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Fabius Minarchus's avatar

If the war gets serious, then America's position is a lite version of Russia going into World War II. Stalin had gutted his officer corps and starved out the land we now call the Breadbasket of Europe. Soviet life sciences were as badly corrupted as social sciences are in the US today.

But when the fertilizer hit the fan, Stalin pulled a massive U-Turn. Power was returned to the government vs. the Party. Competence was again OK. Patriotism and even religion went back in style.

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For all the nonsense of our current administration, our cult of mediocrity is much shallower than it was in the Soviet Union. There are still competent people in our universities who are currently keeping their heads down.

Likewise, we could become energy independent again in short order. When fuel for battleships is at issue, utopian dreams of an emissions free future can get put on hold. We have the resources and know where they are. And we have plenty of competent expertise when it comes to drilling for oil and gas.

Restoring our civilian manufacturing capabilities is more of a challenge. Some of our factories have been mothballed beyond the point of easy restoration. We might have to do without new televisions for a while. On the other hand, we have plenty of experts for building military hardware, including planes and warships. And we are a few environmental regulation exemptions away from manufacturing computer chips.

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Note also that the US went into World War II with industry half mothballed due to bad economic policies, and a population which was not enthusiastic for war. We had a standby core military with many recruits who were given the choice of join the military or go to jail. See the movie "The Caine Mutiny."

We turned on a dime when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

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China and/or Russia can beat us on the morale front if we don't get directly attacked, but we do have to send troops abroad. Sending weapons abroad is a morale booster for Congressional districts with defense production industries. Where I see morale failing is if China captures Taiwan. I doubt we have the will to liberate Taiwan once taken.

The scarier scenario is China going all in before we turn ourselves around. What if they do have the ability to sink our navy? What if some of those Chinese immigrants in STEM are moles? What if they take away our some of our resource rich territory before we fully wake up.

We have the long and medium term ability to build chips, warships, missiles, guns, pharmaceuticals, etc. We can live without a great deal of the cheap Chinese merchandise we get at Walmart. We do have an unregulated militia of extraordinary magnitude.

But China has some serious numbers and a serious manufacturing base. The last time we fought the Chinese, they didn't have enough guns for their infantry. Soldiers were expected to pick up the guns of their fallen comrades.

Such is no longer the case.

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Ahnaf Ibn Qais's avatar

Very good points raised.

The German Philosopher Peter Sloterdijk once noted: "Nobody has anytime for an entire generation anymore". Whilst will is no doubt important thus, this notion is key here:

The point being made by Sloterdijk that "maturation" a la the nominal 20-30 years needed to truly polish a generation (i.e. will, values, etc) is no longer pursued in earnest, but rather leaders (and "elites") of most Western nations try and compress that down to a measly 2-5 years or mere months even in certain cases. And so this comes down to the following:

The Posthuman, Shiny, Sexy, "Sciency", Transhumanist pursuing Elite of Yankee-land may just decide to go full-Chimera mode. Why bother with "boosting morale", if one can just Drug, Genetically Engineer, Lobotomize, etc and "Cheat" in that manner to try and Pursue Victory?

During Ike's presidency and the twilight of the Korean War, Yankee-High Command proposed to said president a Full Scale invasion of the Chinese mainland.

The plan involved an invasion force of some 800k Yankees, who would land after several dozen Nukes vaporized some hundred million "Y*****s".

The idea being to use Taiwan (as the Japanese had for much of the Second Sino-Japanese War) as the launchpad and "unsinkable aircraft carrier" to ravage the Chinese people into surrender.

Why bring this up? Well, even though Ike ultimately shot down the proposal (Murican historians say it was because he wanted his progeny to pursue peaceful trade and commercial ties with the Chinese, this likely is a lie; but I will desist on going off on this tangent over here), this engagement plan is nevertheless on file if Yankee-land is in need of it in the near future.

As such, World War Next might very well involve said Barbarism by Yankee-land. Drugs, Lobotomies, etc therefore suddenly become not only essential but seemingly a necessity.

How else would one unleash millions of Savage Yankees onto the Chinese people to Rape, Pillage, Kill, Loot, etc ... in a hellscape that is already filled with tens of millions wailing due Nuclear Radiation Burns, Cannibalistic pursuits, etc?

This coming world war will likely be "BEYOND Human Will", a la one would need to go to those psychological states BEYOND "normal" pursuant modes of meaning/relevance vs irrelevance/vileness.

Those Great powers who can bridge said gap... the normal human modes noted earlier; will have the advantage it seems with regard the "winning" the overall conflict.

Namely, how does one get VILE ACTION whilst not tapping into the normal modes of Human Motivation? Drugs, Lobotomies, etc on the one end, and Revenge, Annihilation of one's Kin in their entirety, etc on the other end. This will be the calculus that needs examining.

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