People’s memories are short and our experience even shorter in the context of history. History is our long-term memory of events and lessons learned, which can keep us from repeating our mistakes.
This only works if we learn, remember and don’t ignore these lessons. We shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel.
We seem to be ignoring some of these lessons, and risk unwanted consequences like world war, dictatorship, slower and distorted economic growth, or even worldwide depression.
Here are some lessons learned that we Americans seem to be ignoring:
Appeasement: The Munich Agreement allowed Hitler to invade the former Czechoslovakia with impunity. This has widely been cited as an example of appeasement. The hope was that non-involvement would prevent escalation which could lead to wider war. It did not prevent World War II, and many think it may have incentivized Hitler to believe he could expand war without penalty. We now seem to be appeasing Russia in the Ukraine and elsewhere. China is watching.
Isolationism: The United States and some of our future allies watched while Germany overran Europe and northern Africa and drove Britain off the continent at Dunkirk, requiring D-Day at great risk and loss of human life to regain a foothold. The same theme took place in the Pacific. War was not prevented while the total cost to the U.S. and our allies was much higher, particularly in blood. We used to sing, “Remember Pearl Harbor.” We now should remember isolationism resulting in D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of Midway. Civilian populations suffered as well.
Rules-Based, Cooperative World Order: Much of the leadup to the two world wars resulted from chaos due to a lack of a rules-based world order and ambitions of dictators and emperors. After World War II, a major move to correct this problem took place, resulting in the creation of institutions, agreements and efforts to find solutions short of war. These included NATO, SEATO, NAFTA, the U.N., WTO, WHO, Geneva Convention, the START Treaty, open seas and a general agreement not to use nuclear weapons.
Despite the reality that this framework has served us well, our government is taking the lead in dismantling it, returning us to a more pre-World War II disorder of everyone for himself.
Some of this trend includes the following:
(1) Our leaders are discounting the need for collective security to counter our adversaries, including China, North Korea, Russia and much of the Muslim world whose combined area, population, economy and nuclear capability are immense. Yet we claim we can “go it alone” despite running low on weapons to fight a much smaller war in Iran.
(2) We are alienating our friends with territorial expansion threats, neocolonial efforts to control oil and strategic metals such as rare earths, and with needless insults, coercive methods of negotiation, and gunboat diplomacy.
(3) We see efforts to challenge the authority of states, courts and the legislature and concentrating power in the presidency.
(4) Antisemitism, racism and class warfare are on the march (remember Jesse Owens in the Germany Olympics, Auschwitz, the Russian progroms, and entire classes executed by the red Chinese) as the stage is being set to invade Cuba.
Tariffs (Really Price, Quality and Availability Control): These were judged as major factors in causing the Great Depression (Smoot-Hawley tariffs) and harmful when Nixon invoked price controls. Tariffs are being used as an end run around the constitutional grant of revenue and spending powers to Congress, not the president.
The other issue is the effort by the government to gain equity in the ownership of private enterprise at the expense of private sector stockholders whose investment will be diluted.
We used to call this socialism, but suddenly it is considered conservatism.
Expansionism is being justified on the grounds of national security and the president as the commander-in-chief, an extension of the traditional grant of power. It diminishes the post World War II dissolution of colonial empires and ignores the morality of sovereignty, both popular and national. The U.S., Russia, China and much of the Muslim world are engaged in these practices.
Trade: Free trade raised all boats, even in China. Free is, of course, a relative term. We are now reverting to protectionism, mercantilism and even neocolonialism such as controlling Venezuelan oil. Further control is being levered by export control, which is or may be used for raising money from donations from those very companies for funding ballrooms, campaign purposes, or legal defense funds. Sounds like “pay for play.”
First Principles were born in the crucible of the Revolutionary War and the rejection of the divine right of kings, and canonized this spirit in the preamble of the Constitution as follows:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The Bill of Rights, women’s right to vote, the end of slavery, and expanding civil rights mark key advances in the march toward a more perfect union. Free speech and the “blessings of liberty” imply that “we the people” establish our culture, not the government.
Many historians believe our constitution is one of man’s crowning achievements. Let’s not forget these ideals and accomplishments. Above all, let’s secure and maintain blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.
When we view the overall pattern, we see consequential lessons forgotten, which can doom history to repeat itself. Part of this memory loss is adopting authoritarian techniques that can result in a more dictatorial government. Confrontation is on the rise, while cooperation is declining.
Let us not forget nor abandon fealty to our first principles and the Constitution, while maintaining a government of laws, not a single dominant personality. From this comes national pride, admiration from the world, and the blessings of liberty.
Scot Wallace, an Oakley resident, graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in ag economics. He had a long business career in agribusiness, was a vice president, general manager, board member and entrepreneur. He is a former Republican Party precinct chair, legislative chair, regional state chair, county delegate, and a three-time campaign manager for a past state legislator.