Elon Musk: “We Are Sleepwalking Our Way Into World War Three,” “Putting Civilization Itself At Risk” | Video | RealClearPolitics
ELON MUSK: That is correct. It’s roughly on par, let’s just say one could debate whether it is bigger, but the point is we don’t have an overwhelming advantage on industrial might and the foundation of war is economics. This should be obvious to everyone but it is often lost at this point, the foundation of war is economic power. Especially industrial output. How many tanks, guns, and drones can you make relative to the other side? That’s what it comes down to. And it may be the case, if not now, in the future it probably will be, that a Russia-China-Iran alliance can outproduce the Western alliance.
Let’s just say, that in order for there to be a global conflict, a World War Three, you have to have two superpower alliances where one can not easily defeat the other one. And that is the case. And that I think is a massive shift in thinking that most people do not understand. Most people on this call perhaps do understand but most do not. I think we want to try to avoid that. I hope it is not something that the tides of history are simply going to sweep us in that direction because there is a strong argument that these things are actually unavoidable and the tides of history will sweep us in that direction whether we like it or not. But we should try to avoid that if at all possible.
Unfortunately, our policy has been forcing Russia and Iran to ally with China, it’s been forcing them. What choice have we given them?
Russia has the raw materials, and China has the industrial capacity. It s frankly, a perfect match from a war standpoint. So I think we need to stop doing that. It’s unwise, and I think it will lead to an immense risk to civilization.
I want to emphasize there s a civilizational risk — there are tragedies on an individual level, tragedies on a community level, and then there’s civilizational risk. We just need to make sure that we re not putting civilization itself at stake, which is World War Three.
Note to us: next time we face a world crisis, try to have a competent President. Big ask, I know.