- Status
Responding to a 21st-Century situation with a 19th-Century ( at the absolute latest ) strategy...
Then:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GunboatDiplomacy
Now:
Then:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GunboatDiplomacy
Now:
Then:
Boswell tells us that Samuel Johnson made the famous pronouncement that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" on the evening of April 7, 1775.
Now:
http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/24/trumps-national-day-patriotic-creepy/
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-01798.pdf
Boswell tells us that Samuel Johnson made the famous pronouncement that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" on the evening of April 7, 1775.
Now:
http://thefederalist.com/2017/01/24/trumps-national-day-patriotic-creepy/
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-01798.pdf
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"THOSE who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it. The event of yesterday was one of those kind of alarms which is just sufficient to rouse us to duty, without being of consequence enough to depress our fortitude. It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.
Look back at the events of last winter and the present year, there you will find that the enemy's successes always contributed to reduce them. What they have gained in ground, they paid so dearly for in numbers, that their victories have in the end amounted to defeats. We have always been masters at the last push, and always shall be while we do our duty. "
Thomas Paine - The American Crisis: PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 12, 1777
Sounds pretty relevant today, 240 years later. The experiment continues...
Look back at the events of last winter and the present year, there you will find that the enemy's successes always contributed to reduce them. What they have gained in ground, they paid so dearly for in numbers, that their victories have in the end amounted to defeats. We have always been masters at the last push, and always shall be while we do our duty. "
Thomas Paine - The American Crisis: PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 12, 1777
Sounds pretty relevant today, 240 years later. The experiment continues...
Then:
We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
“Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” Goering shrugged. “Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”
“There is one difference,” I pointed out. “In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”
“Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
- Hermann Goering ( as related by Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking American intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail. Gilbert kept a journal of his observations of the proceedings and his conversations with the prisoners, which he later published in the book Nuremberg Diary. )
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.asp
Now:
Inevitable result in 21st-Century America:
We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
“Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” Goering shrugged. “Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.”
“There is one difference,” I pointed out. “In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”
“Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
- Hermann Goering ( as related by Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking American intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail. Gilbert kept a journal of his observations of the proceedings and his conversations with the prisoners, which he later published in the book Nuremberg Diary. )
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.asp
Now:
Inevitable result in 21st-Century America:
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