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Forward To The Past
How our folly will cause us to smash everything we rely on, in the name of self-sufficiency
There are few sights more indicative of the power of human intelligence than the heartwarming sight of anti-globalization protestors gathering outside a summit meeting. Clutching their iPhones (which depend entirely on a complex global network comprising forty-nine different countries around the world) and sipping their designer lattes (which depend entirely on a global network of at least ten different countries, depending on whose brand they happen to be sipping) and wearing clothes that likewise are entirely the product of globalization, these joyous protestors earnestly declaim the evils of the system that has given them absolutely everything they have.
Invariably these people are also great enthusiasts for green energy, yet the components of green electricity also rely on very complex global supply chains. There’s not much cobalt or lithium in Clacton or San Francisco, for example, nor copper or any of the rare Earth elements that green power devices need. Tesla, for example, would cease production instantly were it cut off from the global supply chain, as would wind power manufacturers and solar power manufacturers.
Even folk who viscerally detest the politically-correct darlings who reflexively…