Debutante Balls

Linn won Miss North Dakota third runner-up her first event. Bethany won Miss North Dakota. …Joni models. On the Craft side there are two same generation homecoming queens. But no one had a debutant ball.

It’s not necessary to have a debut to be old money. It’s an old, elegant, stressful way to make a statement socially but it’s not proof of old money status. A lot of new money families debit their daughters desperately to seem old money. The Kennedys did. It’s very…pretentious at this point in history.

In the early 20th Century and before wealthy young women had to have a debut. It was a necessity. Why? Because they had to keep their position in society or else…and…a debutante ball was how they were exposed to eligible bachelors. Debutante balls were intricately woven social events with thousands of invisible strings pulling open and shut doors. They altered world history at those events. But that was almost a hundred years ago.

In the last hundred years a great deal has changed. Today debutante balls are for fun and to seem super posh. I would be shocked if almost anything truly important happens at them other than people hopefully having fun and showing-off their wealth.

And showing-off wealth might be important…but only if so far as it’s an important amount of wealth. Average $50 to $200 millionaires are common enough, it seems.

So what makes a family old money?

Familiar by Agnes Obel plays.

I’ll try to make it as easy as possible.

1. Money that’s substantial and/or significantly impressive and prestigious that existed before World War I. It has to be possessed by a family and that has to be historically verifiable by honest and trustworthy historical evidence. Could there ever be another timeframe like the period of World War I that seals the fate of society? Yes. Of course. But…it’s not happened yet. So we still have to reference back to World War I.

2. A widespread, organically arrived family culture spanning over at least four generations but lasting not less than a hundred years of old money inter-family social mores, values and norms.

That’s all. It’s not something you can create, it’s something that happens to a family over time. And that’s why it’s so hard to be old money. You truly can’t make yourself old money.

Sometimes it might seem like you can…or that people did…but that’s an illusion.

Mary by Agnes Obel plays.

See…JD Rockefeller seemingly managed to make the Rockefellers old money. But JP Kennedy’s family isn’t old money even today, by some estimations. And both men tried.

Why was JD Rockefeller successful and Joe Patrick Kennedy was not?

Some might say that JD was a better man. But whether that’s true or not…it’s unlikely that that’s entirely why. And really…Joe’s latent tendency towards defiance of authority at times might be more moral than Mr. Rockefeller’s ability to submit.

No, I think it’s far more likely that the success of the Rockefeller name rest in their origins.

People love to denigrate farm families. But…historically land ownership is often a way for individuals and families into creating sustained economic empowerment within organized societies worldwide. Of course that land has to be kept viable.

I repeat: THE LAND MUST BE KEPT VIABLE.

But…should the land be viable…or have been viable…it possibly permanently alters the nature of the family structure. It affects the psychological architecture of the family.

Bill Gates is buying land. Why? The Kennedys came over to America because of the Irish Potato Famine…and they’ve not succeeded at becoming old money, in my opinion. The British Empire decimated Ireland by making the land temporarily inferior and was that intentional or not? Did they know what I’m describing intuitively, should it be accurate, or in more scholarly fact? Look at the land value on Native American Reservations. Their drinking water is often undrinkable. Look at the way the Appalachians have suffered. Was that a systemic strategy to decimate the white American middle class? The way rivers were poisoned? …Becoming elite old money isn’t just about how much money you have. Because what would drive people to be so evil? At times it’s just about being evil like Satan. But…other times it’s about a great many other things that are sadly meaningful. And it’s incredibly dangerous and difficult to distinguish the two from each other.

“We feared the poor.” says a dead DuPont. “Yes. Fear.”

“We didn’t.” says Bobby Kennedy Junior, laughing.

“EXACTLY!” says the dead DuPont. “Men like you are far more common than you seem to understand.”

“But you only gain power when the poor suffer.” says Bobby.

“Even if that’s true…how were we supposed to prevent Lem?” asks the dead DuPont. “Best and worse case scenario a man like you gets hung-up on believing Lem was gay, so to speak. You make yourself impotent that way. But you don’t see it, as good as you are at seeing a great many other things. And so we snub you that way. We rid ourselves of you.

Because you’re psychologically stuck on that issue. And it’s part of your overall Achilles Heel, which is sex. You have had a terrible time as a man with issues regarding your sexuality. Your whole family has had a problem with issues is sex for generations.” says the dead DuPont.

What happened?

The Rockefellers owned land. They had a farm. Before they were “The Rockefellers” they owned a farm. A viable farm on land that’s probably still viable.

In Norway owning land was considered significant. It’s the reason the Berges and Nesheims came to America, in some part or almost entirely. They wanted to own land. A lot…of land. Not just a hundred acres. Thousands.

