{"id":1670,"date":"2023-03-16T13:09:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T20:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/?p=1670"},"modified":"2023-03-16T13:09:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T20:09:02","slug":"recurring-world-visions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/recurring-world-visions\/","title":{"rendered":"Recurring World Visions"},"content":{"rendered":"

On September 10<\/span>th<\/span>, 1938, Hermann Goering gave a bellicose speech at the Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally where he exclaimed \u201cThis miserable pygmy race (the Czechs) is oppressing a cultured people (the Sudeten Germans), and behind it is Moscow and the eternal mask of the Jew devil.\u201d\u00b9<\/span>\u00a0Applying Goering\u2019s speech before the October 1 invasion of Czechoslovakia to the preamble of Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine is as simple as replacing the \u201cCzechs\u201d with alleged Ukrainian Nazis, \u201cthe Sudeten Germans\u201d with Russian speaking Ukrainians, \u201cMoscow,\u201d ironically, with the United States, and the \u201cJew devil\u201d with Ukrainian’s current President. And so, we can recognize the similarity of Putin\u2019s unprovoked war against Ukraine with Hitler\u2019s invasion of Czechoslovakia: specifically, that the Ukrainian \u201cpygmy race\u201d of alleged Nazis who oppress Russians (the superior race) are backed by the United States and led by Zelensky, the \u201cJew devil.\u201d This ironic parallelism becomes even more relevant when the strategic location of the Sudeten Germans is considered. It bordered Germany and provided the Czechs with the natural mountain defenses of Bohemia and its defensive fortifications against a Third Reich invasion. In a similar fashion, Ukraine is Eastern Europe\u2019s borderline protection against Putin\u2019s imperial ambitions. Like Hitler, and Napolean before him, Putin is obsessed with creating a great empire, his Eurasia, by extending his reign from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Perhaps not incidentally, he would then match America both in dominion\u2014 \u201cfrom sea to shining sea\u201d\u2014and nuclear power. (If only Trump had been reelected, as Putin openly wished, together they could have intimidated the world. As a result, Putin would have had no need to align with China, a potentially greater threat on Russia\u2019s border than Europe.)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The craven imperial ambitions of Machiavellian autocrats or tribal leaders are the recurring world visions witnessed throughout human history. It is not just their recent 20<\/span>th<\/span> and 21<\/span>st<\/span> century versions. From the ancient Pandiyan and Byzantine empires to the more recent Holy Roman and Russian empires, humans have often subjugated others as sub-humans, killing them or sometimes reducing them to slavery. These last-named empires ended during the rise of the 19<\/span>th<\/span> century democracies of the United States and the French Republic. The nationalist and imperialist ambitions of rogue states, however, did not end. Instead, they were thwarted by democratic states, resulting in the two world wars of the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century. But the recurring vision of empire and the dominance of allegedly superior humans persist\u2014along with its inhuman detritus of subservient vassals, slaves, and an impoverished proletariat. That vision, however, runs aground before the democratic concept that all humans are equal at birth and possessed of certain human rights including the opportunity to live the life they choose. Hence the inevitable struggle between democracies and autocracies persists into the 21<\/span>st<\/span> century.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Democracies, as any elementary school child should know, represent an anomaly in the 315,000-year history of Homo Sapiens. With due respect for the short-lived Athenian experiment, America\u2019s 235-year-old democracy is the longest surviving democracy. And yet it is a mere blip in the history of our kind. In fact, democracy is still in its incubation stage, not yet even an adolescent in the sweep of history. At its core, America subsists as a Constitutionally law-based government where free and fair elections allow citizens to choose their representatives and the policies that serve their general welfare. But from its birth it has suffered growing pains. There have been contested elections, starting with President Jefferson, our third President, and persisting to the present day with President Biden. And, of course, there was the Civil War, with which some present-day reactionaries seem aligned. Then, as now, the same challenges persist: should all citizens be treated equally and have the same rights of citizenship? Race and gender biases hotly contest this question. Similarly debated are what freedoms and opportunities should be granted universally to everybody. In the past, those who harbor these opposing reactions have created inhuman conditions such as slavery, gender inequality, disenfranchisement, voter suppression, and impoverished inner cities where opportunity is supplanted with hopelessness. America has grappled with these reactionaries throughout its history, even as these words are being written.