The MAGA Mindset: How Nations Talk Themselves into Reverse
The Retro Revolution: Why Societies Choose Yesterday Over Tomorrow
[ In this essay, I explore why stressed societies retreat into nostalgic fantasies of their past, and how modern demagogues exploit this instinct to resist essential change and progress]
Introduction: The Paradox of Progress
In a recent headline-grabbing statement, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon declared that we're already in "World War III." While such dramatic proclamations focus our attention on immediate geopolitical tensions and military conflicts—challenges that diplomacy or time may eventually resolve—they obscure a far more fundamental crisis.
What I discuss here cuts deeper than geopolitical tensions or military strategies. Through these posts, I explore what I believe is humanity's true existential challenge: our stubborn resistance to change and our collective blindness to the future that's already unfolding before us. This isn't a crisis we can resolve through diplomacy or force—it's a battle within ourselves to imagine and embrace what comes next.
As Alvin Toffler predicted in his …