Many people might be wondering if the modern crisis will make important improvements to American policies. For instance, will Americans decide that spending a trillion dollars per year on intelligence agencies, foreign wars, and toys for the Pentagon is something we just can't afford any more, and that we need to reallocate that money elsewhere.
I used to think so. But maybe that is just wishful thinking.
I am rereading Madame de Stael's "Considerations of the Principal Events of the French Revolution." She was well-placed to know some of the famous actors of the Revolution, and eye-witnessed important events in it. And a woman author has a tendency to emphasize different things than the usual male historian.
She quotes an English politician who criticized Bonaparte:
Was that true with the mob in ancient Rome? Their lives were miserable and hopeless most of the time, except when they were watching 'the games' and getting free bread from the State. But when they heard news of their mighty Imperator, out on the frontier, thrashing barbarians, they felt proud of being a Roman; and that meant they caused less trouble for their rulers.
Similarly, successes before World War II and in the first year or two of the war, might have had the same effect on average Germans.
It is beneficial to read history to change your perspectives with modern times. That doesn't you are getting so seduced by analogies that you think they prove or predict something.
I am not thinking of our elderly, reality-TV president, but of what might happen to the Imperium of Washington DC, as a whole.
I used to think so. But maybe that is just wishful thinking.
I am rereading Madame de Stael's "Considerations of the Principal Events of the French Revolution." She was well-placed to know some of the famous actors of the Revolution, and eye-witnessed important events in it. And a woman author has a tendency to emphasize different things than the usual male historian.
She quotes an English politician who criticized Bonaparte:
He must promise to make them the masters of the world, that they may consent to be his slaves.
Was that true with the mob in ancient Rome? Their lives were miserable and hopeless most of the time, except when they were watching 'the games' and getting free bread from the State. But when they heard news of their mighty Imperator, out on the frontier, thrashing barbarians, they felt proud of being a Roman; and that meant they caused less trouble for their rulers.
Similarly, successes before World War II and in the first year or two of the war, might have had the same effect on average Germans.
It is beneficial to read history to change your perspectives with modern times. That doesn't you are getting so seduced by analogies that you think they prove or predict something.
I am not thinking of our elderly, reality-TV president, but of what might happen to the Imperium of Washington DC, as a whole.
Comments
Chris
Google H. R. McMasters, and read the article in the Atlantic. Very interesting reading.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/05/mcmaster-china-strategy/609088/