The Empirical Playbook
What to expect… and how to prepare
Here’s an equation that repeats itself, empire after empire:
Supply collapses + Demand explosions + Ignorance = Death and destruction + Once in 15 generations opportunity.
It’s the same story, every time.
That’s what the late stage of every empire looks like. A supply squeeze becomes more obvious to the masses. Prices increase while availability plummets. The masses revolt. The society collapses.
And somewhere in the chaos, a tiny handful of already wealthy elites see what everyone else is ignorant about.
They see the pattern.
They see the opportunity.
And they become exceedingly wealthy through extraordinary wealth transfers.
The Two Classes
The equation creates two classes, regardless of political, religious, or other differences:
Those who see the pattern and act.
The rest, conditioned by scarcity, who see nothing but fear.
The majority remain stuck, too distracted, too overwhelmed, too conditioned to focus only on the cracks in the system. Their reactions are predictable because the reactions are engineered. Protest rallies? The bigger they are, the more likely they’re well-funded by those who benefit from the distraction.
But there’s a third class. The emergent class.
They’re the ones who look at the crises and see what’s struggling to emerge. They see the possibility of a new way rising. They refuse to resist the old, knowing it will crumble under its own internal inconsistencies. Instead, they nurture the emergent.
The Great Distraction
The point is that the inevitable elite class in all late-stage empires don’t want us to see what’s unfolding.
Because if we see the pattern, we start to act. And that threatens their grip.
It’s not a conspiracy. It’s merely how humans react within late-stage class-based systems. A desperate grab for what’s left. 26 volumes have been written documenting what happens. What we’re seeing on our screens is not confusing. It’s predictable. It’s the elite class exploiting people’s desperate need for money as the economy implodes. Exploiting the plummeting faith everyone had in ‘the system.’ Exploiting the deep-seated hatred for the people who rule over them. Exploiting the naive belief that something can be done by the people to fix this or that problem.
Happens every time, no exception, throughout all of human history.
So they flood our attention with distractions:
No Kings protest in the US? A spectacle designed to provide false hope and the illusion of making a difference.
The Israel vs. Western Asia tension? A looming threat that keeps eyes glued to fear. A spectacular transfer of wealth.
Military parades? Further uniting the party faithful, who don’t see the patterns.
Pandemic scares? Top-down medical strategies that weaken rather than strengthen public health. Another spectacular transfer of wealth.
Tragic plane crashes and other small shocks? The noise that drowns out the signal.
Distraction is a tool. A weapon.
It keeps us dazed, divided, diffused.
Why the Pattern is Easy to Miss
When scarcity and fear condition our mind, we stop seeing opportunity. We focus on survival. Maslow’s hierarchy. We get stuck in the noise.
But history shows us that collapse is not the end. It’s a reset.
A new way of being always emerges from the ruins.
The only question: where do we choose to focus our attention during the time between the old and the new?
Pattern as Preparation
This isn’t about stockpiling canned goods, hoarding supplies, and buying more gold and silver. It’s not even about planting more trees. Or clearing the polluted river. Or stopping climate change.
That’s survival.
What’s needed is inner resilience.
Developing the skills to see through the fog.
To understand history’s cycles.
To recognize not the obvious signs of the old world that’s dying, but the weak signals of the new one being born.
It’s about knowing, with unshakeable conviction, how you’ll respond when the inevitable dictatorial clampdown comes. To have a strategy for rejecting the predictable control mechanisms when they arrive. Not waiting to be swept away, but standing firm with clarity and purpose.
Because seeing the pattern means preparing your mind and your life for the moments in which others freeze. It means acting before the chaos becomes the new normal.
But it’s also about something deeper. It’s about discovering a sense of purpose so profound that it anchors you amid the storm. It’s answering the question, Why am I alive precisely at this time? When everything around you seems to be falling apart, purpose becomes your compass. It’s what fuels your courage, sharpens your vision, and guides your actions.
Purpose-driven resilience isn’t just about weathering the crisis. It’s about stepping into the role you were meant to play in what’s emerging. It’s about becoming part of something larger than yourself, a movement that builds the future from the ashes of the past.
Start with why. When you know your “why,” distractions lose their power. Fear fades. You become a builder, a creator, a pioneer, instead of a victim of circumstance.
Resilify Your Life
That’s why I created Resilify Your Life. It’s a class that goes beyond prepping, beyond regenerating the great outdoors, beyond responding to climate uncertainty.
It teaches you how to intentionally thrive in the coming chaos.
How to build antifragile systems for yourself, your family, your business, your community.
How to join the emergent class.
Because the future will be birthed by those who see clearly while others sleep.
Your Choice
The equation is simple.
Supply collapses + Demand explosions + Ignorance = Death and destruction + Opportunity.
Will you be the one of the few who see it?
Or will you be distracted, stuck in scarcity, left behind?
The choice is yours.
Act up. See the pattern. Resilify your life.
Because what comes next will not be pretty. Unless we choose what’s ready and waiting. But it needs builders, not bystanders.
Our next class takes place on Monday, June 30th.
PS: There are three remaining sliding-scale places, available at a savings of $100, for those with limited resources.
References
Collapsology: The deep body of research across 26 earlier civilizations. Deep dive: https://bit.ly/CollapseLit
Cliodynamics: A body of research that treats history as science and builds databases of historical dynamics that predict the future. Deep dive: https://bit.ly/ClioDyn