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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As in the antebellum South, these reactionaries have feared the loss of white supremacy, male dominance, and wealth privilege. They believe that white men must control the wheels of power, else civilization as we have always experienced it will perish. Until that fear is understood and assuaged, humankind will continue to subsist amidst bouts of imperialistic wars and insurrections or revolutions. Western civilization does have an antidote for this \u201csickness unto death,\u201d that is, the fear of relating to the humanity in others and of discovering our shared humanity. Religious principles, as exemplified by \u201clove thy neighbor as thyself,\u201d are reiterated in the great religions of human history. And our philosophers, artists, and cultural leaders often exemplify how to overcome the fear of losing status or power by becoming who you already are: a coequal member of a shared humanity. Once you can believe and muster the courage to \u201cdo onto others as you would have them do onto you,\u201d you find in yourself that power you foolishly sought by dominating others. Instead, you gain power from relating to others as equals\u2014<\/span>Ich und Du<\/span><\/i>.\u00b2<\/span>\u00a0Our common humanity reveals itself when we can identify with a fellow human being\u2014when we indeed feel the import of \u201cI am you.\u201d How else should we interpret those democratic ideals by which we affirm ourselves equal by merely being born human and committed\u2014each of us together\u2014to form that fully human community, which is our\u00a0more perfect union?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The recurring world visions of humanity were always and universally exclusive, that is, only for the privileged, until America\u2019s founding fathers defined the ideal of an all-inclusive society. But that ideal conflicts with human history\u2014those recurring world visions\u2014and the competing struggle for dominance, to include the class struggles defined by Communism and the ever-present threat of autocratic suppression. Today, American democracy is under siege by the same forces that have always defined human society, by distinguishing the \u201chaves and have-nots,\u201d the privileged and the subservient or \u201cunclean classes,\u201d the white and non-whites, the orthodox and the libertarian\/libertine, and so on. Within the last century, America has fought World Wars of liberation from totalitarian regimes, welcomed immigrates from \u201cancient lands . . . (and) storied pomp . . . yearning to breathe free,\u201d\u00b3<\/span> granted women the right to vote, own property, and earn fair wages equal to men, and finally extended voting and civic rights to its suppressed racial minorities. But this inclusive narrative is now and has always been at odds with the ever-prevailing narrative whereby only the socially\/economically privileged or the politically self-anointed leader\/savior must suppress those \u201cnot like us,\u201d dominate all institutions of state and finance, and wield unchecked power. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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If democracy is the only answer to the recurring vision of world dominance and autocratic governance, how can it be protected, without another world war? First, we must admit the fateful import of another world war: faced with the interminable destruction of modern warfare, escalation to nuclear war could be considered the only reasonable endpoint\u2014as witnessed by Putin\u2019s oft repeated nuclear threats. In other words, it becomes inevitable. Democracy\u2019s survival, then, becomes an existential necessity. Therefore, our survival demands we rededicate ourselves to our democratic ideals, reform our government wherever it conflicts with those ideals, defeat at the polls whomever candidates are misaligned with those ideals, and assure reactionaries and insurrectionists are held accountable for their disloyal\/traitorous actions and demagoguery. Our current President has identified the existential struggle of our time as that between democracy and autocracy. He is not overstating the gauntlet before us all.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A previous blog (reference \u201cDemocracy and the Just Society<\/a>\u201d) addressed the intersection between democracy and morality. Both share an arresting antecedent: we cannot support what we think is good in a democracy if we do not believe that democracy is good. But many moral philosophers have argued further that we cannot know what goodness is without becoming good. Therefore, being a good citizen in a democracy requires more than a stated preference for democracy over autocracy\u2014though many followers of Donald Trump fail even that low hurdle. Rather, we must <\/span>become <\/span><\/i>good citizens in a democracy. Most of us recognize that voting in democratic elections is a prerequisite for any democracy. But our vote must be an <\/span>informed <\/span><\/i>vote. As a citizen in a democracy, <\/span>we <\/span><\/i>are responsible for the general welfare and the provision of all the rights guaranteed to us in our Constitution. Our first President warned us in his \u201cFarewell Address\u201d that \u201cunprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.