Recent times have posed a challenge for me regarding motivation to write. It’s not that I’m struggling with a lack of ideas; in fact, I recently proposed a critique of a Financial Times piece that poorly disguised propaganda as a “Big Read” on the Ukraine war. Another writer quickly picked it up. There’s also an abundance of criticism directed at the newly unveiled National Security Strategy, which has sparked numerous commentaries, each bringing unique critiques. Then there’s the absurd notion from Trump and Bessent that a motivational speech can alleviate the everyday financial stress consumers are facing.
As I delved deeper into my hesitation to write, I uncovered a profound emotional reaction: revulsion. This feeling stems from observing the wanton destructiveness of our so-called leaders, who dismantle lives, institutions, and nations out of entitlement, arrogance, laziness, and incompetence. I grew up in an era when local elites largely influenced communities, particularly WASP men who were reluctant to open their exclusive circles. Yet, these elites generally accepted the concept of noblesse oblige, recognizing the need to maintain an appearance of legitimacy and to care somewhat for the welfare of their communities, ensuring they seemed worthy of their leadership.
Many individuals affected by today’s dismal leadership do not have the luxury of feeling revulsion; instead, they confront fear, anger, and despair. They’re worried about job losses, the accessibility of essential benefits like healthcare and medication, threats to personal safety from ICE actions, and even the dangers of being incarcerated for supporting causes such as Palestine in the UK. Additionally, many brace for looming crises spanning climate change, the potential for AI to displace jobs, and uncertain futures for Social Security and pension systems across nations. For those who do feel revulsion—especially regarding the genocide in Gaza—some channels for action exist, like protests and supporting BDS, though their impacts remain limited.
What’s particularly disheartening is the pervasive nihilism reflected in the reckless disregard for the welfare of communities and institutions. Trump’s National Security statement rambles on about ushering in a golden age (perhaps for him) while claiming to keep the U.S. at the forefront of scientific and technological advancement. Yet this is in stark contrast to his ideological assault on universities, cuts to science funding, and his targeting of foreign students and academics. This behavior represents more than just negligence; it’s akin to lighting a fire to America’s resources. Can we truly blame late-stage capitalism for this level of incompetence? The true recklessness lies in the belief that they are retaliating against the former elite while doing irreparable damage. If things were operating well for these elites, why would they need such extensive security measures, like panic rooms or bunkers in distant locations? Furthermore, deeply unequal societies detrimentally affect even those at the top over time.
Across the Atlantic, figures like Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz are damaging their social frameworks by reinforcing militarization and de-industrialization instead of reconsidering their unwavering commitments to Project Ukraine. Unlike President Johnson, who chose not to pursue a second term once he recognized the public’s discontent over the Vietnam war, current leaders seem unable to pivot. They could have been strategic, adopting Trump’s rhetoric to advocate for peace in Ukraine—suggesting, for instance, if we aim to normalize relations with Russia, what justifies the spending of 5% of our GDP on defense instead of 2% or 3%? Instead, we witness Ursula von der Leyen flouting Euroclear, the Belgian government, the ECB, and the IMF in her grab for frozen Russian assets, which would only prolong the war and jeopardize Europe’s image as a stable business environment, potentially diminishing the euro’s value.
I suspect that many who resonate with my feelings have diverse triggers. Consider the interviews conducted by Judge Napolitano, which often include those with military and intelligence backgrounds. Many recoil at the Hegseth-Trump attempt to reference the film Patton during speeches at Quantico aimed at a large group of generals and flag officers, asserting the need to renounce niceties like modern war norms. This reaction seems amplified among those affected by the Administration’s misguided decisions, such as the destruction of Venezuelan fishermen’s boats as an ineffective retaliation against President Maduro’s regime. As Representative Jim Himes pointed out, the video of a recent strike against an alleged narco boat was “one of the most troubling things” he had witnessed throughout his public service career.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said the video of the September 2 strike on an alleged narco boat is “one of the most troubling things” he’s seen during his time in public service.
READ MORE: https://t.co/M6F0E97ikh #hegseth #venezuela #boatstrike #news #politics pic.twitter.com/Oi6x2WYjA3
— The National Desk (@TND) December 5, 2025
Now, let’s reflect on La Grande Bouffe, a 1973 film renowned for its grotesqueness. It profiles four affluent men who deliberately choose to consume themselves into oblivion. Although I admit I haven’t seen it, reviews convey the movie’s repulsive nature (the trailer conveys its dark humor). As noted on Wikipedia:
The film tells the story of four friends who gather in a villa for the weekend, with the express purpose of eating themselves to death.
