We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.
For those waiting for the moment in history when someone finally shouts “The British are coming!” — when the signal is unmistakable and the decision obvious — this is as close as it gets.
Not because anyone raised their voice.
But because someone who understands how the system actually works stopped pretending.
Mark Carney’s address at Davos was not a speech in the conventional sense. It was a declaration delivered calmly, to an audience that did not need it explained.
“Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.”
“Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty.”
Those are not rhetorical flourishes. They are operational conclusions.
If you watched the video and thought, Ho hum, you missed the point entirely.
What you just heard was a senior leader of a major Western nation tell the world’s institutional class — openly — that it is no longer true to pretend cooperation with the United States functions as advertised.
That power politics is now operating without constraint.
And that sovereignty, properly understood, is no longer about independence — it is about the ability to absorb coercion without collapse, and to pivot before pressure becomes fatal.
That is as close to “the British are coming” as modern systems ever allow.
If you didn’t hear it, that isn’t ambiguity.
That’s denial.
The first confession: the useful lie
This is devastating, because it’s said without apology:
“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false… that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient.”
Then the kicker:
“This fiction was useful.”
That sentence is a Molotov cocktail wrapped in civics language.
The second confession: we’re getting squeezed
These lines are the core of the Paul Revere signal:
“Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”
This isn’t theory.
It’s a description of how pressure is already being applied.
Then:
“You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
That’s the line people should be losing sleep over.
The final confession: the United States is no longer a stabilizing leader — it is a price-setting hegemon
This is the sentence that stopped me dead in my tracks. Carney doesn’t say “the United States,” but he makes it very clear:
“Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.”
Why this matters:
It assumes monetization is already happening.
It assumes resentment is already building.
It implies rupture is baked in, not optional.
Then he follows with the inevitable response:
“Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty.”
Translation: Everyone in that room is already planning their exits — quietly.
The final confession: this is the way forward
This is where everyone needed to take a pause and let it sink in. Carney says explicitly, and receives nothing but agreement in the room, that this is the way forward:
“Sovereignty… will increasingly be anchored in the ability to withstand pressure.”
Not independence.
Not autonomy.
Pressure tolerance.
That’s the new metric.
Then he drives it home:
“When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.”
That sentence alone dismantles over 40 years of liberal internationalist assumptions.
Why? Because…
This:
“If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
Then the brutal clarification:
“This is not sovereignty. It’s the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”
That line should make any reader who relies on assumptions deeply uncomfortable.
The instruction to stop pretending (Havel made operational)
This is the line that should be emblazoned into your skull:
“Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.”
And then:
“Stop invoking the rules-based international order as though it still functions as advertised.”
That’s not criticism.
That’s permission.
When elites stop pretending publicly, they stopped privately a long time ago.
The only remaining question is who figures that out early — and who keeps the sign in the window until it shatters.
No call to action.
No exhortation.
Just inevitability.
