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If only those pursuing apocalypse would open a history book. They might then learn of every previous attempt to provoke apocalypse for millennia.

In truth, every generation thinks itself living in the end times, prophesies apparently springing to life before their eyes. But so it seemed twenty-five, seventy, one hundred, two hundred, five hundred, a thousand years ago.

Of course, the naive young ones are easily convinced. It will only occur to them as they approach their midlife crisis that those set on manipulating their emotions are intimately familiar with the texts used to bring those prophesies to life.

But still the pious sages of every tradition are found instructing their followers to prepare for Armageddon, oblivious to the same calls of their predecessors even within living memory.

Alas, no one engages with history, or even their own intellect. Instead, they’ll slavishly do the bidding of greedy warmongers, intent on seizing the mineral resources of nations forcibly impoverished to bolster the advanced technological industries they’ve grown rich from.

The AI revolution cannot survive without the rare earth minerals plundered from the poorest nations on earth. The gargantuan data centres cannot run on clean energy alone. The wealthy cannot survive but by enslaving the poor.

Every strategic planner in the corridors of power knows what is really at stake. Relinquishing imperial control was a mistake. Now, they must take back what was rightfully theirs by force. There must be a new world war to reconquer territory ceded to unreliable sovereign states, far too eager to control their own natural resources.

And so they must turn to apocalypse, and the naive young faithful who will bring it to life, ecstatic in their hallowed status as footsoldiers of righteousness. In the heart of the battle, none dares contemplate who their masters really are, and what they’re fighting for.

By the time it occurs to them to open the history books, or a tome on political science, it will be far too late. By then, their mineral resources will already have funded the next milestone in the world’s most valuable tech company’s annual report to investors.

It’s a great game for the few. Crack open the history books to discover how the last Great Game worked out for regions once the foremost economic and intellectual power houses of the world.

See where the pursuit of apocalypse left you. Try not to make the same mistake. Try something different for a change. Plant a seed. Regreen the desert. Irrigate your land. Invest in life and livelihoods.