The first protagonist is Ugo, owner and chef of a restaurant, “The Biscuit Soup”. The second is Philippe, a somewhat important magistrate who still lives with his childhood nanny, Nicole, who is overprotective of him to the point of trying to prevent him from having relationships with other women, and who fulfills her own sexual needs with him. The third character is Marcello, an Alitalia pilot and womaniser. The fourth and final main character is Michel, who is an effeminate television producer. The four come together by car to the beautifully furnished but unused villa owned by Philippe. There they find the old caretaker, Hector, who has innocently prepared everything for the great feast…
The first to die is Marcello, after being enraged with his own impotence; he goes to the toilet and causes the sanitary pipes to explode….He becomes exasperated, and realizing the futility of the farce, decides to leave the house at night during a snow storm, in the old Bugatti that he had repaired earlier in the day with great delight. His friends find him the next morning, frozen to death in the driving seat…
After Marcello comes Michel…Already suffering from indigestion and crammed to capacity with food (he cannot even lift his legs practicing dance, his favourite pastime), he suffers an attack of bowel movements while playing the piano. Amid flatulence and worse, he is finally able to let it all go and collapses on the terrace…
Ugo prepares an enormous dish made from three different types of liver pâté in the shape of the Dome of Les Invalides, which he serves to the remaining diners, Philippe and Andrea, in the kitchen in view of the two dead friends… Philippe and Andrea cannot bring themselves to eat it. Philippe goes off to bed, leaving Andrea to keep Ugo company during his determined effort to eat the entire pâté. Some time later, she later calls Philippe back downstairs to help her stop his friend from stuffing himself to death. They cannot dissuade Ugo, and end up attending to him on the kitchen table, the one feeding him, the other assisting him until he orgasms and dies simultaneously…
The last to die is the diabetic Philippe, on the bench under the lime-tree of Boileau and into the arms of Andrea, after eating a pudding she has made shaped like a pair of breasts.
In Wies Sanders’ article, 50 years of La Grande Bouffe, he writes:
The film La Grande Bouffe is a cynical indictment of the unforeseen negative consequences of the Trente Glorieuses, a period without war, but also without tradition or meaning. In the film, four highly educated, rich white men eat themselves to death. They don’t do much more than that and they do it without apparent reasons or a preconceived purpose. It simply arises from a decadent boredom that naturally accelerates and can only be stopped by death. Freed from norms and traditions, the four men appear unable to cope with the resulting meaninglessness. Boundless hedonism may initially seem like heaven, but in reality turns out to be hell.
The film was a box office hit in France and elicited strong reactions:
Actress Andréa Ferréol recounts, “For months, restaurateurs told us that they refused to serve us. One evening I was at an Italian restaurant with a friend. A few customers stood up and the man came over and said, ‘Since you’re here, ma’am, I’m leaving!’” The film challenged many social taboos, addressing themes of waste, excess, bodily functions, boredom, nudity, and vice.
I drew a connection from my own feelings of disgust to the idea of La Grande Bouffe, as I feel overwhelmed by unrelenting information overload, akin to a duck being force-fed. Unfortunately, I’m not alone in recognizing the escalating offenses committed by the Administration. This brings to mind Andrew Coyne’s compelling article, Donald Trump— and American democracy—is getting exponentially worse, which illuminates the situation:
A point I have tried to make over the last year or so is that Donald Trump can only get worse: that however corrupt or incompetent or dictatorial or treasonous or insane he may appear at any given moment, it will inevitably come to be seen as a relative golden age beside what is to come.
There is a reason for this. It is that he can only stir the media and establishment outrage on which both he and his supporters thrive if he behaves even worse than we are accustomed to him behaving. It is not enough to say or do some appalling thing, even if it would have ended the career of any previous politician. He does that, quite literally, several times a day. Rather, he must exceed expectations of his grotesquerie. His critics’ dilemma—how to sustain outrage in the face of the constant, numbing, normalizing stream of objectively outrageous conduct—is also, in a way, his.
What I had not anticipated was the second derivative. Over time, people will expect not only bad behavior, but steadily worsening behavior. To satisfy this need for outrage, Mr. Trump’s behavior not only has to keep getting worse, but to do so at an ever-accelerating pace. And, I suspect, the rate of acceleration must also increase, including the rate of acceleration of that acceleration, and so on. We are witnessing a sort of hyperinflation of presidential derangement, an exponential curve that brings us closer to chaos.
