One Dimensional Chess

Since the Thursday night debate at which Joe Biden looked like a hospice patient, there have been competing theories about whether it was a setup in order to push Biden out of the way or whether it was just another screw up. Basically, we have two competing theories of the crime. One says it is the work of those mysterious people in the hollowed-out volcano who control the world and the other theory says it is the work of people who are too stupid to run the machine they inherited.

The hollowed-out volcano theory side had the momentum on Thursday night as regime media started bellowing for Biden to step aside. It had the feel of that first weekend of the Ukraine war when every talking hairdo on television had a Ukraine flag lapel pin and was spasmodically saying “keev” at one another. The same people who were telling one another that Joe Biden was as sharp as a tack were suddenly competing with one another to condemn his family for rolling him out on stage.

The weekend was full of fake influencers and insiders assuring the internet that there were secret meetings happening at various places where the volcano people or their envoys would tell Biden to step aside. Bill O’Reilly, who most thought was dead, won the internet with a Seymour Hersh style scoop claiming that the decision to put a pillow over Joe Biden’s face had been made. Why anyone would think Bill O’Reilly has such privileged access is a topic for another day.

As the weekend wound down and the Great Pumpkin failed to rise from the pumpkin patch, the new narrative was that Jill Biden was preventing anyone from gaining access to Joe Biden in order to convince him to retire. Anyone who knows anything about the life of presidents knows this is impossible in the modern age. Since Reagan, the modern president is never alone. They have no control of their schedule. There are guards inside the toilet with them.

Anyway, this brings us back to those two main theories. It is becoming clear that the scheme to have the early debate was not part of a four-dimensional chess ploy plotted by the volcano people after all. It is entirely possible that some elements inside the regime pushed for the early debate in case Biden fumbled, but they did not have anything planned if such a thing happened. It is also possible they pushed for an early debate to get it out of the way, so people would forget about it.

The truth is the political class no longer possesses second order thinking. This is the ability to think about the range of possible reactions to an action and then planning possible responses to those reactions. People with the ability to think this way weigh those possible reactions and then select their action in order to get the most favorable response, so they can then make their next move. Great chess players possess the ability to think many moves in advance.

The people running Washington lack this ability. It is why they are so enamored with narratives that often take the place of reality. They can only think about what they want as a final result, so they imagine a scenario that leads to that result and then work backward to some initial first step. It is at this point they launch their caper with their first move, just assuming everything they imagined will follow. Often, they celebrate as they are making that first move in anticipation of the prize.

This is why you see the phenomenon of accrued joy. This is when the managerial class creates a narrative that leads to their desired end and then pulls forward the happiness they will feel for that event to the present. Here is an example where the person is feeling joy over an imaginary choo-choo train project. This will never be built and will probably never get started. He can imagine it happening though, so he pretends it will happen and celebrates as if it has happened.

Putting that aside, this inability to think more than one step ahead is augmented by the fact that these people are unable to think about anything other than their own desires and how to achieve them. They never think about what comes next. We have seen this for over two years in the Ukraine war. Every move by the regime is just assumed to be a game changer and there is never any thought given to how the Russians will react or what will happen after this game changer.

That is most likely what we are seeing with Biden. The people who run things knew he was a vegetable back in 2020. They picked him because they hated Trump and just needed a compliant body for the election. No thought was given to how they would manage a man with dementia, much less run him for reelection. Now they want to be free of him and his crooked family, so they let him stagger out on stage and make a fool of himself in that debate Thursday night.

Again, no thought about what comes next, just the first move. It is as if they assume that the world will magically fall into place for them and produce a young vital candidate who can appeal to the public enough to rig the next election. Instead, they will be left to choose from zombies like Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer. Neither of whom have support in the party or the general public. Of course, Biden has yet to step aside and very well may choose to stick it out, despite it all.

This lack of second order thinking has another strange result. The system now seems to select for people who prefer chaos over order. If you cannot plan more than one move ahead, then a world where planning ahead has no reward, a world of random chaos, reduces the benefit of that ability. In other words, the mediocrities are creating an environment in which having a mediocre mind is an asset. Their impulsive behavior creates conditions that reward first order thinking.

What all of this points to is a random walk to the Democratic convention. Over the coming weeks the various tribes of the regime will make their game changing move, float their preferred narrative to the media and create more chaos. Given his condition, Biden could drop dead before the convention or, if Allah wills it, drop dead a week after the convention thus leaving Harpo Harris as the nominee. Chance has a sense of humor, but it always favors those with a prepared mind. (read more)