Super-Size Me II.

140 episodes ago, Malcolm Kyeyune launched a piece of verbal artillery into the mess hall of online discourse.

The Burger Theory of History.

It quickly became one of our most quoted episodes.

The Burger Theory is the idea that, since the pandemic of 2020, the rising costs of basic necessities is feeding a malaise that is eating into our society. The sense not that we are in yet another cost of living crisis. But that the system itself is failing.

Much like it did in late-80s Russia, when Soviet citizens were confronted with the Big Mac, and knew that their Leninist world view simply could not stack up. A few years later, the economic Iron Curtain truly tumbled when Mikhail Gorbachev did an advert for Pizza Hut.

Now, as the Hormuz crisis after the Covid crisis after the Ukraine crisis once again strangulates the delicately balanced trading system of the West, he’s ordering a second helping – with fries.

I’ll be explaining what the USS Rustbucket, aka the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, tells us about the quickening tempo of that unravelling.

And I’ll be explaining why he’s right.

The Golden Arches are the new Twin Towers, folks. Strap in, let’s roll…

***

Multipolarity is a long-running alt-geopolitics brand, starring the economist Philip Pilkington, and the journalist Andrew Collingwood. In January 2023, we began with the slogan ‘Charting the rise of the multipolar world order’. And we’ve hardly struggled for material since.

Each week, our duo take three key stories affecting the global balance of power, and explain what each means for the coming multipolar era. Increasingly, they’re joined by guests from across the spectrum: technologist Steve Hsu, journalist Malcom Kyeyune, strategic analyst Amerikanets, or academics like Warwick Powell and Glenn Diesen. You can follow us on X, get into our lively Substack with the weekly Multipolarity Brief – a one-stop shop for deep analysis – and Philip Pilkington's bimonthly column.

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