Each of us has a unique story. A story that makes you you. A story that is the engine of your consciousness. A story that is your thread of life.
A story that today can be inferred from your words by generative AI and restored computationally, so that the thread of life remains uncut.
Everything is about to change.
The question is not whether Trump will accept the election result if he loses. He won’t.
The question is whether a Missionary with actual power will join him.
The outcomes of NFL games are inordinately influenced by officials relative to other sports. This is not new. The Narrative environment faced by the NFL in 2021, however, IS new.
I’m not sure they’re ready for it.
When a famous person shakes his or her finger at you, they’re not telling you a fact.
They’re telling you how to think about a fact.
Called It - Election Edition
Men of God in the City of Man is a nine part series about a narrative virus that infected the charismatic and Pentecostal churches in the United States. It isn't a story about Christian Nationalism. It isn't a story about January 6th. It isn't a story about why people voted for Trump. It is a story about a story. It is a story about the language that created a self-sustaining movement defined by its unwavering belief in a fundamentally corrupt electoral system.
Recent Notes
“Yay, College!”
Every once in a very great while, the direct beneficiaries of a yay-something narrative construction overplay their hand so egregiously, embarrass themselves so publicly, reveal their mediocrity so clearly, that the common knowledge propping up the yay-something narrative collapses.
This is the breaking of “Yay, College!”.
I Got You Fam
Last week, Jay Powell told you that the Fed intends to cut interest rates next year, not because they must, but because they can.
But inflation is a bird that always comes home to roost. And when it does, we will look back at Powell’s Christmas 2023 “I got you fam” pivot as a BFD in the Great Unmooring.
The End is My Beginning
Sir Steven Wilkinson returns home to Lancashire to say goodbye (?) to his father. There’s no true conversation to be had, only fragments to be gleaned, which will have to be enough. Tick-tock, everyone. Tick-tock.
The Changing Narrative of Women on Wall Street
Sure, you can do it. But you shouldn’t.
This used to be our common knowledge about risk-taking men on Wall Street. Today it’s our common knowledge about women.
And we are all paying a heavy price for that.
Pain, Political Vibes, and Being a Bat
The core problem for Team Blue isn’t the candidate, it’s the team. Specifically, it’s the very online population of Team Blue journalists, academics and political operatives and their pseudo-religious, dogmatic urge to explain why aggregate economic statistics are more meaningful than lived experience.
Argentina Leaps
The election of Javier Milei as Argentina’s president is a classic Great Unmooring event. Don’t get me wrong – I am totally rooting for the guy and I am not saying this is a Bad Thing TM. In fact, I think Milei is absolutely right to take a flamethrower to the Argentine central bank and entrenched public sector. But it is a profound unmooring all the same, not just for Argentina but for the world.
The Rick Rubin Of Advice: How To Have A Creative Second Act
The weirdest question I was ever asked, maybe in my entire life, was, “Can you make this sound more yellow?” The weirdest answer I’ve ever given to the weirdest question was, “Yes.” I replay that conversation in my head all of the time. There’s a perfectly good and teachable reason I was able to answer it. But to teach you that magic trick, we have to talk about Rick Rubin.
Why You Need A Personal Archive And How To Start One
A personal archive is a means for staying connected with the world and ourselves at the same time. It’s a simple yet life-changing way of seeing the world and your place in it.
Fiat News in the Fog of War
The obligation of the news media when major events are unfolding should be to act with more discretion and care, not less.
They failed at this most critical task this week. Utterly.
Generative AI Images and how Microsoft Doesn’t Understand the Internet
A sample of what you’ll find on the Epsilon Theory Forum – a safe space for full-hearted people to voice their concerns and hopes and observations about today’s world without the emotional cudgel of cancellation or the emotional crutch of an echo chamber. You know … what social media should be!
And yes, it’s for paid subscribers only, which is how we keep the trolls at bay.
Lessons From Biking 245 Miles Across France
ET contributor Kyla Scanlon was stuck. So she went biking with strangers who through the magic of talking became friends and confidants. And that’s how you get unstuck.
One Less Vulnerability
Yes, this is a note about oil prices. But more importantly it’s a note about all the changes in correlation and transmission to FX that have happened over the past few years.
Inflation in the Twenty-First Century: A Circular Flow No Longer
The flow of dollars between the US and China is no longer circular, and that has enormous implications for how the US finances its budget deficits.
New from ET contributor Kevin Coldiron!
The Time I Got A High School Paper Extension In A Bar: The Fourth Turning (But Not In The Way You Think)
Wanna guess what book both Steve Bannon and Al Gore handed out to members of Congress?
ET contributor Matt Zeigler knows it was “The Fourth Turning”, and he’s got a thing or two to say about generational theory.
Inflation in the Twenty-First Century: Unintended Consequences
“My house in California sits within a short walk of the Hayward fault. Most of the time nothing happens, but occasionally we are jolted awake by an earthquake.”
New ET contributor Kevin Coldiron on the tectonic plates that are driving inflation (and its consequences) today!
Men of God in the City of Man, Part 2: Carriers
Every virus needs carriers to spread. Even a narrative virus.
We can learn a lot from what they have in common.
Men of God in the City of Man, Part 1: Virus
This is a story about a virus and the gain-of-function research that produced it.
It’s not what you think.
Freedom of Speech, Rich Men of Reach
TRIGGER WARNING:
This note will make many readers anxious and angry, because you have been told by the political entrepreneurs of your tribe that neither Oliver Anthony nor Greta Thunberg is ‘political’ at all, and that anyone who says otherwise is a bad person.
The political entrepreneurs of your tribe are lying to you.
Narrative Derangement Syndrome
Awareness of narrative is a necessary tool for the politically engaged citizen.
Up to a point.
If obliviousness to narrative is the easiest way to shut off our brains, narrative derangement syndrome is a close second. The citizen must be vigilant against both.
Language is a Virus: Mike Pence edition
This is not a note about Mike Pence.
This is a note about language.
This is a note about how viral words of *therapy* have infected blue tribe brains and viral words of *war and conflict* have infected red tribe brains, words that change the way we see the world and speak to the world. Words that change the way we THINK.