And at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century the US Government was practically giving away land in North Dakota to Scandinavians. Why? Because they seemed ideal to acclimate to that land? With the snow? Or possibly because given the circumstances of Norway at the time they were the most likely to move overseas and buy the land? Either way, it was an actual historical marketing campaign aimed at Scandinavians and the Nesheims arrived and bought a lot of land over the next hundred years. Thousands seemingly to start…and by 1908 at the latest. Land that Gunhild suspected had oil as a thin coat of oil laid on the top of the creek on their land. They never did much investigating? Or they did? It’s unclear what happened, but Edward bought in. Edward suspected more than any of his siblings that there was oil that would someday be drilled.

At any rate, the Nesheims owned a lot of land at the start of the 20th Century. And…regardless of what one wants to say…it was a huge amount of very viable land…with oil. And they owned it all. No debt. Gunhild’s silversmith family is prestigious though far before then, but coupled with their sole possession of thousands of acres of land…it is old money or too damn near close to disregard. And that’s my opinion, but be careful with my opinions. I’m not an opinionated person…believe it or not. I’m often just right. It is…what it is. And it ain’t what it ain’t.

*shrug*

So the Nesheims are old money requirement number one. Or they are so close it’s difficult to fully dismiss them, and therefore one is forced to continue analyzing them as they hover on the border.

“Would Gunhild’s silversmith family have acknowledged her publicly?” asks an Illuminati woman.

“Yes!” says Simen Jóhannsson. “Lacey’s mother has a piece of heirloom sterling silver handcrafted jewelry from her silversmith first cousin that was given to her in the early 1950’s when she and Nils visited their homes and remaining family.”

“Simen you were a proficient and well-respected Norwegian-American author by the 1910’s?” asks the Illuminati woman.

“Yes! I was knighted in a ceremony by the King of Norway in 1954. But I was well respected by the 1910’s.” says Simen.

“Would I know who you are?” asks Chris Hayes.

“When?” asks Simen.

Assuming an air of authority and substantial, even laughable superiority Chris Hayes assumes Simen is his pal. He’s automatically annoyed by Simen’s audacity in asking him questions. He panics when he has to stop and answer a question that makes him seem potentially intellectually shallow. And yet it’s such a simple question. You’d think he’d have the common sense to answer it quickly and thoughtlessly. He does not, apparently.

“In the 1940’s.” says Chris.

“Answer quickly! We answer quickly.” says Kate, cheerfully.

“Why do I have to care what these people think of me?! I still don’t get it!” Chris says to his wife.

Eden by Hania Rani plays.

“You’d have heard my name.” says Simen Jóhannsson. “At least a few times. In meetings or in research you’d have read it.”

“I knew who he was, possibly.” says Edward R. Murrow about Simen Jóhannssen.

“How?!” asks MSNBC.

When I Was Older by Billlie Eilish plays.

“I read one of his papers. I read a copy of it.” says Edward R. Murrow. “It was widely read.”

“I wrote published and read novels. But I was also the Co-Editor-In Chief of this immigrant newspaper.” says Simon Johnson. “I was a genius. I had little formal education. But I write and wrote exceptionally well. And my novels were so highly regarded by the King of Norway that he believed I should be knighted. He felt I was able to give him real, valuable insight into the minds and hearts of Norwegians living in the US through my writing.”

“I liked him as a person too. He was a very intelligent, rational, good man.” says then King of Norway.

“Why don’t we have such posh immigrant newspapers?” asks a Hispanic man in the US. “Or posh, elegant television?”

Silence.

“Is it because we don’t own and politely possess thousands of acres of viable land?” asks the Hispanic man. “By the droves?” He thinks. “I mean…with cold, silversmith reserve…have whole states dominated by land-owning families of highly intelligent Hispanic people?”

Love and War by Fleurie plays.

“YES!?” he says, laughing. “And I think it actually irritates the Nesheims. I think they worry it’s somehow criminal or unfair.”

“It seems odd.” says Nils, coolly.

“We don’t have that either.” says an Asian American.

“No! And you’re not often if ever old money either.” says the Hispanic man. “I’d bet land ownership does matter.” He laughs. “Viable land ownership.”

“The war in Israel is case in point.” says Bobby Kennedy Senior.

“When did we ever start thinking land ownership wasn’t important!?” asks a Native American woman. “I mean…I have a feeling we did. But when?!”

“After and during my brother’s brief US Presidential Administration?” says Bobby Kennedy Senior.

“Why?!” asks Dick Van Dyke.

Bobby smiles. “We made it seem inconsequential with our coolness and wealth. And our photogenic faces and clothed bodies.”

“But bringing the vibe…doesn’t make you old money. Or straight.” observes a woman.

“True.” says JP, in biting irritation.

“And if viable land matters along with…family culture…then…you all failed us. Lem might have been confused and vulnerable and straight. And…you all…aren’t that rich anymore. Are you?” asks the woman of the Kennedys.

“No. They aren’t.” says Martha Moxley.

“Martha…what happened to the Kennedys?” asks a man in the Illuminati.

Ice Wine by Lia Ices.

“I talk to Lacey a lot.” says Martha Moxley. “I have for decades. I love telling her things. …For all you know…she was there when I was killed. And she comforted me like a mother. Made my death less painful and faster. Or…I wish she had been.

