Yesterday we were on the brink of climate catastrophe. Today only the threat to our prosperity matters. The climate catastrophe no longer means anything. The price of petrol, on the other hand, means all the more.
I. The Observation
It is not a new phenomenon — but it grows more abrupt with every decade. The Iran war began on 28 February 2026. In the first days there was a brief silence: nuclear weapons were mentioned, the Strait of Hormuz was closed, missiles were fired at Gulf states. The world held its breath. Briefly.
Then came the figures. Oil price up thirty per cent. Gas prices in Europe up. Stock markets slumped. And suddenly the discussion was a different one: What will heating cost next winter? When will the recession come? How long can we afford this?
The end of the world had been pushed aside — not by an all-clear, but by a bank statement. Not because the threat had grown smaller, but because another threat had moved closer: the threat to one's own standard of living. That is not indifference. That is brain architecture.
II. The Biological Root
The human nervous system is not built for present-day civilisation. It is built for the savannah — for immediate threats that can be seen, smelt, heard. The limbic system does not distinguish by objective danger. It distinguishes by proximity and concreteness. An abstract threat that takes effect in ten years barely activates it. A concrete threat that hits the wallet today activates it at once.
So we react more strongly to petrol prices than to nuclear weapons — not because we are stupid, but because petrol prices are concrete and nuclear weapons are abstract. The end of the world is an idea. The bank statement is a number. Ideas fade. Numbers stay.
III. The Megamachine Switches Narratives
The limbic system explains why the threat to prosperity pushes out fear of the climate. It does not explain why someone turns from pacifist to warmonger overnight. That is not neurology — that is the Megamachine switching narratives.
The mechanism is precise: the Megamachine does not need to change convictions — it only needs to change the conditions under which convictions are socially rewarded. Yesterday pacifism was progressive and morally superior. Today it is naivety or treason. The same people, the same core values — but the social context has turned, and public attitudes have turned with it. Stante pede.
This applies to everything: free trade becomes the enemy overnight. Globalisation was progress yesterday, a sell-out today. Russia was a partner, then an enemy. China was the workbench, then a systemic rival. The Megamachine does not switch opinions — it switches the context in which opinions bring costs or advantages. And people follow the context — consciously or unconsciously, with conviction or with a guilty conscience.
The insidious part: people often do not notice the switch. They believe they have always thought this way. The narrative adapts to the new reality — and the memory of the old one fades. The former pacifist no longer remembers his peace demonstrations. Or he remembers them and calls them naive. The Megamachine needs no lies — it only needs to reframe the past.
IV. The Political Exploitation
What evolution produced, politics has discovered. Whoever can produce fear for prosperity can push aside fear of the end of the world. The message is always: your prosperity is under threat. From outside — by immigrants, by China, by unfair trading partners. From above — by elites who take your money and spend it elsewhere. From the left — by climate policy that makes electricity more expensive.
This message works because it appeals to what takes biological priority. Climate change is long-term and abstract. The heating bill is short-term and concrete. Whoever sets the agenda on prosperity wins attention — and whoever has attention has power. Democracy is a system optimised for short electoral cycles — and short electoral cycles structurally favour the threat to prosperity over the end of the world.
V. Prosperity as the Cause
Here lies the real point — and it is uncomfortable. Prosperity is not the opposite of the end of the world. It is its cause. The system that sustains our standard of living is the same system that produced the Iran war. America attacks Iran in order to defend the foundation of its global financial power: the dollar as the reserve currency of the oil trade. Europe's prosperity depends on a system whose defence is bringing the world to the brink of the end.
The causal chain is concrete: prosperity needs cheap oil. Cheap oil requires control of the Middle Eastern market. Control requires military presence. Military presence produces resistance. Resistance produces war. War produces the possibility of the end of the world. And then Europe worries about the prosperity that stood at the beginning of the chain.
We do not fight in spite of prosperity. We fight for it. And call it security.
VI. The Circle
The end of the world is pushed aside — by the threat to the prosperity that produces the end of the world it pushes aside. That is not a paradox. It is a circle. And circles cannot be broken by appeals. You cannot appeal to people to think long-term when their nervous system is built for the short term. You cannot appeal to democracies to solve problems spanning decades when their institutions are clocked to four-year rhythms.
Yesterday we were on the brink of climate catastrophe. Today prosperity is under threat. The difference between the two is smaller than we believe — and greater than we feel. The Megamachine has not changed the truth. It has only changed the context in which truths are perceived. That is enough.