{"id":7712,"date":"2014-07-28T07:20:15","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T14:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7712"},"modified":"2014-07-28T07:22:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T14:22:13","slug":"why-is-the-world-becoming-such-a-nasty-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-is-the-world-becoming-such-a-nasty-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is the World Becoming Such a Nasty Place?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJMedia<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo via PJMedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Border Disorders<\/strong><\/p>\n

Central American parents send their unescorted children northward in hopes of remittances and eventual anchor amnesty for themselves. Our friend Mexico facilitates the exodus through its own sovereign territory (hoping that no one stops along the transit, and happy that the border is further shredded). Central American governments seem happy too. More money will be sent back home. Fewer mouths will be left to feed. Possible dissidents will emigrate. A new generation of expatriates in the U.S. will grow fonder of and lobby for Central America the longer they don\u2019t have to live there.<\/p>\n

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We utter\u00a0\u201cthe children,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0[1]<\/sup>\u00a0and discussion about proper culpability, cynical manipulation, and disinformation ends. In such a fantasy world, parents don\u2019t manipulate \u201cthe children\u201d as pawns; countries don\u2019t try to export what they see as their surplus population; Mexico doesn\u2019t stir the pot; and liberal activists don\u2019t cynically calculate electoral advantage. There are children in need at the border \u2014 but there is a great deal more as well. When the president of the United States renders his nation\u2019s immigration laws irrelevant, people notice. And when he establishes a radical expansion in entitlements, those abroad likewise notice. And when he offers a narrative that \u201cthey\u201d are culpable and owe much to the exploited, people arrive.<\/p>\n

What If?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Try a thought experiment of extending the logic of the current border disorder. Imagine a growing disequilibrium between Chicago and Canada. (On the other hand, why imagine it\u00a0since it already exists?<\/a>\u00a0[2]<\/sup>) Thousands of the children from the most violent areas of the inner city of Chicago \u2014 where shootings are approaching levels in Central America \u2014 decide to flee the misery for the chance of something better elsewhere. They head north. Some are preteens; some are teenagers; most are innocents; some gang members; some come with their parents; most do not. Most are poor and without resources and capital. They begin walking or getting on trains to Canada and soon mass there at the border in the thousands, as refugees from horrific conditions of the inner city of Rahm Emanuel\u2019s Chicago. Some gang members have charged them transit fees. Imagine further that U.S. officials, with a wink and a nod, had encouraged them to leave, given the endemic violence, and the social costs of addressing it. Their parents likewise hope that they are adopted by the Canadians, given citizenship and that they soon become anchors for their own emigration out of war-torn Chicago. And imagine what might be the reaction if the children were not welcomed en masse by Canada. Would we then blast and damn Canada as nativist, racist, and uncaring for not openly bringing our \u201cchildren\u201d into their homes? Would the influx be a moral act on the part of the United States or American parents who willingly facilitated the transit, and would it be a fair charge against Canada for not immediately taking the arrivals in as likely future citizens?<\/p>\n

Same Old, Same Old<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin is systematically gobbling up the expanse of the former Soviet Union. He swallows some land, regurgitates a bit, then slowly digests what he gulped down, burps, and then has another slice. Future targeted states, perhaps like Estonia, should understand that they are slated to play the 1939 role of Poland after the earlier\u00a0Anschluss<\/a>\u00a0[3]<\/sup>\u00a0and dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Estonia should consider itself safe because it is a NATO member; but Russia thinks it is most vulnerable precisely because it is a NATO member: what better way to destroy NATO than to champion the Russian minorities of a NATO member as pretext to carving out territory, and to expect nothing at all in response?<\/p>\n

The Dutch were outraged that the daughter of Vladimir Putin \u2014 whose surrogate thugs just shot down a civilian airliner bound from Holland \u2013 was living it up in a penthouse in the Netherlands, but then\u00a0they quickly apologized<\/a>\u00a0[4]<\/sup>\u00a0for being outraged. It is not like she was Jewish after all. (She finally left.)<\/p>\n

