Survival

How mankind and the modern age survived the 20th century will be a rich topic for future historians. Three books which I've read or am reading have surprised me greatly in showing the ignorance and foolishness of leaders in the West. The unmitigated evil of the three 20th century tyrants is well-known (Hitler, Stalin and Mao), but the evils of Mao is still not accepted by China as his face appears everywhere there. Perhaps the story is not yet finished.

Here are the three books:

1. Walter Lippman and the American Century by Ronald Steele;
2. Reflections on a Ravaged Century by Robert Conquest; and
3. Armed Truce by Hugh Thomas.

Imagining small modifications in the distribution of power and human ability can easily create scenarios of the physical destruction of civilization; or decline to mass disorder and turmoil to a new Dark Age; or world domination by totalitarian tyrants. Freedom and modernity did survive, barely, but at huge costs in its human capital.

Perhaps this is why society and culture seems to have stagnated since around the 1920s. With little stability, no "Golden Age" can arise.

Current world problems seem miniscule by comparison to the events of the 20th century. Compare Islamic terrorism to Stalin ... Hitler ... Mao. The ratio seems similar to comparing a wife-beater to the Mafia and its Murder, Inc. Both are evil but the level and scale of the evil is massively different. Even today's economic problems seem puny. Look at the data for the Great Depression or even the severe 1974 recession. Today's "adjustion" to high energy prices and correction of housing overbuilding and speculation seem puny, too. So far, at least, the team of Battleship Ben and Hammerin' Hank has performed well. Perhaps man has learned some lessons of history.

Word of the Day

"Obtuse" - adjective [$10] (compare to "acute")
Obtuse means lacking sharpness or quickness of sensibility; 2. not sharp, pointed or acute in form; blunt.
Sentences: (A) No one paying attention can doubt that George W. Bush is one of the most obtuse Presidents in US history. (B) Raising interest rates would be quite an obtuse weapon for controlling the price of energy, certainly causing more pain than gain.