What happened to the Kennedys?

They couldn’t figure out love.”

“Is that tied-in with the land?” asks Scotland.

“Maybe.” says Lacey.

“What did happen?” asks Margaret Mitchell.

“Simon you were very suspicious of America?” asks a gay hair stylist.

“Yes!” says Simon. “I respected the US but I worried. It always seemed…permanently unsettled.”

“Like Lem!” says the gay stylist.

“If Lem was straight…you caught my hint. Why can’t we fully relax? Why has America always been so relatively anxious? Even in times of prosperity and peace, like the 1950’s. We never seem to find our version of Zion. Most viable countries are settled with a dominant, agreed-upon culture. Or they remain colonial vestiges. Why aren’t we ever happy? What are we confused by or lying about?” says Simon.

“What happened? We stole some of the land. Not all of it. Some of it we fought honorably enough with the Native Americans for and rightfully won. There were lots of tribes. But some of it we definitely stole. And…some countries aren’t as bothered by that as others. But…I think it’s always sort of bothered us. And so we’ve struggled to form a positive sense of self as a nation. …The generations before the 1970’s just…relied on anti Native racism. But…that’s racism. And if we want to be the most moral nation on the face of the Earth, which is the argument we’ve made since leaving Great Britain…we can’t be racist without legitimate racism. And we’ve struggled to legitimize racism and we’ve tried to go in the opposite direction, but failed to establish an agreed-upon just cause for the stolen land. We have no deep, meaningful consensus as a country.

The Kennedys were a distraction. Some delusional people or misinformed or misled might have seen them as a solution. Or the apex of the country. But they…were always fraught with trouble. An unreliable so-called monarchy. And…no. They never possessed lots of land or lots of love that was…respected. They are our shallowness as a nation embodied. And if they’re our monarchy our country barely exists.

It’s sad. They’re people. And if Lem really was straight…Red Fay should have been confident and brave enough to tell Jack lovingly in private. I highly suspect those two were lovers. Red and Jack. As much as gay men can be. Red does look subversively sad the way Lem is portrayed as supposing to at Jack and Jackie’s wedding. Perhaps Red should have found a way to direct Jack sexually away from Lem.

But…I highly suspect Red was too intimidated and ambitious. He might have felt it “wasn’t his place” to say something like that to Jack. So he made weird comments about Lem being “neutral.” Comments people obnoxiously have deceitfully contorted to make Lem assuredly gay, because they’re desperate for proof Lem was gay in the face of Lem’s lack of openness with possibly anyone about his sexual orientation. Red was annoyingly unclear.

And Gore Vidal tried. He tried in his own…backhanded…clouded way to get rid of Lem. Was it because he had deep, dire, sneaking suspicions that something was terribly amiss and Lem was straight? Maybe. If I’m hearing from Lem it’s extremely likely to me that Gore Vidal knew Lem wasn’t gay at all. Did he ever consciously think it through and realize Lem was straight if he was? Probably not? But if Lem was straight Gore knew in unformed coherent thoughts in his gut, potentially. And he hated Lem, siding loyally with his brother-in-law.

And that’s where the Nesheims and Rockefellers are different than the Kennedys. The Nesheims and Rockefellers being farm people…know. When your brother-in-law is suspicious of your “best friend” you take notice. If your wife is legal and yours and she loves you…you take notice. Because a legal wife is your ally. Not your “best friend” no matter how loyal he seems. He’s your best friend not your legal partner.

If Jack had never married maybe Lem would’ve been less dangerous somehow. But he had no legal basis for loyalty. And so if he became too unhappy…not out of jealousy necessarily so much as some other simmering reason…such as latent, Kennedy-oppressed heterosexuality…he might explode. Lem might have been kind, and self-effacing to a point, but he had no legal basis for his claim. And they never publicly acknowledged him as Jack’s husband. But frankly even if they had Gore would have still been more likely to be trustworthy. And the intuitive, instinctual “farm logic” that would tell you that comes from farming.

It comes from successful farming.

Owning lots of land and farming successfully…or even knowing how to…is a pivotal moment in a family on the path to becoming old money. Because you learn through the harsh realities of growing vast tracts of land in open nature what’s out there. You learn through physical education what the characteristics of nature are. You learn about alliances. You learn about gravity. You learn about unfolding events and unforeseen events. You develop toughness and endurance and optimism based on evidence. You learn confidence and when to attack and when to let go.

Most of the current American Illuminati does not have farming skills, even genetically. That’s possibly why they keep attacking Lacey. Because they’re mostly the descendants of failed farmers. They keep wildly overestimating their potential yields, overestimating their current at market value, and underestimating the forces of nature in opposition to them. Not just the repercussions of opposing God, but of opposing nature itself.

You don’t have to be a successful farmer to be old money. But it’s a great way to start. Or it’s a great part of building up over generations to being authentic old money.

So perhaps if the Kennedys had had successful farming experience they’d have been better at staying alive and knowing how to navigate the Illuminati, should it exist, and knowing how to make alliances and progress.