Francis Berger
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Liberalism Has Prevented World War III

2/25/2020

7 Comments

 
I consider myself somewhat of an expert in the fine art of crafting lame arguments. Sure, people trip over lines of reasoning all the time, but few do it with the same energy, verve, and gusto I tend to display when I confuse a contention, piss all over a premise, or stumble through a syllogism. Yes, when it comes to garbling argumentation, I got skills.

Yet in the vast cosmos of asinine assertions, I remain an amateur. It pains me to admit it, but its true. Despite my immense talent for confounding a claim, and despite my dogged determination to perplex a point, I  must accept that when it comes to lame arguments, I will never, ever be in the same league as the pros out there. As good as I am, try as I might, I will never succeed in being as baffling, befuddling, and bewildering as those who play in the big leagues.

I simply lack the 'it' factor that would propel me to the same heights as those geniuses. Like the ones who believe liberalism is the sole reason the West has not experienced a world war since 1945. These mountains of the mind are quick to point out that nationalism caused World War One, that a combination of nationalism and fascism were to blame for World War Two, and that the blue skies since 1945 are wholly the result of liberalism - a progressive liberalism that is now being threatened by rising nationalism. A menacing nationalism that seeks to end the noble liberal project of erasing all borders and nations so that we can all finally hold hands and sing John Lennon's "Imagine" as we live as one. 

You see how good that is? It's a whole other level.

As for me, I just can't shake the idea that the development of the atomic bomb, and, subsequently nuclear weapons, has probably acted as more of a deterrence than liberalism has. 

But hey, what do I know?  
7 Comments
bruce charlton
2/26/2020 10:09:16

Well, there were the wars - although on the face of it, it was globalism rather than nationalism that caused them. And there was that newer thing: internal mass extermination of national citizens by atheistic socialistic regimes (especially in USSR, China and Germany, but also elsewhere) on a scale that dwarfed the wars.

But yes, the nuclear weapons did in fact seem to deter and prevent direct superpower wars, presumably by some version of mutually assured destruction - despite that this was (And Still Is) regarded as an *obviously* dumb and insane idea by all the opinion formers in the intellectual classes.

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Francis Berger
2/26/2020 11:03:10

@ Bruce - Yes, but the logic exhibited by those who maintain that liberalism, and only liberalism, has prevented the outbreak of WWIII, those other 'skirmishes' and 'incidents' don't really matter all that much. And besides, many of them were for 'good' reasons.

I'm no fan of nuclear weapons, but I am almost certain that without them, liberalism alone would have been utterly powerless to prevent the outbreak of another or several superpower/global war(s). And the first potential megawar after WWII could have started as early as the 1950s by my estimation.

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bruce charlton
2/26/2020 12:48:47

"And the first potential megawar after WWII could have started as early as the 1950s by my estimation. " I tend to agree - the Berlin airlift crisis or the Korean War might have been the trigger - or the Hungarian suppression. As I recall - tactical (battlefield) nukes were used in the Vietnam war by the US - but it did not escalate.

Craig Davis
2/26/2020 13:50:17

So many flaws, and yet we still love you, Francis. (Insert appropriate emoticon here)

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Francis Berger
2/26/2020 16:12:00

@ Craig - If I were a superhero, my name would be Flawman!

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Francis Berger
2/26/2020 16:19:27

@ Bruce - Some of the cold war conflicts and proxy wars were rather prolonged and bloody. I can only imagine how they might have escalated had the nuclear deterrent not existed. The same dynamics are still at play today.

As for the Hungarian suppression, it's rather tragic that West, led by the US, promised to support the Hungarians in their revolt. Some historians claim the West actually goaded the Hungarians on. I'm not so sure about that myself, but one thing is certain, when the Soviet tanks rolled in, the West was nowhere to be seen, which is understandable to a certain degree. The risk of nuclear war was probably too great.

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Bookslinger
2/27/2020 00:00:54

Communism has already killed more than all who died in WWII.

https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/MURDER.HTM

Frank, if you don't memorize that url (I never do), you can find it easily by searching on "democide." So that's the word I remember to get there.

top killers of the 20th century:
#1 - Mao Ze Dong.
#2 - Stalin.
#3 - Hitler.

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