In case you missed the memo, we are apparently entering the first phases of World War 3. Or, if you count the Cold War, World War 4. All of these previous struggles were won not only thanks to good political and military leadership, but also by the sheer force of industrial power and ample natural resources. Does the West have what it takes to win out again today?

A 21st-century world war would pit the West and its Asian allies – notably Japan, South Korea and India – against a modern-day version of the 1940s ‘pact of steel’. This time, however, the alliance is between China, Russia and Iran. In facing this threat, military preparedness is essential. But so too is boosting the West’s economic power, and rapidly.

To counter China, Russia, Iran and their accessories, the West needs not a ‘Green New Deal’ (parts of which Joe Biden has slipped into his poorly named Inflation Reduction Act), but something closer to the original New Deal of the 1930s – a programme which, as Robert Gordon has pointed out, enhanced infrastructure, energy generation and industrial productivity. These policies laid the basis for allowing America and its allies to transform themselves into what Franklin D Roosevelt labelled an ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ – turning the US into an industrial hub to support the fight against fascism.

Of course, any attempt to re-industrialise will face opposition from much of the American establishment. This includes financial firms like BlackRock, whose largely unprofitable ‘Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance’ (ESG) policies seek to promote investments in firms that purport to meet their Net Zero obsessions. In practice, these policies perpetuate China’s industrial hegemony by hamstringing Western industry. Meanwhile, BlackRock happily expands its business in China, the world’s dominant polluter and autocracy par excellence.

[Not to mention, I watched yet another weepy milleniel TikTok yesterday on X. This poor lad was in the restroom of the Starbuck where he was employed, literally crying his eyeballs out because he had a 8 hour Saturday shift, someone had called in sick, there were four of them working, and “so many customers.” LITERALLY CRYING HIS EYEBALLS OUT that he couldn’t “take any more of it” because it was too hard. We’re doomed. ~ Beege]