The world has always been an unstable place. Might makes right has predominated almost every disagreement from children fighting over who gets to play with one toy or have the first bite at the apple to international disputes called wars. Sometimes the winner gets access to more land, or riches, usually the winner got the ashes. For millennia wars were tribal and limited in scope. Tribe A might annihilate tribe B, but other tribes we not affected. Tribes grew into clans then nations and empires. Wars became asymmetric. Powerful empires attacked villages; each village lost. The loser lost life, liberty, property and culture; the empire got more powerful.
Reparations were invented by the winners. On the pretense that the loser had somehow done something that made the war inevitable (Ukraine was somehow a threat to Russia) Therefore, the winner was entitled to compensation. Reparations were often so severe that the loser could never recover their dignity. After Rome conquered Carthage, they legendarily sowed the ground with salt so that nothing could ever grow there. Remember that in Rome salt was also used for money. Soldiers were paid with a 12-inch, 12-ounce bar of salt, 12 uncia. Losers were often taken away in chains and put to work, literally in the salt mines, or some other form of hard labor punishment, slavery. Commonly men were killed, mutilated or chained so they could never take up arms against the new masters. Women were abused; children were indoctrinated.
World War II is considered the direct result of the reparations demanded by the victors of World War I. Germany was devastated and could not recover. Inflation rampaged. German industry was forbidden to produce anything of military value. BMW for example instead of building aircraft engines, was relegated to producing farm implements like wheel-barrows. The Nazis used the resentment to build a political base.
After WWII the U.S. proposed a unique strategy. Instead of pillaging the losers the Marshall Plan rebuilt all the damaged nations. A radical departure from European history of one war after another, often only distinguished by their duration, seven years, 30 years, 100 years. That was just between England and France. Many of those wars were family affairs the monarchs were cousins, but the peasants did the dying. The MacArthur plan did the same for Asia. Many of America’s adversaries France, England, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Japan have been made our allies. Only the Stalinist USSR deviated. They surmise they alone defeated Hitler.
This new world order based on cooperation and regulated competition has helped hold the peace for seventy years. Poverty, crime violence and corruption have decreased. But something went terribly wrong recently. Why? Everyone has a theory: Liberals, conservatives, progressives, Benghazi, Putin, Hunter Biden, abortion, Bitcoin, mass shootings, BLM, defund the police, Facebook, Twitter. Let’s just agree it’s complicated.
There is a clear breakdown between what the people say they want and what the government is offering. Survey after survey indicates the vast majority of the population agree that abortion should be an option around the first trimester of a pregnancy, for a number of reasons, but legislatures in about half the states are competing to see who can pass the most absurd, anti-abortion legislation even though abortion is a right protected since Roe v. Wade. A majority of the population agree we need better legal means to keep firearms and other weapons out of the hands of domestic terrorists, yet no states pass comprehensive laws. They don’t even enforce many laws we have. There is no doubt that masks and vaccination can reduce the spread and effect of COVID, yet many so-called leaders back the anti-vax, anti-mask movement, which increases mortality among their voters. A strange strategy. The measures most people took to avoid COVID correlated with a huge decline in flu. An armed mob invaded the U.S. Capitol yet some so-called leaders deny it was other than a normal day.
Every one is looking for a simple answer, but there isn’t one. Outlawing something does not make it cease to exist. What we need to do is increase education and tolerance but that takes time in an impatient world accustomed to the instant gratification of a TV sitcom.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com