"The right to bear nukes"

There is a saying, " An armed society is a polite society." That statement probably was made in defense of the right of Americans to have guns and bear arms.

That statement made me think of nuclear arms. I was thinking that since the advent of nuclear arms the nations of world have become more polite, at least more restrained and responsible about making war. For example, the Cold War could have been a hot one if it wasn't for the possibility of mutual annihilation between the world’s two nuclear powers, the U.S. and the USSR. The possibility of mutual annihilation contained their propensities for aggression. Likewise, Indian and Pakistan have been more polite to each other since they both acquired nuclear arms, each careful not to be too provocative towards the other in case of the possibility of a nuclear exchange between them. And the possibility of North Korea acquiring a nuclear bomb has made its neighbors, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, more polite with each other. All of a sudden there is a flurry of diplomatic activity in that part of the world like never before.

Iran having the nuclear bomb might have a positive effect in the Middle East, in helping to resolve the Palestinian issue.

The possibility of nuclear war between the U.S. and the USSR eventually brought a détente between them. I think the possibility of North Korea having the bomb is bringing a thaw in relations between its neighbors, forcing them into diplomacy and political engagement. The nuclear issue has made the world more politically polemic and less war-like. It has forced adversaries to engage each other in preventing conflicts because the alternative could be devastating. All this holds with my theory which is that we develop and progress through perverse means. For instance, we do the opposite to disarming to preserve peace. Instead we arm ourselves to the teeth and saber rattle in order to cultivate and preserve peace.

There is at least one commentator who believes the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945 had a utilitarian effect, "in that it brought the end of World War II in the Pacific and so saved millions of lives". The commentator, though, is well aware that is a dicey argument. However, there was a perverse utilitarian effect from the dropping of those bombs. That act was so horrific it spurred the world to act to create the United Nations as an institution for world peace, an institution the world rejected prior to WW2 because the lack of will to do so. Those atomic bombs, because of their unbelievable destructive nature, changed the world's attitude towards war. It forced countries to act against the possibility of future nuclear wars. Every military devise invented has found its use. If the atomic bomb had not been used then, sooner or later it would have been. However, its use then forced a sea change and the realization among the world’s nations that if there were wars in the future they could never escalate to a level where nuclear weapons would be used.

Sooner or later humankind had to see the destructive nature of the atomic bomb. Perhaps it was better to see it at the climax of a war rather than at the beginning of one. From that moment humankind's mindset changed towards war. Since seeing the unimaginable destructive nature of those two atom bombs the world has worked to prevent that use of atomic energy ever again. This was the first time humankind collectively saw and understood such a destructive force. It captured the world's imagination instantly, all at once. Ironically those two atomic bombs have acted as a deterrent for using such devastating devises again. Nevertheless, sad but true, it is better that it happened then to end a war than to start one.

Perhaps the world is better adjusted because it has nuclear arms. It seems to be more peaceful, with fewer wars, in comparison. Maybe the nuclear bomb is the ultimate weapon after all because its awesome destructive force has virtually rendered it unusable. What state would be foolish enough to use it? The United States could have used in Korea and Vietnam but it didn't because of what that might have brought about. However, there is the fear that it might be used by some 'rogue' state or fall into the hands of a terrorist group. Once nuclear weapons were the preserve of a few elite states. Now it has become a weapon that possibly any body can own, like all the other weapons developed throughout history. Hopefully the world and its people will keep this weapon to the status of deterrent.

History

The other day I was reading the Times Literary Supplement (TLS). It is a tabloid size paper that since 1902 has been reviewing the works of leading writers and thinkers. I generally find it an awkward read. Nevertheless, I found the latest issue (Oct. 13.06) interesting because it touched on a subject close to me, the meaning of history. It talked about how 40 years ago it devoted three issues to "New Ways in History". It commemorated those forty years ago with a feature article entitled "New ways revisited: How history's borders have expanded in the past forty years". The discussion 40 years ago was about the new approaches that were being used in discerning and evaluating history. A new bread of historians, unorthodox historians who incorporated other disciplines to understand and explain history - sociology, anthropology, psychology - wrote those articles. Also, some of those historian believed that current events, rather than past events, were better at explaining history.

"The twentieth century is the first in which comprehending world history has become possible." I thought of that remark as I read the TLS article. I believe it's true. However, scholars have pointed out that that notion is nothing new. It also was believed in the 19th century. For instance, Hegel thought that history had reached a climax in 1806 and that future history would be comprehended and shaped from that moment on. However, human history marched on and historians know that what happened then didn't really settle anything, let alone the meaning of history.

I'm really not sure what Hegel sensed in 1806 that made him think that from that moment on world history could be comprehended. (He did see Neapolitan ride by on horseback in Jena, Germany, after defeating the Prussians.) How, though, could world history be fully comprehensible after 1806 when it had not yet experience the horrendous world events of the twentieth century. Yet around that time Hegel must have experiences something significant because he became aware of the very force that drives and determines human and world history. He discovered that one thing that made the comprehension of history truly possible. Without knowing this force it would be impossible to give any historical meaning to human endeavour. Hegel recognized that the main driving/ determining forces of history was the human struggle for freedom and recognition.

Obviously the TLS article made me think about history. It also made me think of a book that is probably the antithesis to what the TLS postulated in its New Ways in History articles. The book is "The Killing of History: How Literary Critics And Social Theorists Are Murdering Our Past" by Keith Windschuttle. One social theorist of history Windschuttle railed against was Francis Fukuyama, because of his book "The End of History". What Windschuttle disliked most about Fukuyama's approach to history is his economic determinism and his injecting philosophy into it, not just any philosophy but Hegelian philosophy. Fukuyama also used history to discern a truth, something traditional historians are against. According to Windschuttle history should just be a narrative and accounting of events, without injecting meaning or a truth into it. Windschuttle doesn't believe that history should be mixed with other disciplines in order to troll for meaning.

Fukuyama's interpretation of history impressed me because I was thinking the same thing. We both believe that the collapse of Communism means that there is now only one alternative in human governance left to the world, Democracy. Humankind had exhausted all other possible forms of governance in its struggle for freedom and recognition. History had an empirical purpose, helping prepare human governance for the modern world and establishing Democracy as the only true governance of human freedom and recognition. Fukuyama saw that the universal human struggle for freedom and recognition could only realistically be fulfilled within and by Democracy.

I noticed that TLS did not include Fukuyama in their revisiting New Ways in History. However, as things go he is a giant in new ways of viewing history. He discovered one of the defining, pivotal moments in history by linking it with the human condition and needs and aspirations, the collapse of Communism and the ascendancy of Democracy. As an historian he believes that current events can explain the meaning and trajectory of history. He introduced one big new way of examining history, through human governance. He re-introduced the idea of ideology in history and the idea that we have reached an end point in our ideological evolution when in comes to defining and establishing legitimate human governance. He rightly pointed out that if humans hope to fulfill their needs and aspirations in this modern world the only realistic alternative form of government is liberal democracy - capitalism and democracy - Democracy.

I am surprised TLS omitted Fukuyama in its revisiting of New Ways in History because he discovered a new way of evaluating history, through human governance.