Brilliant Ideas That Will Never Work: total war to save the world

Think about World War II. Not the war part, what was happening at home. Everyone and everything was completely mobilized towards the goal of winning the war. Food and clothing and fuel were rationed. Recycling was invented so raw materials wouldn't go to waste. Geeky students and posh housewives went to work on farms and in munitions factories. Barriers were broken down, assumptions were challenged, there was constant innovation, and eventually they achieved their goal.

So let's do it again. Not the war part - it's so frightfully noisy! - but the complete mobilization of all society's resources to some greater goal for the good of the world, like ending hunger or weaning ourselves from fossil fuels, for example.

The advantage of the total war model is that your role is handed to you, you don't have to work out the right decisions for yourself and you'd have to go to a good deal of trouble to make the wrong decisions. You get your ration cards, and that provides you with your fair share of food. You go to the war office and say "Hello, I'd like a job," and they send you to the aircraft factor and teach you how to make airplanes. You just do what you're told and sacrifice for a bit.

For this to work, they'd need a tangible goal and a carefully detailed, workable plan for how to get there. To get society to buy in, the goal should be achievable within a relatively short period of time - say between six months and two years - with the promise that all rationing and restrictions will be lifted as soon as the goal is achieved. The goal should also be such that its positive effects will be felt for a long time afterwards. Under any rationing or restrictions, everyone should still be adequately fed and clothed and sheltered. Small pleasures like coffee and wine and cigarettes should still be somewhat available, even if they are not as abundant as they were before. Jobs that work towards achieving the goal should be available for the asking, and the jobs should provide full training (just like then-Princess Elizabeth - and other posh girls like her I assume - was trained to be a mechanic during WWII rather than being told "Sorry, you can't be a mechanic because you don't know how to be a mechanic.") The internet must continue to exist just as movies continued to be made during WWII. The sacrifices required must be feasible, productive, well-thought out and temporary, ultimately achieving a goal that will bring about greater good in the long term.

But people will never go for it.