The art of the emotional appeal, aka “emotional blackmail,” is usually mastered by around age 3. The first time your child’s chubby little hands rise up and they pout, saying, “Pweeeeeze?” you can feel it, that tugging of the heartstrings. As responsible adults, it’s our job to teach our offspring (and local offspring in our vicinity) that you can’t get everything you want, and sometimes the answer is going to be no.
Saying no isn’t something that comes easily to the current crop of newly minted adults out there. Those who fall between the ages of 25 and 35 seem to have no concept whatsoever of “no” or “FAFO.” They’ve essentially never “found out” about anything, because they so rarely hear the word no.
While I don’t always put a lot of stock into certain theories of civilization, there’s one going around that seems to have at least some grasp on reality.

I don’t know if the dates are accurate, but it does seem to be grounded in factual research. Excuse the article I pulled it from; it was the only one with a decent enough graphic explaining it. The article is horrid, poorly written (imo), and not well grounded. But the theory that Ingraham’s study is based upon is real, and not too bad. If you want to really go down the rabbit hole, check out this post by Noema. You don’t have to do that, though. The graphic does a fairly decent job of making it easy to understand.
The general idea is that society, civilization as a whole, goes through these multi-stage cycles that last somewhere between 180 and 280 years in length. This is borne out by history, which does indeed seem to follow such cycles. They’re not perfect, but they are present, and they can be seen quite clearly. Drop in the history of Greece, and it fits. Rome, it fits. Early China, it fits. And so on.
The theory, followed through for America, states we’re in the end stages of one complete cycle. This isn’t too difficult to believe, considering we’re 248 years old as a country. Things were bound to break. After all, no one had previously attempted to run a country under a President, an elected official, prior to America. Our Constitution was radical in the most vast understanding of that word. The fact that so many other world leaders are now attempting to use our methods to run their countries is a testament to how well it has worked.
The thing is, though, I believe our Founders knew it wouldn’t work forever, as given. That’s one reason why they created the Constitution. It was created in such a way as to allow We The People to change and ratify it, as we became better as a People, and as we matured as a country.
So what does that all have to do with emotional blackmail and a colorful graphic I found on Da Interwebz? So here’s the thing… No matter which of the colorful charts and wheels you look at online, we’re coming up on a failure, or a collapse. It’s just the next thing that happens. The four generalized stages of society are expansion, stagflation, crisis, and depression (Jakub). Again, you can follow these stages or curves or whatever you want to call them throughout history. By all accounts, we’re passing out of crisis and into depression right now. Some people feel we might be able to shortcut depression and move back into expansion, but I don’t know.
I have no doubt we’re in the depression part of the cycle right now. And that, my friends, is where the emotional blackmail comes in. When you take immature people (and frankly that describes “this generation” better than anything else I can think of) and you dump them into a place where things don’t go as planned, they panic. But they don’t panic by going out and trying to fix the problem. They panic and demand SOMEONE ELSE fix it. And that’s right where we are.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen videos of late teen and early adult workers having mental breakdowns because managers “just didn’t understand” that things like “eight hour days” and “not abusing sick leave” just aren’t going to work for them. I’ve seen folks keying and otherwise vandalizing vehicles because they believe somehow that it’s going to affect the maker of the vehicle rather than the owner of it. I’ve read articles explaining that deporting violent criminal people is somehow bad and that we should have pity on these people. I’ve listened to liberals explain to me how horrible it is to lay off people who no longer have a purpose at a job, as if it’s somehow a business’s responsibility to keep someone on and pay them for doing nothing. It all goes right back to that 3 year old and the pout.
Whether it’s the school system purging teachers rather than defunct programs or excess admin, or the government clinging tenaciously to the people who can’t even come up with ONE thing they did last week, never mind five, the big names involved in all of this mayhem are choosing layoffs and budget cuts not from the fat in their programs, but from the meat. It’s a form of emotional blackmail, and one that no longer hoodwinks me, even while I still feel the bite emotionally. They seem to believe that if they cut the useful people and leave everything an open, gaping wound, that somehow the budget issues and cutbacks will be reversed. That’s not how it works, though.
There’s a finite amount of money out there. When a part of government is told it needs to run on $X, then it either needs to find ways to do that, or it folds. It’s no different than any other entity out there. If a business doesn’t provide a service people want, in a price range they can afford, that business goes under. We don’t feel bad (or not much) when it happens, because we know if they’d just pulled up their Big Boy/Girl Panties, they could have made it through. But when you expect the DoD, or USAID, or any of the other letter agencies out there, or a school or library system, to work within a budget, that’s apparently “different” somehow. Except it isn’t. We can WANT it to be different all we want, but if we’ve only got a certain number of dollars to spend, then that’s the end of it. It’s time to make it work, somehow.
The fact that the people in charge of these budgets have chosen to batter their employees with tears, threats, and cajoling rather than a calm voice and a call for cinching up the metaphorical belt before moving on, is heinous. I am aghast at the number of government employees who are willing to sell out what little is left of their souls just to keep whatever special project they’re on alive.
So folks… tighten your belts. It may be hungry and lean for a few years. If we do this right, if we REALLY want to avoid the worst of the depression part of the cycle, then we’re going to have to slim down tons of high end stuff. We’re going to have to start paying farmers to actually farm rather than sit fallow. We’re going to have to get American workers out there, picking tomatoes and getting sweaty. Choices have to be made. If I’m not willing to pay more for my lovely hothouse tomatoes, then I either have to do without, or I have to grown my own (do the work myself). Those are the options, and no amount of pouting, wheedling, or lashing out is going to change it.