Speaking of Jews, mobs of Middle Easterners in the streets of Europe are calling for the destruction of Israel, and at times\u00a0the completion of the final solution<\/a>\u00a0[5]<\/sup>\u00a0\u2014 70 years after it played out in the streets of Europe. We are told Europeans are worried as these demonstrations become more virulent. But we are confused whether Europeans are worried that their guests are premodern \u2014 or instead worried that the world senses their guests are saying things that they would like to say but cannot (yet).<\/p>\n

Christians and Jews \u2014 So What?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christians are being exterminated and cleansed from Iraq and Syria. But we seem to think they are equivalent to bible-thumping Texas evangelicals and their killers exotic versions of Che, and so the ethnic cleansing is rarely condemned. If Barack Obama would just close his eyes and envision ISIS, Hamas, or Putin as the Tea Party or Fox News, and then react accordingly, the world would be a safer place.<\/p>\n

Israel is trying to figure out an effective policy against Hamas. I say struggling, because Hamas is 7th century: using schools, mosques, and hospitals as missile storehouses, wiring up animals to be suicide bombers, stocking up handcuffs and syringes to capture Israeli soldiers for Aztec-like treatment, urging their civilians to become human shields.<\/p>\n

In general, the liberal principle persists that when Arabs on the offense kill lots of Arabs it is normal, but when Jews in defense kill far fewer Arabs it is reprehensible. \u00a0If Israel were weak, Hamas would do to it what ISIS is now doing to Christians, and the world would react to the rout and slaughter of the Jews with the indifference that it shows to Christians. Wait, it does that anyway.<\/p>\n

Yet victory is not an anachronistic ideal; it persists across time and space as long as the human condition remains constant. If the IDF inflicts a great deal of punishment on Hamas, as it did to Hezbollah in 2006, then eventually those whose homes were repositories for missiles and tunnel openings and are now junk will blame (privately) Hamas as much as Israel. Even Hitler\u00a0lost public opinion<\/a>\u00a0[6]<\/sup>\u00a0once he looked clueless amid the suffering he had caused all those who once cheered him on.<\/p>\n

The reputation of Europe, such as it was, is shredded. It weighed Russian commerce and trade versus Russian barbarity, and so far profits have won hands-down. It trashed the interventionism of George W. Bush and now laments the isolationism of Barack Obama \u2014 the only constant being whatever America does, it objects to it. What then does Europe want from the U.S.? Apparently a huge American military subject to the dictates of European \u201csoft power,\u201d as an occasional back-up force when European sermons are laughed at abroad (e.g., \u201cIf you do not listen to our exalted Athenian logic, then we will turn loose our brutal blood-loving Roman legions on you\u201d). Unfortunately for the Europeans, they got the president they wanted, and now rue that wish. The EU is being exposed as\u00a0a self-indulgent socialist mess<\/a>\u00a0[7]<\/sup>, full of class tensions, increasing racism and anti-Semitism, angry unassimilated immigrants and minorities, and as a proverbial baying lamb with a wolf next door.<\/p>\n

United Barbarity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secretary General of the UN\u00a0Ban Ki-moon is blasting Israel<\/a>\u00a0[8]<\/sup>\u00a0for retaliating against the barrage of Hamas rockets. He seems content that UN schools were hiding Hamas missiles. The UN has become a de facto ally of Hamas, and Ban Ki-moon\u2019s rhetoric reflects that alliance. In terms of missiles, does he believe that his UN also prevents North Korea from gassing or firing on his homeland \u2014 or is South Korean safety due to the presence of the Neanderthal forces of the U.S.? Could not Israel lecture Mr. Ki-moon to be more tolerant of the next over flight of North Korea missiles, to worry less about Pyongyang\u2019s bomb, and to please ask the U.S. to leave South Korean soil?<\/p>\n

No-Drama Obama<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. looks at the current global violence and then looks away, after a call for a \u201cpivot\u201d or a flash card calling for Boko Haram to give back the girls it has enslaved. Our generation\u2019s version of the bad memories of the 1918 Meuse-Argonne Offensive is Iraq and Afghanistan. Like our grandparents of the 1930s, we feel that the dead lost abroad in the most recent wars were not worth it \u2014 and so ignore the gathering war clouds on the present horizon, as if ignoring them means they must disappear.<\/p>\n

