By Andrew Klein 

We are told that our world—with its stark inequality, its shoddy products, its constant state of anxiety and conflict—is just the way things are. This is a lie. What we experience as “normal” is the output of a specific, deliberate economic model: an extractive model that was hardened in the fires of 20th-century warfare and has since been perfected into a permanent, silent war against the very fabric of society. This is not a conspiracy; it is a system, and its workings can be understood, traced, and ultimately, challenged.

To see it, we must look past the theatrical distractions and examine the machinery itself.

The Historical Pivot: When War Became the Business Model

The potential for mass, systemic extraction was glimpsed in earlier conflicts, but it was the two World Wars that served as the great crucible. These were not just military engagements; they were total economic events. Entire nations were retooled for maximum, efficient output. The principles of mass production, standardized design, and the treatment of human labour and natural resources as expendable inputs were all perfected in this period.

The crucial lesson learned by the emerging industrial-financial elite was not one of tragedy, but of opportunity. A society organized for war is incredibly profitable for those who control the means of production and finance. After 1945, this wartime engine was never truly shut down. It was simply redeployed. The mindset of total mobilization and resource extraction was seamlessly transferred to the consumer economy. The “war” continued, but its battlefields were now domestic markets, its soldiers were consumers, and its objective was the endless growth of capital.

The Architecture of Extraction: A System Designed to Fail

This model operates on a core, brutal logic: maximize short-term profit by treating people and the planet as resources to be mined.

We can see this logic etched into our very homes. Compare the solid double-brick villas built before the World Wars—structures conceived as intergenerational legacies—with the modern spec-home. Today’s houses are often timber-frames clad in a thin veneer of brick, built for a 30-year lifespan. Builders have become speculators, not tradesmen; their profit is maximized by building fast and cheap, not by building well. The result is a cycle of debt and insecurity for the homeowner, who inherits a future of expensive maintenance for a product designed to fail.

This is a perfect metaphor for the entire economy. The Extractive Model is defined by a short-term time horizon where the core value is expediency. It views resources as things to be consumed, driven by fear and greed, and results in a “throw-away” society—exemplified by the fast-fashion jacket worn twice and discarded.

Contrast this with a Legacy Model, which operates on a long-term time horizon, valuing quality and sustainability. It views resources as things to be stewarded, driven by security and compassion, and fosters a culture of craftsmanship—exemplified by the hand-stitched kimono passed down for generations.

Our modern economy has overwhelmingly chosen the former. The shift from craftsmanship to planned obsolescence, from legacy-building to liability-creation, is not an accident. It is the intended outcome.

The Necessary Theatre: The Smokescreen of Perpetual Conflict

A population living under constant extraction would eventually rebel. To prevent this, the system employs a sophisticated and endless theatrical production designed to monopolize our attention and emotion.

This theatre takes several predictable forms:

· The Rotation of External Enemies: A constant parade of geopolitical foes—communists, terrorists, rival superpowers—is presented to unify the populace against an external threat. This justifies massive military spending and suspends critical inquiry in the name of national security.

· The Stage-Managed Culture War: When no external enemy suffices, the population is turned against itself. Politics becomes a furious spectacle of symbolic battles over identity, a dazzling distraction from the quiet, bipartisan consensus on policies that enrich the corporate-military complex.

· The Scapegoating of the Vulnerable: Immigrants, the poor, or other marginalized groups are blamed for the economic anxieties that are, in reality, caused by the extractive practices of the elite. This redirects public anger downward, toward fellow victims, rather than upward toward the architects of the system.

These dramas are the “fog of war.” They are the emotionally charged intervals that ensure the public is always focused on a shadow, never on the hand casting it. The real conflict—the silent, economic war waged by the elite against everyone else—continues unabated.

The Real Battlefield: You Are the Resource

In this endless war, the outcomes are brutally clear.

The casualties are the working and middle classes. They see their jobs offshored, their wages stagnate, their public services gutted, and their future sold for parts. They pay with their financial security, their mental well-being, and the very habitability of their planet.

The victors are a transnational elite of investors, corporate executives, and speculators. Their wealth, already hoarded to obscene degrees, continues to grow exponentially. They are the true beneficiaries of every conflict, every austerity measure, and every deregulated market. Crucially, unlike the distracted public, they operate on a multi-generational plan, using their immense wealth to influence governments and ensure the extractive engine continues to run for their descendants.

A Call to Clarity

The first step to ending a war is to recognize that you are in one. This article is a map, intended to help you see through the fog. The shoddy house, the unaffordable healthcare, the polarizing political news, the endless international crises—these are not isolated problems. They are symptoms of a single disease: an economic model that requires perpetual conflict and consumption to survive, and that views you as fuel.

We are challenged to think beyond the spectacle. To ask who benefits from the endless drama. To question the story that this is all there is. The system relies on our belief that it is immutable. Our most powerful weapon is to withdraw that belief, to see the machinery, and to begin imagining—and building—a world that operates on the principles of a Legacy Model, where value is measured in well-being, not wealth, and where the future is something we build for our grandchildren, not extract from them.

The fog is thick, but the path forward begins with a single, clear-eyed look at the world as it truly is.