Few Ideas, Still Confused

“War is too serious a matter to leave to the generals.” This provocative and paradoxical statement, created by a first-rate politician like Georges Clemenceau, the head of the government that led France to the victory table in World War I, has enjoyed success for a century. But in recent years, with the progressive degradation of the ruling classes of the West, it would be legitimate to combine it with another one, finding politicians in the spotlight of sarcasm. Specifically, Americans.

The missteps of some of them have gone down in history. Bush Jr. has more than others. This is due to a lack of knowledge about things in the world that are outside of the American world. The names of foreign countries, their location on a geographic map, and the correct nomenclature of the government, with which there are current agreements, alliances, or tensions. Be it the Balkans or the Middle East. In a nutshell, a dose of ignorance that is hard to imagine at certain levels of responsibility. Especially in a country like the USA, where the quality of essayists, geographers, writers, explorers, discoverers is very high.

These “blunders” are usually attributed to Americans’ poor predisposition to travel abroad. Statistically, only 40 percent of them have a passport. An enviable document that allows visa-free entry to more than 160 countries. A unique privilege. But Americans aren’t really motivated by that. They prefer to travel through vast national territories, rich in breathtaking scenery and inevitable Destinations made in America. Far from the rebellious spirits that infected European culture in the twentieth century, innervating the conformism of the Old Continent with transgressive and ghostly thrills, the overseas middle class dreams its reveries within the walls of its own universe. A characteristic that frightened Norman Mailer, who saw in the narrowing of his horizons a growing danger to his countrymen. “In a country where values are crumbling, the nation becomes a religion. We are asked to live in a state of religious fervor: Love America! Love it because America has become a surrogate for religion.”

Let’s be clear: we’re not just talking about the daily flag-raising in the backyard of a private midwestern home, the opposite of secular prayer, which for Hegel meant reading the newspaper every morning. It’s something more trivial. Self-contended superficiality regarding the reality of things. Amazing in a society that for Ralph Dahrendorf “represents the greatest experiment in rational domination of the world that has ever been attempted.” A kind of “applied Enlightenment” that runs the risk of losing the light of knowledge along the way. At least in the political environment.

The news these days are frightening. That’s what The New York Times tells us about the war in Ukraine. Starting with an interview with Chuck Edwards, the Republican congressman who has become one of the biggest supporters of US military aid to Kiev. “In America, there really is less news about what’s happening in Ukraine. It has taken a back seat to many other things, other important issues for the country. Knowing that Ukraine’s time is running out, I thought it was important for me to go on a fact-finding mission and get more first-hand information about what’s going on there as we approach the critical and important decision of whether – or how – the USA should help Ukraine.”

The intention is laudable, Edwards hopes Ukrainian authorities will scrutinize how “they spend American dollars.” As first-class embedded, he is sent for four days to visit the most iconic sites of suffering and resistance. Dozens of hours of briefings by soldiers, strategists, and President Zelensky himself convince him of the urgency of congressional help, that is, the new $61 billion maximum package of arms and ammunition that Biden has been trying to deliver for six months. What convinced the North Carolina congressman who lived between McDonald’s and big banks, a former member of his State’s Senate, and thus not entirely naive? The unimaginable. “The conclusion I have come to is that Ukraine will either continue to be a democratic country or fall into the hands of a Marxist, socialist, murderous dictatorship. And it cannot and will not remain a democracy unless the United States intervenes.”

Between the hamburger and the stack of bonds, the honorable Edwards must have been distracted for a moment. A thirty-year moment.