06-13-2020, 10:49 AM
The more I think of it, the more xenophobia is the wrong word.
War used to be cost effective. Somewhere between the invention of the machine gun and the nuke, it became not cost effective. War on a grand scale become a losing proposition. It became no longer an effective racket.
The problem is the aggressor. It is not enough to fear an outsider coming onto your territory and throwing his weight around. You have to make the aggressor acknowledge that going onto another’s turf and throwing his weight around is a bad idea.
Which is true enough in the Information Age. You are much more apt to get nuked out of existence or tied down in a hopeless insurgency than to profit these days.
The word I came up with tentatively was assaultmania. It is an obsession with attacking others. It does correctly identify the problem, which is not fear of being invaded, but an obsession with invading others. It is a belief that war can be a successful racket.
Now, you seem to believe China has assaultmania. I’m dubious. Are they that eager to treat others with force? Do they believe they can do better with peaceful means? Do they believe there are better rackets?
This may be part of why no major powers have initiated crisis wars lately.
War used to be cost effective. Somewhere between the invention of the machine gun and the nuke, it became not cost effective. War on a grand scale become a losing proposition. It became no longer an effective racket.
The problem is the aggressor. It is not enough to fear an outsider coming onto your territory and throwing his weight around. You have to make the aggressor acknowledge that going onto another’s turf and throwing his weight around is a bad idea.
Which is true enough in the Information Age. You are much more apt to get nuked out of existence or tied down in a hopeless insurgency than to profit these days.
The word I came up with tentatively was assaultmania. It is an obsession with attacking others. It does correctly identify the problem, which is not fear of being invaded, but an obsession with invading others. It is a belief that war can be a successful racket.
Now, you seem to believe China has assaultmania. I’m dubious. Are they that eager to treat others with force? Do they believe they can do better with peaceful means? Do they believe there are better rackets?
This may be part of why no major powers have initiated crisis wars lately.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
