WE humans like to think we live in a world where it’s possible to make clear decisions, to choose the road most travelled or choose the road overgrown and rarely taken. Time and again we underestimate how much the power of the prevailing atmosphere affects our choice.
Clerical sexual abuse is one example. When I was a boy, Catholic people exercised their decision-making and decided that the priests and nuns around us were all saintly people, dedicating their lives day after day in the service of others. Then the dam broke and a different truth emerged, and nowadays you’d have a hard job arguing that there are priests and nuns who continue to give up their lives to selfless service of others. How could they be? The prevailing opinion is that the Catholic Church is corrupt –everybody knows that, everybody says that.
The truth is, most people believe what most people believe. In other words, how we speak and act is to a great extent influenced not by our own thinking about a topic, but because we slip into the prevailing wisdom of our time.
At present this is particularly dangerous.
Politicians throughout Europe are urging on us the necessity to spend more, much more, on weaponry. Even if it means taking away money from areas such as housing and health. We must realise we are in mortal danger. The US has given up on its role as policeman of the world, so we’d better arm ourselves, train our young men (and women) how to kill. If we don’t, the enemy will overwhelm us.
Oh, really?
That requires the answer to a few questions.
First, who is this enemy? Russia? Do we really believe that Russia is intent on taking over the world, so we must get ready to fight Russia? That belief is anchored in the conviction that history repeats itself. Because Russia was once an empire, both before and during the communist era, we assume it’s today intent on becoming one again.
As the song says, it ain’t necessarily so.
We’ve heard this old domino theory before. It consists of the belief that if a country is strong enough and greedy enough to swallow a neighbouring country, it will be strong enough and eager enough to swallow up any number of countries.
If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the Vietnam War. It was waged in the name of the Domino Theory: If aggressive forces are allowed to win in Vietnam, then all the surrounding countries will go down like dominos, become communist too. That turned out to be a lie, but not before more than a million Vietnamese and some 50,000 American lives had been sacrificed. A giant bloodbath of humanity, all based on what turned out to be bunkum.
Just because European leaders are rushing around squawking that the sky is going to fall, that we must by ready to meet the Russian assault, doesn’t mean we have to believe them.
George Orwell, best known for writing Animal Farm, also wrote a novel called Coming Up For Air. It was set in the days leading up to World War II. It showed how the popular, fearful view that war was on its way dominated public thinking. There are people with no concern for our welfare who would gladly push us into a situation where war first seems inevitable and then becomes inevitable.
When countries arm heavily, my old history teacher used say, they inevitably use that stockpile to prosecute a war. It’s like buying a new car – you’d be a fool, after all that expense, not to drive it.
To which there are two answers. If the car is on the edge of a cliff, you’d be suicidal to get into it and rev up the engine. Secondly, was it really a good idea buying the car in the first place?
Let’s resist making a death deal so the arms industry can prosper. Let’s choose life in all its glorious variety, not death with its cruelty and deception.
