We explore real-life reformation here in this informed, online community.
Seven years ago, Jose's home nation of Venezuela, a wealthy and developed nation, fell apart suddenly. It failed economically, politically, militarily, agriculturally, socially and culturally. Jose had to move into the mountains just outside the border to survive.
He's writing about the experience because most of us in functioning societies don't know how quickly it can happen, and what a collapse is like.
He says: "Today, where the only law is the fear imposed by AK-toting guys, in unidentified vehicles, crime has increased in the countryside and in the cities. Restrictions on importation were lifted and those using foreign currency made huge fortunes importing from abroad."
"It saddened and alarmed me to learn from a farmer in the Los Andes Mountains that people would come from the town, walking kilometers uphill during the night, even when raining, to steal potatoes. Crops that have not yet matured are being dug out of the ground. Farmers have to sleep in their potato fields to avoid being stolen from. Unarmed, roving bands of four or more thieves have caused the farmers to arm themselves with machetes and pikes."
Greece’s Minister of Migration and Asylum, Thanos Plevris, has announced a new legislative framework targeting the operation of illegal places of worship, emphasizing that non-compliance will lead to the immediate revocation of residency permits. In Agios Nikolaos, a Mosque was sealed and the alleged imam had his residency permit revoked and faces deportation.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
—Matthew 11:28-30
That's China's vision, objective and immediate goal. They have the leverage to make it happen.
Summary of Xi's January 2026 announcement:
"It's a sweeping vision for building a global financial power organized around socialist principles, without the greed and without a financialization of the economy (what Xi calls 脱实向虚, “drifting from the real economy into the virtual”).
-- Arnaud Bertrand
