A World on the Brink

The U.S. bombing of Iran on June 21, 2025 marks a grim milestone, signaling that the end game of the corporatocracy and global oligarchs has begun in earnest. This act of aggression, set against a backdrop of environmental collapse, social inequality, and psychological dysfunction, reveals a world driven by the unchecked greed and power of the super-rich. From plummeting recycling rates and Earth's darkening albedo to surging displacement and the psychological shadow of authoritarianism, the evidence paints a stark picture: the billionaire class, with their loyalists in tow, is steering humanity toward a precipice, prioritizing profit and control over survival.

A striking feature of the Israel-Iran conflict is the influence of apocalyptic religious beliefs on both sides. In Iran, the concept of Mahdism—the belief in the return of the Mahdi—holds significant sway within the Islamic Republic’s theocratic framework. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is seen as the representative of the Mahdi, whose return is expected to usher in a period of divine justice. Hardline factions, such as the Ahmadinejad Circle and the Paydari Party, have politicized Mahdism, viewing regional conflicts, including those in Syria and Yemen, as signs of the Mahdi’s imminent reappearance. Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during his 2005–2013 tenure, heavily promoted Mahdist ideology, allocating funds to expand the Jamkaran Mosque, a key pilgrimage site tied to Mahdist traditions. These factions interpret conflicts with Israel and its allies as part of an eschatological narrative, where overcoming “infidels” is a prerequisite for the Mahdi’s return.

On the other side, evangelical Christian groups in the United States, particularly those adhering to dispensationalist theology, view Israel’s conflicts as prophetically significant. Figures like Pastor John Hagee and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee believe that Jewish control of Israel is a prerequisite for the rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI), with over 10 million members, has been a vocal advocate for Israel, framing its defense as a divine imperative. Huckabee’s urging of President Donald Trump to strike Iran reflects this belief, suggesting that Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt positions him as a divinely ordained leader to act decisively. These evangelicals interpret biblical passages as a mandate to support Israel unconditionally, with some seeing a war in the Holy Land as a trigger for Armageddon.

This convergence of apocalyptic ideologies—Shi’ite Mahdism and evangelical dispensationalism—creates a dangerous feedback loop. Both sides may perceive escalation as not only strategically necessary but divinely sanctioned, reducing the incentive for de-escalation and increasing the risk of prolonged conflict.

Meanwhile, the Earth is sending unambiguous signals of distress, yet the corporatocracy’s response is to double down on exploitation. Global recycling rates have declined for eight consecutive years, as reported by The Guardian on May 16, 2025. Even if all recyclable goods were processed, recycling would only reach 25%, far too low to address the waste crisis fueled by rampant consumption. The EU and U.S., comprising just 10% of the global population, consume over half the world’s materials, embodying the Maximum Entropy Production Principle—life’s drive to consume energy until it collapses. This principle, applied to human society, reveals a civilization blind to limits, much like yeast in a petri dish. The report’s call for a global circular economy and an International Materials Agency underscores the urgency, but such measures face resistance from industries profiting off waste and disposability.

Compounding this, Earth’s albedo—its reflectivity—has declined over 25 years of satellite data, as detailed by James Hansen and Pushker Kharecha on May 13, 2025. This darkening, driven by shrinking ice caps and cloud changes, confirms a large, amplifying cloud feedback, signaling high climate sensitivity. Global warming is accelerating, with paleoclimate data and historical warming rates aligning to warn of catastrophic temperature rises—far beyond the IPCC’s 3°C estimate for doubled CO2. Yet, as Hansen notes, media often dismisses such findings as fringe, stifling public discourse and shielding the fossil fuel interests that fund political inaction. The consequences are dire: hotter oceans, fiercer storms, and rising sea levels. The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and gutting of environmental agencies exemplify a deliberate choice to prioritize short-term profits over long-term survival.

Climate-driven displacement further underscores the crisis. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reported on May 15, 2025, that 83.4 million people were internally displaced by the end of 2024, nearly double the figure from six years prior. Extreme weather events, turbocharged by climate change, caused 45.8 million displacements in 2024 alone. As Alexandra Bilak of IDMC notes, “Internal displacement is where conflict, poverty, and climate collide,” hitting the vulnerable hardest. With global warming surpassing 1.5°C, as Sarah Rosengaertner of the Global Centre for Climate Mobility observes, these numbers will only climb, exposing the inequity of a system where the poorest bear the brunt of a crisis they did not create.

At the heart of this crisis lies the billionaire class, whose actions fuel environmental and social collapse. A 2020 Oxfam study reveals that the richest 1% emit double the carbon of the poorest 50%, driven by private jets, yachts, and sprawling estates. Their land grabs for agriculture, mining, and real estate decimate biodiversity, with the Amazon’s shrinking carbon sink as a stark example. Water-intensive luxuries like golf courses drain scarce resources in drought-stricken regions, while their industries—fashion, tech, and fossil fuels—generate mountains of waste and emissions. The Nuclear Energy Institute notes that fashion alone accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions, yet the ultra-wealthy continue to champion consumption-driven growth.

