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SUNDAY SPECTATOR
October 15, 2006
Desolations
When I filed this, the United States was still trying to get a limp resolution through the United Nations, condemning North Korea for its claim to have tested a nuclear device, in defiance of all its international agreements. The Americans wanted something like “the full chapter seven” -- which would not merely impose, but enforce a general embargo on all shipments of military equipment to the rogue state, and could lead to a naval blockade to isolate it. Instead, to please not only its enemies such as China, but its nominal allies such as France, the U.S. has watered its resolution down to “Article 41” measures, such as making empty diplomatic gestures, and banning air travel. The pressure was continuing, to water the U.S. resoluton down some more.The matter is unimportant at one practical level. For even if the psychopaths in Pyongyang cried uncle, they would only have to hide their nuclear programme a little more effectively, in return for the receipt of the generous aid package they negotiated a year ago. There being no commitment even from the U.S. to remove the rogue regime. But it is very important on another practical level. Rogue Iran, a prospective nuclear power more immediately worrying than North Korea, is watching what the international community can do when put to extremes. Other rogue states are likewise judging our mettle. And even roguish Pakistan is wondering what the consequences would be, if she decided to earn herself a lot of oil money by selling her own nuclear kit to Saudi Arabia. China and Russia, too, are judging how far they may safely proceed with their current policies of playing behind-the-scenes facilitators, in helping countries like Iran and North Korea develop not only nuclear weapons, but the missile systems to deliver them. In the Chinese case, especially, this is done not only to make money, and assure a preferred supply of the oil upon which their monstrous economy depends (that is, in preference to other dependent customers in Europe and Japan). They also use North Korea and Iran as their own proxies, to create threats and problems that the West alone must solve. The Chinese regime now considers itself the rival superpower to the United States, and like its Soviet predecessor, is conducting a “cold war” against America and the West, by supporting our enemies whether or not they are their own ideological allies. They want Washington hog-tied, with as many distractions as possible to the direct Chinese challenge, quickly unfolding as an immense Soviet-style military build-up. As I’ve written before, Iran and North Korea, which are active partners in the development of nuclear weapons and missiles, take turns in creating crises that put the U.S. and allies in a game resembling “monkey in the middle”. Just as the heat is rising against the one, the other will perform an outrageous, attention-getting stunt. But China quietly and happily benefits from their cooperative effort to keep Western eyes off the Chinese ball. This picture I am giving of world affairs may seem over-simple, and pessimistic. I wish it were. Postmodern man -- who votes, and swings the opinion polls, in the constitutional democracies -- is remarkably unable to cope with the reality of evil in the world around him. He has an attention span too short to assimilate even a sustained challenge from a single source, let alone multiple challenges. He knows little history, and what he does know tends to be seriously wrong. More deeply, he lacks tradition -- the kind of wisdom that could operate on his instincts, even when his rational mind were neither well-trained nor well-informed. Yet he is also poorly informed about current events, and his native ability to reason is vitiated by cheap and disintegrative “relativist” ideas. He is personally a coward, and a voluptuary: he lives for the day, and for pleasure, even in the absence of satisfaction or joy. His role models in popular culture are all narcissists. He is the pure consumer of morally poisonous entertainment. He lives selfishly; yet in his own loveless, self-regarding world, he avoids thinking of his own death. I am not describing you, gentle reader, any more than I am describing myself. This is the background catastrophe of our times; the fallout upon individuals of the decadence of our civilization. In the events with which I began this column, we see a mortal challenge to what is left of our civilization. In the paragraph just above I try to explain why we can’t face it. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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