I remember studying in the Naval War College about nations clashing either between democracies and dictatorships. Later Samuel Huntington in “Clash of Civilizations” proposed the conflict would be between Islam and the Judeo-Christians. This interesting article proposes that President Trump is trying to win fossil fuel supremacy over post-carbon green energy.

I see a lot of support for this theory. To begin with, it matches Trump’s domestic and international actions more than any other theory I have read. There is also an almost religious hostility to green energy powered by a fear that it will destroy jobs and take away people’s rights. People who believe in this believe in it with a religious fervor that makes it difficult to discuss rationally.

Of course following this strategy of using outmoded energy will be disastrous. We are already decades behind other countries in our infrastructure and this will just make it worse. The United States was the first to fly a heavier than air aircraft, but the Europeans quickly surpassed us so that in World War I no US aircraft were used because they were obsolete. The British developed the first jet, but the Germans had the first jet fighter.  It is dangerous to hold on to beliefs of superiority that are no longer valid.

See The Battle Lines of the Future   

See also  An Insider's View: The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America