What is the Deep State?

We've received several thoughtful comments and questions about the "Deep State" from our Gini readers. What is it? How does it work? Does it really exist? Is it a conspiracy theory? It's an interesting topic for many reasons. Fortunately, Gini's many years of nonpartisan research and development into decentralized economic and community governance systems, analysis of economic and geopolitical history and related topics gives us a unique and evidence-based perspective. So let's dive in.

Do Powerful People & Groups Want to Control Us? The short answer is "yes", but the slightly longer answer is a bit more interesting. For example, there are many humans in positions of power today who want a single, global currency, but their incentives and interests are aligned on this topic for many different reasons. For example:

• Some people want a global currency because it would be easier to track terrorist spending activity.
• Others want a global currency because it would reduce some economic friction and transaction costs, and thus, create a more efficient global economic system.
• Others want a single currency and a corresponding set of monetary policies that they believe would maximize global employment and minimize inflation.
• Others believe a single currency would make it easier to phase out paper money globally, which would give them more control over many aspects of human existence. Their intentions vary widely from generally good to diabolically evil (from a human rights perspective).^*

Powerful People & Factions Rarely Have Exactly the Same Incentives & Intentions. Let's expand the topic of the "Deep State" beyond the monetary system: There are many other spheres of human existence that people and factions with power would like to control. For example, healthcare, political governance, labor policy, commercial trade, banking regulation, natural resource management, education systems, taxation and fiscal policies, weapons proliferation.... For every topic, there are different people and factions in positions of power who want to control human activity associated with that topic. But their incentives and intentions vary widely, e.g.:

• Liberating humans from poverty.
• Perpetuating trade and labor policies that increase poverty.
• Protecting humans from predatory banking practices.
• Perpetuating predatory banking practices.
• Hoarding natural resources for one country.
• Sharing natural resources proportionately across all countries.
• ...

Incentives & Intentions Are in Constant Flux. In every human population, there are endless combinations of incentives and intentions. Humans coalesce when their incentives and intentions are aligned and they disperse when their incentives and intentions are not aligned. But virtually all human behavior is driven by ephemeral human emotions, which creates a constant flux of incentives and intentions in every human population, including groups of powerful people.

What Exactly Is the Deep State? Mike Lofgren's Deep State book is interesting and makes many good points, but as mentioned in COVID-19 Will Permanently Change the World, it's logically impossible for a monolithic Deep State to exist. In fact, the "Deep State" is many things:

• It's the military-industrial complex.
• It's the media-industrial complex.
• It's legions of unelected federal bureaucrats that control an ever-expanding sphere of human existence.
• It's the Davos and Bilderberg crowds who exert disproportionate control over humanity through interlocking alliances and banks, which often control Earth's supply chains, capital, income distribution and political systems for their personal benefit.
• It's giant corporations and their lobbyists, which spend USD billions every year to capture politicians and write their own laws and regulations (which elected officials rarely read or understand) to squeeze every penny from our pockets.
• It's giant, monopolistic banks that manipulate banking regulations and laws to dominate our economic lives by monopolizing the flow of money and capital. (Many books on this topic.)
• It's the army of lawyers and lobbyists who expand the U.S. Code (including the Tax Code) to 70,000 to 100,000 pages, which no human has ever fully read.
• It's...........

The Deep State is a Confluence of Coincidental Interests. The "Deep State" is essentially everything and anybody that exerts power and control over humanity on a large scale, not any particular monolithic group of people. Some people and factions are aligned on some topics, but their alignment on any particular topic is a confluence of coincidental incentives and interests. It is not necessarily a conscious and actively coordinated cabal.

The Multi-Headed Hydra. Some people and factions with aligned interests and incentives do coordinate their activities with each other. This is obviously what occurs at Davos, Bilderberg, Tri-Lateral Commission, CFR, Aspen Institute and similar elite gatherings. It also occurs more subtly at TED talks through their speaker and attendee selection process. (Here's a thought-provoking book on that topic.) But anybody who has ever been to any of those meetings knows they're just like any other gaggle of humans: Humans argue. They push their own agendas, which often conflict with the agendas of other humans in the meeting. Thus, the most tangible description of the "Deep State" might be something like a multi-headed Hydra, but even that is just a crude metaphor, which does not reflect the fractious dynamics that typically occur in any large group of powerful people.

Deep State is a Metaphor for Class War. Despite all the noise, confusion and fear about the Deep State, the People v. Deep State phenomenon fundamentally manifests as a class war like any other class war in human history: Humans with power across many different sectors of every society do whatever they can to block others from taking their power. This is the fundamental driving force that creates the appearance of collusion between people and factions, but it's an illusion of collusion. The only thing that can reduce the concentration of power that spawns this illusion is decentralized monetary and community governance systems, which is why Gini exists.

Natural Phenomena Can Create the Illusion of Intentional Design. The Deep State is like the colors of a rainbow: They appear to be intentionally painted on a physical structure. When humans (usually children) see a rainbow for the first time, they incorrectly assume it's a physical creation produced intentionally by another human. Assuming intentional design is often a safe assumption because most things in human existence are created by humans, but not everything. Natural optical illusions trick our minds just like natural cognitive illusions and the Monkey Trap of Human Nature. In this case, the illusion of the Deep State is created whenever disparate groups with power happen to coalesce around similar activities to preserve their power at coincidental points in human history.

Resisting Tyranny Requires a Precise Grasp of Reality. What we've described in this article is very different from the monolithic "Deep State" claimed in Lofgren's book and many common conspiracy theories today. This is an important distinction because resisting any form of tyranny requires an accurate understanding of your adversary. Lashing out at an amorphous "Deep State" that is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere achieves nothing; it's merely punching wildly at a shapeless bogeyman with no substance or attack surface to grab onto. That mindset inevitably leads to falsely accusing innocent people and groups of sinister intent. It alienates potential allies. It wastes time, energy and resources. It prevents reform-minded humans from ever knowing exactly who or what to fight, which prevents them from ever making any meaningful positive impact.

Gini's Important Role. Every day at Gini we work diligently to discover and reveal deep, nonpartisan truth based on data-driven, evidence-based rigorous analysis. This is the only reliable way to develop a truly accurate understanding of our world. It's the only reliable way to inoculate humans from the plagues of fake news and corporate propaganda. It's the only reliable way to build a shared sense of humanity and shared values and goals, which is essential to overcoming global challenges. The outputs of our analytical process enable us to build precise but flexible algorithms and technical Gini Platform solutions to solve (or reduce) many of the most significant problems threatening humanity today. This approach is also the best way to distinguish between facts and fictions in the "Deep State" debate.

Notes:

* Given that Gini's primary purpose is R&D into decentralized monetary and community governance systems, we're not big fans of any centrally managed global currency agenda. Nevertheless, it's important to accurately identify the intentions and incentives of people who endorse various policies, even if we don't agree with them.