Following an old tradition, the political analysts tend to exaggerate the role of economic and resource factors, which entail prognostication errors. This paper shows that in most historical cases, mental contents, conditions and fluctuation in mass moods, ambitions, talents of authoritative leaders and other “subjective’ factors of the kind determine social events more substantially than any outside factors. Economic and political spheres intersect during quiet phases and far diverge as crisis phases approach. In addition, the specific weight of mental phenomena (...) in system dependencies has been growing throughout human history, so that in the 21st century, it is the evolution in worldviews, values and meanings that ultimately determines the viability of our planetary civilization. (shrink)