Victor Davis Hanson has a new book out in which he argues that we may well be under threat of annihilation. I really like Hanson and find myself worrying about similar things, as does he, but with less historic examples supporting my various arguments. I do not follow his every word, but I do listen when I happen to run across one or another of his writings or interviews. I am not scholar enough to argue his various historical references, but I am able to follow his modern arguments. I don’t always agree with him. The most recent example being his argument that the recent missile exchange between Iran and Israel might have deterred Teheran in some way. I think that it did, indeed, once again, expose a huge technological deficit on Tehran’s part, but I see that as being quite obviously inadequate to deter. I, in fact, see it as being wishful thinking on Hanson’s part and that surprises me. If I understand the thrust of his new book, however, I am in total agreement and have been sputtering about it, less articulately, for several years.
It is my belief that we are engaged in total war with several societies that are more vigorous than are we, and the balance between us is shifting unfavorably, because we, you and I, insist on ignoring the external threat as well as our rapidly accelerating inability to deal with it. We are, instead, focused on comparatively minor internal issues and are letting those arguments tear our society to shreds, opening the door wider for our foreign antagonists. I identify the primary external threat as being Russia, China, Radical Islam, and population, listed in ascending order of complexity. I see the primary weakness, on our part, as being our inability to understand the threat posed, because we, you and I, refuse to discuss substantive problems, insisting instead that the only real problem is that the wrong tribe is in control of government and our vaunted democracy is under threat.
The result of this mindlessness, on our part, is a dithering America, a resurgent Russia, an emerging China, the spreading cancer of Radical Islam, and far too many people struggling for access to the limited amount of the materials necessary to sustain life. As to our democracy, it is already well on its way to oblivion, primarily because the American people are no longer willing to do their part, insisting instead on blindly following whichever tribe happens to be dominant in their political division of the country. Because our grandparents and parents gave us a vibrant economy and a dominant military position in the post Second World War world, we have grown used to being number one, and accept world leadership as our God given right. Look at us from outside of the imaginary lines that we draw around our small part of earth, and you see an America dominated by greed, cowardice, and wishful thinking. Our antagonists read us differently, depending on each of their own social/cultural/political peculiarities, but they increasingly share a commonality in their foreign policy objectives. A coalition of antagonists is growing more unified, while our parents and grandparents’ coalition of allies is disintegrating.
I have never used the term annihilation in any of my arguments, but it is indeed an apt description of what I see befalling us. Should we trigger an all out nuclear exchange with one or another of our emerging antagonists, it could conceivably be literal annihilation, but even if we manage to avoid that horror, I believe that it is increasingly probable that America will be culturally annihilated, unless we somehow manage to regroup. I contend that the emergence of nuclear weapons has fundamentally changed the challenge facing us and we give every indication that we, you and I, will continue to ignore that fact of life. Because we are a democracy, that means that we will continue to select leadership that wears the exact same blinders. Were I erudite enough, I might try to argue with Hanson that suicide was a more relevant danger than annihilation.
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