The Peace Racket
This is Steven Petrick Posting.
First, an apology that there was no post yesterday. I fear that enough was going on that it just slipped my mind that I had not pushed Eric and Mike out of the way so I could use the one computer in the office that will allow me to post blogs when I headed home.
The fault is mine.
As to today's post. I got an interesting E-mail that about "the peace racket". Their rallying cry is that "If you would have peace, prepare for peace". Sounds like a nice idea, and they are diligently at work to try to convince people to give it a try.
Makes me wonder if they lock their doors at night. After all: "If you would be safe from being robbed, then act like you will not be robbed" is exactly the same thing as "If you would have peace, prepare for peace."
People who have these ideas believe themselves geniuses and that they have a fundamental understanding of what people are really like. They tend not to realize that they have their comfortable lives by the luck of the draw (they were born in countries that have a rule of law rather than a rule of the strongman).
They live in a world of dichotomy. They believe fervently that all that is necessary to end war is to go to those who would wage it and have an open and heartfelt conversation, because obviously the people who would wage war are just like them but misunderstood. Everything can be settled by a good talk and reasoned compromise.
The dichotomy? Well, while they believe that everyone else obviously thinks like them at bottom and thus talking with racist mass murders (like the rulers of Sudan) would get them to stop, talking to their fellow citizen who looks at them like they are crazy and not living in the real world is because their fellow citizen does not think like they do.
They want it both ways . . . no, they do not want it both ways, they actually hold the two competing thoughts simultaneously and do not see the dichotomy for what it is: they are self-deluded.
Not all of them are self-deluded, of course. Some of them simply have a personal agenda to see the success of a particular political view and the destruction of things they hate and are willing to use this subterfuge to accomplish it.
If you would have peace, prepare for war is the way life works. You want to avoid being robbed? Then you have a security system for your home, you lock your car, you try to stay where there is light, and you do not wander down dark alleys, and you try to remain alert to your surroundings. You have prepared yourself not to be robbed by taking proactive steps to avoid being robbed.
But in neither case does the threat go away. If you are prepared for war, your enemy may never attack you openly because he would be hurt. If your nation is not, then it is an easy mark to be mugged and robbed, just as you would be if you are not prepared to not be robbed.
First, an apology that there was no post yesterday. I fear that enough was going on that it just slipped my mind that I had not pushed Eric and Mike out of the way so I could use the one computer in the office that will allow me to post blogs when I headed home.
The fault is mine.
As to today's post. I got an interesting E-mail that about "the peace racket". Their rallying cry is that "If you would have peace, prepare for peace". Sounds like a nice idea, and they are diligently at work to try to convince people to give it a try.
Makes me wonder if they lock their doors at night. After all: "If you would be safe from being robbed, then act like you will not be robbed" is exactly the same thing as "If you would have peace, prepare for peace."
People who have these ideas believe themselves geniuses and that they have a fundamental understanding of what people are really like. They tend not to realize that they have their comfortable lives by the luck of the draw (they were born in countries that have a rule of law rather than a rule of the strongman).
They live in a world of dichotomy. They believe fervently that all that is necessary to end war is to go to those who would wage it and have an open and heartfelt conversation, because obviously the people who would wage war are just like them but misunderstood. Everything can be settled by a good talk and reasoned compromise.
The dichotomy? Well, while they believe that everyone else obviously thinks like them at bottom and thus talking with racist mass murders (like the rulers of Sudan) would get them to stop, talking to their fellow citizen who looks at them like they are crazy and not living in the real world is because their fellow citizen does not think like they do.
They want it both ways . . . no, they do not want it both ways, they actually hold the two competing thoughts simultaneously and do not see the dichotomy for what it is: they are self-deluded.
Not all of them are self-deluded, of course. Some of them simply have a personal agenda to see the success of a particular political view and the destruction of things they hate and are willing to use this subterfuge to accomplish it.
If you would have peace, prepare for war is the way life works. You want to avoid being robbed? Then you have a security system for your home, you lock your car, you try to stay where there is light, and you do not wander down dark alleys, and you try to remain alert to your surroundings. You have prepared yourself not to be robbed by taking proactive steps to avoid being robbed.
But in neither case does the threat go away. If you are prepared for war, your enemy may never attack you openly because he would be hurt. If your nation is not, then it is an easy mark to be mugged and robbed, just as you would be if you are not prepared to not be robbed.
posted by Federation Commander at 4:55 PM
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