thezman.com
Gradually Then Suddenly
Posted on May 4, 2023
There is a famous exchange in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises where over drinks one character asks another how he went bankrupt. The reply is “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Often this is misquoted as “a little at a time then all of a sudden” which sounds better than the original. Hemingway was famous for his economy of language, which did not always serve him well. Even so, it is probably Hemingway’s most famous line, even if most people do not know the source.
The main reason it is a famous line is it is true in the narrow sense of business, but also in the broader sense of life itself. Things do not suddenly fall apart all of a sudden for no reason at all. In fact, the expression “no reason at all” precedes all of the big lies because nothing happens for no reason at all. The big events in human history are the slow buildup of little things then all of a sudden, a lot of history seems to happen in a short period of time, to borrow another famous expression.
This is something to keep in mind while following this story about an FBI whistleblower’s claims regarding the Biden family. According to Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. James Comer, this whistleblower has presented to them documentation showing the FBI has evidence of a pay-for-play scheme run by the family of Joe Biden while he was Vice President. The allegation is that Biden sold his influence to a foreign entity in exchange for cash to the Biden family.
For starters, this is not a new claim, but coming from two politicians not known for rocking the boat changes the nature of the charges. Joe Biden has been dogged by corruption allegations for a long time. He is worth tens of millions despite never having had a job outside government. That and he bragged on the campaign trail about extorting personal favors from the Ukrainian government. He got a prosecutor fired by threatening to withhold an aid package.
Next week there will reportedly be a hearing at which the current head of the FBI will be asked pointed questions about the specific documents Grassley and Comer cite in their letter to the FBI. Most likely Christopher Wray will lie and stonewall at the hearing, refusing to acknowledge even his own existence as a way of telling Congress that he is above the law. This is one of those gradual things. Gradually, the bureaucracy refuses to acknowledge the authority of Congress.
Those paying attention know the FBI is America’s most corrupt organization. They tried to overturn the 2016 election by running an illegal surveillance operation on Trump, then engineered a year’s long coverup of it. Holding black mail material on Biden may actually be worse. That is the real story here. They also have Hunter’s laptop, which they tried to hide and still refuse to acknowledge. Why would they need all of this dirt on a sitting President?
This is one of those gradual events. In isolation, the FBI shenanigans during the Trump era could be written off as partisan zealots abusing their power, but when you add in this stuff you suddenly get a different picture. What emerges is something like a praetorian guard controlling the most important offices in the system through blackmail, extortion, and espionage. The question that should follow is who else are they blackmailing with secret material?
Another gradual moment is the great leaving alone the media is giving to this and the other whistleblowers who have revealed corruption in the FBI. If such revelations happened in the Trump years, the coverage would be wall-to-wall. We would know the name of the whistleblower, as the press would have made her a star. The reputation of the media is very poor, but most people still trust it. This sort of bias is what will eventually lead to the total collapse in trust.
A glimpse of what is coming can be seen in the Tucker Carlson drama. Fox News Channel has lost half their audience since they fired their most popular host, but the collapse is not just about Carlson. It is the final straw, the one break in trust that on top of many others is what finally does it for these former viewers. Gradually, then all of a sudden people realized that Fox News was a scam, run by grifters who privately mocked the people in their audience.
Of course, the Joe Biden story is itself an example of the gradually then suddenly phenomenon in our politics. For half a century he was nothing more than an affable dimwit who represented the interests of the credit card companies. Everyone in Washington knew Joe Biden was a stupid man, but he was likable and generally regarded as an honest man. Sure, he told outlandish lies about his life, but no one thought he was taking bribes.
As with everything else in the 1990’s, Joe Biden appears to have gone from affable dimwit who was mostly honest to a man who walked around Washington with a list of prices for the services he could offer. Those two grifters from the Ozarks set the ball in motion for everyone. If their corruption was allowed, then why not a little influence peddling in the Senate? If that is okay, then why not sell insider information in exchange for stock tips?
This is how we find ourselves with a corrupt buffoon in the Whitehouse, held hostage by a secret police relying on blackmail and extortion. All of those small steps here and there down the path of corruption eventually led to that all of a sudden moment on election night in 2020. Half a century ago when Joe Biden was in his prime, no serious person imagined him in the White House, unless he was on a visitors pass, but all of a sudden, he is president.
In the fullness of time, we will experience the great all of a sudden moment and the usual suspects will swear it was for no reason at all. In reality it will be the result of those many gradual changes that began with the decision by official Washington to invite the Devil into their world. After that, it was one small compromise here, another there, until there were no rules at all, just naked power. Then all of a sudden, no one had any reason to trust anything, and Hell followed after it.
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