Can we learn from history? Imagine a Putin-like crocodile in murky waters, waiting for its window of opportunity to snatch a juicy wildebeest from the herd.
If it were me, I’d pick my moment to strike, just like he did when he sent his army to conquer Ukraine in (what he hoped would be) a quick Blitzkrieg.
In a western fantasy bubble
Let’s be honest. From the outside, Western democracies must have looked weaker than ever. A chaotic, almost circus-like political game was the norm – especially in the US and UK. Public opinion was almost entirely preoccupied with debates on issues such as gender identity, the impact of vaccines, structural racism, animal rights, gun rights, sexual harassment, etc.
Our society was busy erasing history by rewriting classical literature and tearing down statues that reminded us of a distant past. We had endless discussions about whether or not it was offensive to sell ordinary pigskin colored patches as ‘skin colored’.
The problem is certainly not that these topics are unimportant. Of course they are important! The problem is that – in our eagerness to become the most morally advanced civilization in human history – we forgot unpleasant realities outside our Western fantasy bubble.
It was as if a pink veil of fairy dust clouded our collective judgment.
Not only did we ignore, but we condemned the necessity of sufficient military strength to meet the real challenges to our idea of eternal peace, love and harmony. I am of course thinking of challenges like rogue states, Russian dictators invading their neighboring countries.
We are a moral superpower!
In Sweden, where I live, the politicians got to the point where they announced that they were actively working to make Sweden a “moral superpower”. At the same time, they were dismantling and scrapping most of our military. They obviously believed in eternal peace.
They must have believed that any future conflict could be resolved using a feminist approach of love, sense and dialogue. It’s an undeniably beautiful thought, but we all got a pretty loud wake-up call in February.
It is a somewhat cynical fact that a Patriot missile is far more effective at stopping a Russian cruise missile from leveling a Ukrainian playground than all the best intentions in the world.
Sleep during history lessons
Did we forget history lessons because very few of us remember the harsh realities of war? I sound like a grumpy old white man (and I am), but I can’t recall any examples of significant warlords with world-conquering ambitions being stopped by dialogue.
My Danish grandparents (may they rest in peace) lived through the Second World War. They fought every day for five years to get through the raw deal. People of their generation risked their lives to save Danish Jews from certain death at the hands of the (actual) Nazis. Others were killed in the struggle against oppression.
These days we whine about butter prices. Many among us are advocating that we let the Russian invaders keep captured ground in the hope that they will refrain from escalating the war (and thereby driving up butter prices). These people actually recommend that we appease the crocodile by throwing an entire nation into its wide open jaws.
I can only assume that my grandparents are spinning in their graves and would be horrified to see how soft and naive we have become. Are humans really capable of learning from the past, or are we doomed to repeat it forever?
1864, 1940, 2022…
By this point in history, we should have realized that evil forces are always lurking in the muddy waters, ready to strike at an opportune moment for a juicy reward. But we have failed miserably. We were unprepared. And now we are in it up to our necks. Again.
Humans may only be able to truly learn when we ourselves are burned and carry the scars on our bodies and minds for the rest of our days. If so, we need a reminder to stay alert every 75 years or so.
It’s depressing, but burning our own fingers may be the only true history lesson we can fully understand. If Putin had waited another 10-15 years, we would probably have softened so much that we would not have resisted the crocodile at all.
Source: The Nordic Page