Billionaires also wield political influence to perpetuate this destruction. Their lobbying against green subsidies and for fossil fuel interests ensures that policy favors profit over the planet. Their philanthropy, often touted as a solution, is largely performative. As Inside Philanthropy reports, climate donations pale in comparison to their fossil fuel investments. Jeff Bezos’s Earth Fund, for instance, is overshadowed by Amazon’s fossil fuel reliance and waste generation. The May 19, 2025, report by Louis Pisano captures this hypocrisy vividly: Bezos’s $500 million diesel megayacht, docked at Cannes for Lauren Sánchez’s environmental award, symbolizes a class that preaches sustainability while living extravagantly. This “philanthro-capitalism” launders their environmental sins, distracting from the systemic harm they perpetuate.

The Trump administration, staffed with billionaires like Elon Musk (until recently), Linda McMahon, and Doug Burgum, epitomizes this betrayal. With a Cabinet net worth of at least $13.7 billion and an inner circle totaling $428.3 billion, as reported on April 30, 2025, Trump’s government is a corporatocracy in action. Policies like the proposed $800 billion Medicaid cut to fund tax breaks for the wealthy, alongside attacks on Social Security and rural healthcare, dismantle the New Deal’s social safety net. The House Republicans’ tax bill, with its clause allowing the president to label nonprofits as “terrorist-supporting” without oversight, threatens dissent and mirrors authoritarian tactics. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariff plan, denounced by Senator Brian Schatz on April 7, 2025, will raise costs for middle-class families by $5,000 annually, further entrenching inequality.

The corporatocracy’s end game is not merely economic or environmental but psychological, rooted in what Carl Jung called the collective Shadow—the unacknowledged fears and desires of society. The MAGA movement, as analyzed by Jungian psychology and Bandy Lee, reflects this Shadow, with Trump’s narcissism amplifying societal fears of change and projecting them onto “others” like immigrants and liberals. Lee, in her May 21, 2025, article, warns that Trump’s mental health issues have global ramifications, emboldening authoritarian leaders like Putin and Netanyahu. His admiration for Putin, evident in the 2018 Helsinki Summit, and support for Netanyahu’s policies have fueled conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, resulting in millions of deaths and displacements.

The psychological parallels between MAGA, Loyalists, and Confederates reveal a recurring pattern: fear of upheaval, desire for order, and rejection of pluralism. These traits, rooted in the collective Shadow, create polarization, with both sides projecting unacknowledged flaws onto each other. Lee’s concept of “Trump Contagion” suggests that his psychological state infects global politics, amplifying instability. The World Mental Health Coalition’s three-point plan—rejoining the WHO, recommitting to the Paris Agreement, and mandating independent mental health evaluations for leaders—offers a path forward, echoing historical efforts like Dr. Bernard Lown’s nuclear disarmament campaign in the 1980s.

The U.S. bombing of Iran is a flashpoint in this end game, reflecting the corporatocracy’s willingness to escalate conflicts to maintain power. Trump’s erratic foreign policy, coupled with his admiration for authoritarian leaders, raises the specter of catastrophe. The Danish intelligence report of 2025 projects Russia’s readiness for a large-scale war in Europe within five years, and NATO’s unpreparedness, as noted by Mark Rutte in December 2024, heightens the stakes. The bombing of Iran, alongside Trump’s questioning of NATO commitments, tests alliances and risks a broader conflict, serving the interests of defense contractors and oil magnates while distracting from domestic failures.

Amazon’s $5 billion deal with Saudi Arabia’s AI Hub, signed in 2025 despite the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, exemplifies the moral bankruptcy of this corporatocracy. As Saudi Arabia anticipates Peak Oil by 2030, its pivot to tech mirrors the billionaire class’s own survival strategy: diversify wealth while exploiting new frontiers, leaving the environmental and human costs to others. This is not mere opportunism but a deliberate abandonment of responsibility, akin to feudal lords forsaking their people.

The corporatocracy’s end game—marked by environmental collapse, inequality, psychological dysfunction, and now military aggression—demands urgent resistance. Fixing this requires systemic change: taxing carbon footprints, regulating industries, closing lobbying loopholes, and enforcing transparency in investments. It means rejecting the billionaire class’s performative gestures and holding them accountable for their actions, not their PR. Democracy itself is at stake, warped by wealth that buys impunity.

The World Mental Health Coalition’s call for a new order—rejoining global health and climate frameworks, ensuring leader accountability—echoes the New Deal’s spirit of collective action. Humanity must forge this road, rejecting the greed that turns beauty into profit and building communities that care. The alternative is a world where the super-rich retreat to bunkers or space stations, leaving the rest to face a planet in flames. The fight is for a future where power serves the many, not the few, and where hope, not despair, defines our path.