A bleak thought: I often tell people not to worry too much about disasters in advanced countries, because such countries are incredibly resilient. They have wealth; they have competent civil services. For example, I've never bought into the disaster scenarios for Brexit 1/

But what if the competence of a country's bureaucracy — aka its deep state — has been undermined by leadership that demands obsequious loyalty, disdains expertise, and punishes anyone who tells it what it doesn't want to hear? 2/