“War does not determine who is right, it determines who is left.”*Bertrand Russell*
Well, here we go again. The USA is officially at war. (I say “officially” because we’re pretty much always at war somewhere in the world, even if we don’t say so.) Perhaps it will be a short series of attacks on Iran’s infrastructure. Recent fiascos in Iraq and Afghanistan point to other possibilities.
My purpose isn’t to analyze the geopolitical situation in depth in a short blog post. Rather, I want to comment on how easy it is for leaders (of all partisan stripes) to get away with warmongering, and how easy it is for citizens to go along with it.
“Everybody must know, or remember, that when Hitler and Mussolini spoke in public, they were believed, applauded, admired, adored like gods. They were ‘charismatic leaders ‘; they possessed a secret power of seduction that did not proceed from the soundness of things they said but from the suggestive way in which they said them, from their eloquence, from their histrionic art, perhaps instinctive, perhaps patiently learned and practised. The ideas they proclaimed were not always the same and were, in general, aberrant or silly or cruel. And yet they were acclaimed with hosannas and followed to the death by millions of the faithful.”—Primo Levi’s, If This is Man, a memoir of Auschwitz
Formal Rhubarb proposes to go about “serving up signals in all the noise,” so the attack last night on Iran seems a good starting place for my blog–there promises to be a hell of a lot of noise and the best signals may again be hard to find and/or suppressed.
I will elaborate on this in future posts or articles, but I invite you to think of the reasons for often contradictory perspectives on consequential issues and problems through the lens of development. That is, the way we perceive and interpret information is filtered by an individual’s level of development, or a group’s, community’s, or nation’s level of development.
The Italians and Germans mentioned in Primo Levi’s quote above were vulnerable to the fascist propaganda from the leaders running their countries primarily because of their “Us vs. Them” level of development. So it was much easier to appeal to their basic human fears.
A full treatment of development in this context will have to wait but, for now, for anyone who’s read this far, I suggest simply that you let others know you aren’t falling for it. If you can do more, great! However, it still makes a difference to broach difficult topics, show interest in the opinions of others, then offer your perspective without apology.
But not hitting people over the head with your outrage, either.
Take it from me, I know it’s easy to go over-the-top with one’s opinions and, therefore, not really influence anybody, but I do think we need to take a stand on high-stakes issues of the day.
“A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.”―James Baldwin, “The Fire Next Time”
That’s all for now. Please pray for all those caught in war zones…and the ones who always suffer the most in war: children.
The Un-Dr.
6/22/25