Yeah, I know, this isn’t so much from the left. This is me being me. But it’s political, and it’s real. So there.
Comments
8 responses to “FBEL – Emotional Blackmail”
That cycle simplified:
1. Hard times create tough men
2. Tough men create easy times
3. Easy times create weak men
4. Weak men create hard times.
Now, here is an experiment. Speaks to the government spending money they do not have.
Next weekend. Go out and buy yourself a brand new luxury sedan (or whatever vehicle you like) spare no expense. Every luxury and convenience item, etc…
Then, march into your boss’ office first thing Monday morning. Demand a raise because you purchased a luxury item, but cannot afford it. See what happens.
But, politicians do that almost daily. They spend taxpayer money on stuff that does not benefit the taxpayer, but then demand more money from the taxpayer to pay for the luxury item they just purchased.
There will be tough times ahead, and the adult in me is looking forward to it. On the other hand, I am not looking forward to the response from the innumerable adult sized children out there.
Thank you, CBMTTek, that was the four part thingie I was looking for when I started the damn article. I couldn’t find it. LOL… My brain is still suffering under the effects of coming off my SSRI med. I knew what I wanted to say but had to go the long way to get there.
I can’t say I’m looking forward to the tough times ahead. I just know I will weather them fine. I know how to “make do” because I’ve been poor a few times in my life (like, homeless level poor). I’ll buckle up and carry on, because the option is to give up, and I’m not doing that. Why should I? I have an amazing life! Having to have that amazing life while eating freezer scraping soup is fine…
Thanks! Is this why you’re learning skills that don’t require electricity?
Actually no, but it’s why a lot of preppers learn non-electric skills. *grin* I do it because I spend so much of my time doing 15th century or 18th century reenactment that I just default to “no electricity” when I’m prepping. I barely notice when power goes out, because I am so used to doing stuff the long way while teaching history to people LOL…
The other thing is, if you know how to do it “the long way” (ie without electrical help, or in other words, without slaves) then you can do it anytime you want. If you only know how to do something with the help of your slaves, you don’t REALLY know how to do it. 🙂 I like knowing how to do things, even if it means spending a lot of time learning old fashioned skills. Then I work forward from that to modern times.
As an example, I learned how to bake bread with a metal bowl, a wooden spoon, and measuring cups and the baking equipment. That was it. I didn’t use a stand mixer or any other shortcuts until YEARS later. That means I can make bread no matter what the emergency is. During the pandemic, I made bread all the time, because I had gotten in bulk yeast before all the shelves went empty. I traded bread for other stuff from neighbors. 🙂 I make bread up at the Fort, too, where I have to do every part of it by hand, because they had no electricity, nor does the Fort. It’s empowering to be able to “just make do” that way! 😀
Disgustingly enough, we allowed a society to evolve addicted to existing on the labor and fortune of others.
Gov’t was the redistribution organization for that.
Let’s end the cycle of dependency.
It does make me wonder. We all look at our fellow Americans and are happy to say we don’t want to enslave them. That would be wrong. And then we buy gadgets and gizmos aplenty from China, where they’re made by the equivalent of enslaved children. But we can’t SEE it, so that makes it okay.
Please understand, I am including myself in that. I just ordered a crap ton of stuff off Temu before the tariffs kick in. It’s stuff I need, and stuff I want, and the only way I can currently afford it is by getting it from slave labor in other countries.
I look forward to having most of the manufacturing done here, in America. I don’t mind paying a little more for something American made (I do it all the time).
“the views expressed in my comments are my opinion and views gleaned from observation. If I mean to offend anyone you will know it”…tighten our belts??? I may be wrong but since the last election things are creeping up on being better. We had 4 years of abuse from vindictive adult-sized toddlers. and now the tantrums start because toddlers didn’t get thier way. Adult-sized toddlers are very comfortable violently reacting to situations. The “kind, compassionate, tolerant” toddler actually is filled with hate and intolerance.. I watched a former combat soldier explain it after a plane flight sitting next to a liberal. He said liberals way of helping any situation is “the government needs to make a law, the government needs to fund this, We need to burn and destroy everything we don’t agree with”… they are more comfortable resorting to violence to “solve” problems than combat soldiers.
There will be ups and downs in the next 4 years. turn off the “news”, yes even fox news which is now run by liberals who hate America.
many who have never been told “no” are getting a lesson. it hasn’t even been 4 months of Trump, its going to get better. and Im sure lots of liberals will gleefully cash the DOGE check..end of mild rant..
I totally get it, curby. And yes, I can see lots of things getting better. But I also know that when the tariffs go into effect on May 1st, things are going to get expensive for a while. That’s how tariffs work. Until American manufacturing builds up again, and we have the means to make all the widgets here in our own country, we’ll have to pay the tariffs to get them from China and elsewhere. That’s going to raise costs (and likely will raise costs before then, because manufacturers know it’s coming).
I’m prepared for that. I *support* that. I know that the end result will be that American goods will be cheaper to buy than foreign, and that means more work in country, better GDP, higher wages, and more general prosperity for our people. But getting there IS going to suck. Most people, even people on “our side” I’d wager, are going to be crying in their beer for a while until things even out.
Being ready to pull up my big girl panties is the right thing to do. If I don’t have to? Great… but I am not willing to count on that. Better to be prepared for rising costs on everything and be wrong, than the opposite.