Fragile
Many years ago, my wife and I attended a fundraiser for Tom Campbell, who was running for a Senate seat in California. Tom was the smartest, best informed and most public spirited politician I’ve ever met. He served in the House and ran for both the senate and the office of governor at various times. The fact that California voters did not see fit to elect him to either office is a tragedy.
At the conclusion of the dinner, George Shultz was asked to address the group. He gave us 20 or so minutes of extemporaneous wisdom. His topic was the thin veneer of civilization and the fragility thereof. I will long remember his skill as a public speaker and the importance of the point he set about making.
That memory came rushing back as I read a book given to me by a friend — The Jungle Grows Back by Robert Kagan. The thesis of this extended essay is that the world has enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity for the last 70 years because the United States of America designed and led a coalition of democratic countries and created an architecture of trade and finance that allowed the world to avoid major military and commercial confrontation.
While acknowledging that many of our efforts were not wholly successful, and some of our efforts were abysmal failures, the author contends that our promotion of democratic ideals and free trade have created prosperity. The sacrifices we made as the world’s policeman have allowed most of the world’s nations to focus on prosperity instead of military preparedness. Pax Americana was real.
The gigantic red flag Kagan raises is that we and the world are failing to appreciate our good fortune and slipping back into the traditional human condition. We are failing to promote democratic ideals. Advocates on the left and right are rejecting our role as a peacekeeper. We have forgotten the lesson of the two world wars. Authoritarianism is on the rise and is being seriously promoted by China as the wave of the future. The Russians are actively attacking democracy. The war of all against all might easily return. The thin veneer of civilization is being breached. Think about that the next time you enter a polling place or make a contribution to an office seeker. Think about that if you work for a business that operates internationally. Think about that if you are an investor trying to protect your assets. A whole lot of things we take for granted could change for the worse if the trend is not reversed.