\u201d That \u201cenablement\u201d can only be the result of a misinformed electorate. Unfortunately, many Americans have fallen prey to the \u201cbig lie\u201d invented by Donald Trump, believed and circulated by his sycophant partisans, and promoted by the propagandized \u201creporting\u201d of certain Fox news personalities and subversive legislators. If democracy, however, is defined as \u201cpeople rule,\u201d as the Greek derivative of \u201cdemocracy\u201d implies, then it essentially and definitively depends upon its citizens\u2019 belief in the goodness of democracy and their dedication to assure its integrity. If the logic expressed here is understood and accepted, then any citizen in a democracy who considers him\/herself a patriot\u2014that is, a person who loves his\/her country\u2014must know, believe, live, and support the principles of democracy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Many philosophers, historians, and sociologists have made the case for a democratically inspired self-government. But unfortunately, the ideal of democracy can never be realized unless it is defined and implemented in practice. Its proponents must define what it means for themselves, as our American founding fathers did in drafting and winning ratification of the American Constitution. But sustaining the democracy they thereby founded, unfortunately, rests not just with them, but with all the Americans who succeeded them, including present day Americans. Surely, as my readers can attest, this blog has addressed issues with equality in the light of racial, gender, and economic disparities. In fact, present day Americans confront many threats to their Constitutional rights, to include the right to life threatened by incidents of police violence and the legal possession of lethal military weapons. Also threatened are our personal liberties and opportunities that are reduced by uneven court sentencing, by unnecessary or violent policing, by job\/education unavailability, and by racial and sexual biases. Those biases can and do negatively affect asylum seekers, pregnant women (reference, \u201cThe Supreme Court: A Bulwark of our Liberty<\/a>\u201d), uneven law enforcement, and available job\/education opportunities. And they can generate propagandized journalism, as we have witnessed in recent suits and\/or indictments against Fox News and one infamous TV huckster. Obviously, democracy presents an ongoing challenge; and America remains, as always, a work in progress.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However far humankind may search for peace and for liberty and justice for all, the pendulum of history swings back to this recurring world vision of dominance by the few\u2014or the one\u2014over the many. The United Nations Charter that commits nations to honor the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other nations is violated by a generation born after the World Wars of the 20<\/span>th<\/span> century. Not only is history forgotten, but even the recent experience of our grandparents. The allied nations that defeated Hitler and are represented on the UN Security Council can no longer preserve the UN Charter that guarantees the territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations, mainly because of one man. Russia is not only a signatory of that Charter but sits on that Security Council as a key member dedicated to assuring the sovereignty of nations. The main offender here is its President, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, a dictator who will order a genocidal war to realize his world vision of dominance over neighboring countries. When will we all unite\u2014including all our national leaders\u2014to end this recurring world vision of such men and their hateful ideology that has threatened humanity throughout its history? If not now, when? And will we have another opportunity to do so?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

_____________________________________<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1 <\/span>William L. Shirer, \u201cThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,\u201d p. 383.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2<\/span> A reference to Martin Buber\u2019s treatise, \u201cI and Thou.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3<\/span> A reference to \u201cThe New Colossus,\u201d otherwise known as the Statue of Liberty.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 10th, 1938, Hermann Goering gave a bellicose speech at the Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally where he exclaimed \u201cThis miserable pygmy race (the Czechs) is oppressing a cultured people (the Sudeten Germans), and behind it is Moscow and the eternal mask of the Jew devil.\u201d\u00b9\u00a0Applying Goering\u2019s speech before the October 1 invasion of Czechoslovakia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domesticissues","category-foreignpolicy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3UqUK-qW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1671,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions\/1671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aculpableinnocence.com\/home5\/aculpabl\/anthony_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}