Glance about \u2014 Central America, Venezuela, China, Russia, Ukraine, Crimea, Gaza, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Turkey, etc. \u2014 and the world outside the West is mostly a nasty place.\u00a0 The three common denominators in all these catastrophes are the usual demagogic leaders blaming someone else for their people\u2019s own self-inflicted miseries, a comfortable West that shrugs that somehow all these depressing things and mean people will just go away \u2014 and a tired global enforcer whose community organizer leader\u00a0went into retirement<\/a>\u00a0[9]<\/sup>\u00a0and offers \u201cmake no mistake about it\u201d warnings between swings on the golf course.<\/p>\n

(Artwork created using multiple\u00a0Shutterstock.com<\/a>\u00a0[10]<\/sup>\u00a0images.)<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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Article printed from Works and Days:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/victordavishanson<\/strong><\/p>\n

URL to article:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/victordavishanson\/why-is-the-world-becoming-such-a-nasty-place\/<\/strong><\/p>\n

URLs in this post:<\/p>\n

[1] \u201cthe children,\u201d:\u00a0http:\/\/www.stridentconservative.com\/the-tyranny-of-cliches-how-liberals-cheat-in-the-war-of-ideas-a-review\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[2] since it already exists?:\u00a0http:\/\/www.jammiewf.com\/2014\/rahm-emanuel-illegal-aliens-are-fleeing-violent-conditions-so-lets-move-them-to-chicago\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[3] Anschluss:\u00a0http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Anschluss<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[4] they quickly apologized:\u00a0http:\/\/www.thewire.com\/business\/2014\/07\/putins-daughter-netherlands\/374992\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[5] the completion of the final solution:\u00a0http:\/\/twitchy.com\/2014\/07\/27\/anti-semitic-turkish-academic-tweets-in-support-of-treblinka-death-camp\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[6] lost public opinion:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2005\/06\/17\/the-white-rose\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[7] a self-indulgent socialist mess:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2006\/08\/12\/what-will-it-take-to-militarize-the-west\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[8] Ban Ki-moon is blasting Israel:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/rogerlsimon\/2014\/07\/21\/john-and-bans-not-so-excellent-cairo-adventure\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[9] went into retirement:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2014\/06\/06\/obamaphoning-it-in\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[10] Shutterstock.com:\u00a0http:\/\/www.shutterstock.com<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2008 Works and Days. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJMedia Border Disorders Central American parents send their unescorted children northward in hopes of remittances and eventual anchor amnesty for themselves. Our friend Mexico facilitates the exodus through its own sovereign territory (hoping that no one stops along the transit, and happy that the border is further shredded). Central American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[848,111,846,23,46],"tags":[12,1058,1031,24],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-20o","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7856,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-exactly-is-comprehensive-immigration-reform\/","url_meta":{"origin":7712,"position":0},"title":"What Exactly Is Comprehensive Immigration Reform?","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJMedia Comprehensive immigration reform \u2014 rarely\u00a0has a catchphrase been so widely invoked and yet so little defined. Why? If proponents of so-called reform detailed exactly what they wanted, American voters would never support their self-interested agendas. Most Americans insist that existing federal immigration laws be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mexico"","block_context":{"text":"Mexico","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/mexico\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via PJMedia","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/immigration_reform_9-14-14-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7731,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/1984-redux-orwellian-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":7712,"position":1},"title":"1984 Redux: Orwellian Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJMedia When Everything Is a Lie Everything we are told about illegal immigration is mostly a lie, and a self-serving one at that. Remember that fact, and the current debate over the border becomes comprehensible. 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But this summer\u00a0Obama\u2019s tranquil world\u00a0[1]\u00a0has descended into medieval barbarism in a way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mainstream Media"","block_context":{"text":"Mainstream Media","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/mainstream-media\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/obama_skydiver_9-26-10-big.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7761,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-un-midas-touch\/","url_meta":{"origin":7712,"position":3},"title":"The Un-Midas Touch","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJMedia Everything that Barack Obama touches seems to turn to dross. Think of it for a minute.\u00a0He inherited a quiet Iraq\u00a0[1]\u00a0(no American combat deaths at all\u00a0in December 2009\u00a0[2]). