When will the West call for the wooden badger?

In peace, we like people and policies that seem easy (and inexpensive) and really hope that we don’t have to be prepared for the worse, because that is sad to think about. No, we need to be comfortable and look peaceful so people (we for some reason value) will say nice things about us and our priorities.

Of course, reality always regresses to the mean. War is a constant in our species. Always has been. Always will be. The question, as always, is which society will gain when the next war comes? Will it be a society that a Westerner would call “progressive,” “liberal,” or based on “individual liberty,” or will it be some autocratic force who will bring another period of darkness – the boot smashing the face etc.

Those who know their history, and what is needed to keep the global order from regression in to barbarity, need to speak up more. They need to support each other more. They need not be cowed. Care not what names you are called. Be not bothered the invitations you do not receive. They need to be open in their argument – clear in their purpose.

Once again, we have a small war (in 2011) warning us about a critical vulnerability. We now have a medium war (in 2022) yelling a little louder about this critical vulnerability.

[We started this myopia with the “peace dividend” demands in the early 1990s and the Francis Fukuyama argument about “the end of history.” It has stubbornly persisted ever since, even in the face of Russian aggression in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014. I’m not optimistic that people have figured it out even in this war, either. — Ed]