In stark contrast to La Grande Bouffe, our self-absorbed ruling class has no intention of self-destruction. However, their unbridled pursuit of power, devoid of purpose or accountability, yields outcomes that either devastate their legacies or jeopardize their nations. How is it that they have failed to control Russia without any introspection into why their strategies have failed? Why do they continue to perpetuate the myths propagated about Ukraine? Hasn’t the enigma of Putin and Russia’s resilience sparked any reconsideration or rational thought?
One contributing factor is the narcissism that has led to an insular environment where they are shielded from harsh truths. They are surrounded by sycophants who fail to communicate the obvious: they are amateurs operating well beyond their expertise. A recent comment from Aurelien on a 28-point peace plan exemplifies this:
And I just have to say that every time I look at this list I’m astonished by how amateurish it is. It’s not simply that the U.S. is trying to commit other nations and international organizations to things, but most of the points are political commitments which may be reversed at any time, and some things are simply wrong: there’s no question of Ukraine signing the NPT; it did that in 1993. A “security guarantee” for Ukraine would be meaningless unless it was backed by military force, which is the one thing the West doesn’t have. The whole thing is so unprofessional, it hurts.
Shifting to a different realm of unrealism among those in positions of knowledge, we must consider AI. Initially, I perceived it as merely an equity craze—an issue that might impact our economy without triggering a financial crisis. However, the fact that major stakeholders are using off-balance sheet mechanisms to accumulate debt alters the landscape significantly. A meltdown or a state of deflation, reminiscent of Japan’s stagnation, seems increasingly plausible, especially given the U.S.’s lower social cohesion compared to Japan.
While it may seem overly focused on financial matters to worry about capital destruction, historical events like the Great Depression and Japan’s economic stagnation illustrate that such unwinding can have widespread societal effects. If the proponents of AI are correct, we might face significant workforce dislocations, leading to high unemployment even among well-educated individuals.
Ed Zitron provides an insightful summary of his extensive writings on the inconsistencies of AI hype, particularly concerning its economics.
One particularly critical insight reveals that a significant number of chips purchased are reportedly being stored. Furthermore, GPUs follow a projected one-year development cycle and may only see about three years of practical use, rendering them potential waste. This was highlighted at 24:25.
Newsweek: What happens when the music stops?
Zitron: Well, there are a few problems. First of all, there’s a statistic that has been reaffirmed by a professor, reflecting how AI capex and spending on data centers accounted for more of GDP growth in the first half of this year than all consumer spending combined. That’s astounding because our entire economy relies on consumer spending. What’s particularly bizarre is that Nvidia claimed recently to have shipped 6 million Blackwell GPUs—the newest generation. After calculating, it appears they could account for about 6 to 12 GW of IT load, which means power. However, we haven’t actually built that many data centers, nor have we even completed a quarter of that required. Not only is the biggest company on the stock market achieving prominence from selling GPUs, but I’m skeptical about whether those GPUs are even in use—they might just be sitting in warehouses.
At the 48:05 mark, a further point emerges:
Zitron: But it’s crucial to remember that when there’s enough money and a credible justification for something, you don’t need complex methods or obscured debt vehicles. If this was a groundbreaking future, why isn’t it represented on your balance sheet? The truth is, Meta doesn’t make any money from AI. Zero. Their revenue still stems from ads just as it has for the past decade. They claim to have seen a small increase from generative AI ads—this is dubious. They can’t provide hard numbers, and they never will. Meta even altered its way of measuring active users recently, making it more convoluted, akin to how Netflix manipulates viewing hours.
As you might expect, this overview represents a minute fraction of the official incompetence and disregard. Issues like ICE raids, cryptocurrency fraud, a looming health crisis in 2026 due to premium hikes, and small businesses suffering from tariff-induced price increases illustrate the chaos. Trump’s ongoing vindictiveness further compounds the situation.
I understand why some of you may find the need for news breaks. Yet, it’s essential to remember that remaining vigilant and raising awareness is crucial; overlooking these issues allows them to worsen at an even quicker pace. Trump, despite his extensive security measures, appears to still care about public perception. Highlighting instances of his Administration’s incompetence and corruption could potentially spur change.
So, whether your remedy is a stiff drink, exercise, meditation, or binge-watching cat videos, take care of yourself and prepare for the challenges ahead.
________
1 Ironically, the documents mistakenly list Cambodia and Thailand as the first locations where Trump claims to have “negotiated peace.” For more details, see the Bangkok Post here and the breaking story in the Nikkei: here.
2 Only three succeeded; one froze to death.
3 It had not reached the art house theater in Yellow Springs, which I frequented with friends during high school debate events.
