Omnishambles Inside the System as It Falls Apart
Feb 13, 2026
Cy Cantarell, a systems thinker and independent journalist who writes on infrastructure and political economy, reflects on neoliberalism’s unraveling. Short, sharp takes cover Mark Carney’s Davos reckoning, the myths of meritocracy, H‑Mart Gate and proximity to power, why maintenance workers hold hidden leverage, and where direct action can actually strain the wealth defense machine.
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Davos Eulogy For A Fading Order
- Mark Carney's Davos speech admitted the postwar "rules-based order" was a useful fiction that advantaged some states.
- Cy Cantarell and Virginia Heffernan read it as a eulogy for neoliberal liberal capitalism and a signal of systemic rupture.
The Dream Was Always Partial
- The "you can have it too" American dream was mainly available to a narrow subset: white, male, connected people.
- The outlier success stories became marketing case studies that concealed structural inequality.
Horatio Alger And Epstein Parallels
- Virginia connects Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches tales to his own history of abusing boys, exposing a dark origin to the American fable.
- She links this predatory pattern to Jeffrey Epstein's model of selling class mobility to vulnerable young people.
