning of the situation is that bankers can give loans to their mistresses and their friends that they share the money with, then they make the depositors shareholders in the new bankrupt banks, according to the law imposed by the EU.

What kind of state is that which not only doesn't protect you from thieves, but actually forces you to allow yourself to become robbed?

Let's find a name for it!

Does the name of "mob state" seem appropriate?

What kind of a union is that of mob states?

Does the name of the European Union of Mobsters seem a bit exaggerated?

If yes, then go back to sleep!

• 2015 -The year of the Shmita

Coincidentally, the year 2015, when the European Directive concerning the so-called "bail-in" will come into effect, is a Sabbath year for the Jews.

The Sabbatic year has a seven year cycle (the last one was in 2008, when, through another coincidence) and is described by the law of forgiving debts (Shmita), which is present as a Commandment, in the Torah, the Old Testament; forgiveness is mandatory, therefore for Christians as well.

Of course the Bible didn't mean it that the forgiveness of debts would consist of the stealing of the citizens' money deposited with the banks, under the coercion of the state.

From that point on, we can venture a guess about what will happen next year.

It all depends on how quickly people will wake up.

The specialists of the financial markets may have already understood what it is all about, in March this year, and they will have sold discreetly the shares of banks and all securities that have to do with them.

Discreetly, so the general public doesn't catch on and ruin their prices among the panic.

But now the idea is explicitly expressed, starting with last week, that the EU announcement was made, the banking stocks and the securities related to them should logically follow a general downward trend.

The better informed depositors will probably start taking their money out from banks in March 2014 (the fact that the deposit of 100,000 Euros is guaranteed in the EU does not guarantee that it won't be lowered to 50,000, or 10,000, as needed).

Sure, they will have some problems when it comes to what to do with the withdrawn money, but anything is better than leaving it in the hands of thieves - you're better off folding the 1,000 Euro banknotes into airplanes and ships.

By summer, Europe will start going empty: businesspeople will move their accounts to Singapore, (not to the US, because in actuality, it's the Americans that have invented the bail-in).

Towards autumn, there will be panic.

Protests, strikes, xenophobia, maybe even some wars.

On the next year, that of the Shmita, we will get used to the turmoil and fear and we will be saying "Anything is better than a new World War!", which doesn't in any way mean that it will be avoided (politicians need to distract our attention from the fact that the mobsters have joined forces to steal the money of Europe's peoples and will start throwing around the idea that war stimulates the economy, like Nobel prize winner Paul Robin Krugman has already begun doing).

Some people believe that this is the Apocalypse.

It's a scenario.

• The revelation

Well, in the beginning, the Apocalypse didn't mean the end of the world.

The meaning of the word "Apocálypsis" (the current etymological root of the contemporary word) to the ancient Greeks was that of "Revelation".

It is the revelation of a different kind of world (and only as a secondary outcome did it involve the end of the known world).

At the most recent BURSA conference, I was asked to explain my views on a possible solution to the crisis.

I responded through a revelation: that we need to accept that the system of the world that we are living in has become dysfunctional and that is why we have the privilege of being the generation that would shape the desired world - a privilege like we've never had in thousands of years.

I said that once we design the world we want, we need to draw up a business plan to achieve it.

And like Aristotle said, when you know what you have to do, all that is left is to do it.

But first of all, we need to have the courage to wake up.