The ugly outbreaks of antisemitism around the world since October 7 are a frightening warning of the firestorms to come—if we don’t pull ourselves together.

Not since the 1930s, during the lead up to World War II, has there been as much open antisemitism as there has been in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. What’s particularly shocking is the unprecedented outbreak of it in the United States and the cowardly, see-­no-­evil reac­tion of so many of our academic and civic institutions. These attacks assault core American values that have made this country so unique and successful. There is growing alarm that our very insti­tutional foundations are rotting.

People sense that things are unraveling here and abroad.

We haven’t experienced such a dangerous drift since the Great Depression and the disillusion from the catastrophic First World War undermined belief in the Enlightenment principles of basic individual rights and freedom, and the rule of law over arbitrary actions by government. Faith that the human condition would continue to get better and less violent, and that growing commerce would gradually render war obsolete were shattered.

By the mid­-1930s, millions saw the totalitarian ideolo­gies of Communism, Nazism and Fascism as the waves of the future. Dictatorship trumped democracy. Then—as is the case today—too many leaders had lost their nerve and were floundering, unable to get a grip on things.

When things are so dangerously adrift, anxious people look for scapegoats, and antisemitism is often the result.

Economically, the world today is in a rut, and people fear that future prospects aren’t good.

Indeed, most government leaders and economic influ­encers don’t understand what enables an economy to grow: stable currencies with stable values, low tax rates, minimal regulation and—a new category—respect for facts and actual science. A lack of respect for facts and true science is how we find ourselves witnessing the astonishing spectacle of most advanced economies wasting trillions of dollars and inflicting immense damage on themselves by trying to drive fossil fuels into obsolescence with windmills and solar panels. Worse is the constant drumbeat that the world is on its way to a hor­rible environmental disaster if we don’t get rid of fossil fuels.

The truth is that there are practical ways to deal with the environmental challenges we face, just as we’ve been doing for decades. Progress is severely hindered by this apocalyptic hysteria.

Actual free markets work, always. But most countries today pursue counter­ productive policies. A particular obstacle is that leaders don’t realize that sound money is a necessity for sustained, positive econ­omic growth. You never hear policymakers and central bankers talk about stable cur­rency values.

If President Biden’s misguided economic and environmental policies aren’t reversed, we—and the rest of the Free World—are doomed to low or no growth, with catastrophic conse­quences for our security.

In contrast, a new worldwide round of vigorous pros­perity would ameliorate today’s poisonous atmosphere. It would also help challenge the nihilistic ideologies that are so pervasive in academia and elsewhere. Popular reactions to these toxic notions are emerging and a benign environment would see them bloom.

Of course, better times alone won’t right the world’s ship. But they are a vital prerequisite.