Get Out or Keep Your Seat?

This past week Simon Black, also known as the Sovereign Man, made a point in his newsletter that set us here to thinking. He recounted the story told by a survivor of the MV Sewol ferry tragedy in Korea, that as the ferry began to sink, people had put on their life jackets but were told to wait in their rooms. By the time the captain realized the ferry would sink and gave the order to abandon it, the communications system was no longer functioning and it is possible not all passengers got the message. Those who jumped into the icy waters survived.

It reminded us of a similar disaster situation–the World Trade Center–where a voice over the loudspeaker kept saying “Stay in your seats.” But one man, who shall ever be a hero to this editor, ran from office to office shouting, “Get out! Get out!” Those who got out, survived. In fact, according to the accounts that we have read,  this hero was so busy getting everyone else out that he failed to get out himself.

But he heard the same orders as did everyone else. And yet, on his own, he chose a different path. Our question is, what was it that caused this man, alone, to go against advice and try to get everyone out?

In a sense, there was every reason to tell people to stay at their desks. An airplane had struck the building. But it has happened before. Never in history has an airplane brought down a high-rise building to the ground. Modern buildings are engineered to withstand such events. They just do not happen. So the message seems legitimate. And yet one man took a different course. And he was right.

What do we take away from this? Pay attention to the facts that we know and can see. Hear the experts. But make our own decisions based on those facts and our own intuition. As for people in the trade center, what would be lost to get out until they could observe the risk? Gerald Celente, respected trends analyst and editor of the Trends Journal, a close-contact specialist, tells of his immediate reaction upon hearing of the airplanes hitting the buildings–he threw some things into his car and took steps to head to Canada. There is a nuclear plant in the same area. In his disciplined, independent thinking, he knew that could be next and he was not waiting to find out.

Here at Four Flags Journal we are looking at the facts. Of course the dollar is in jeopardy. We think that eventually the United States will lose reserve currency status, as have other empires of the past. But there are ways to protect ourselves against an economic crisis. We could list several here, and probably so could you.

What concerns us more are things like Waco and Ruby Ridge, and now the goings-on in Nevada and, across the country, the militarization of these so-called “letter agencies” as well as the police. We remember our friendly police officers of yore. Regular guys. Everyday heroes. Always ready to stand between us and the bad guys. What happened?

Celente tells us that anyone can predict the trend by watching current events. We are watching current events and we think we see the  trend. The one sign of any possible change that we have seen was recently, at the Bundy Ranch.

The issue here was not entirely the Bundy status. It was the Constitutional issue. Up until now few seemed to care if the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence were violated or ignored, so long as it didn’t affect themselves. But all of a sudden we saw people willing to travel across the country, and even to risk their own lives, if necessary, to defend a family from what appeared to be shaping up to another tragedy. This is the spirit that won the freeom of America long ago, once again raising its head. We were surprised. We thought it had died, we had not heard from it for so long. It is a feeble stirring after all the things that have gone on in the last 100 years, but it is a stirring, nevertheless.

And so America appears to be at a crossroads with several crises looming–both economic and political. We won’t try to predict how it will go, but in any event we think that it is not going to be business as usual. America has faced economic issues in the past. It was not easy but the nation survived. We are even more concerned about the other issues.

It is the decision of each of us whether we should keep our seat, or get out. Whether we decide to stay put or make an exit, there are many decisions to be made and much to do. Either way, there is no time to just stay in our seat.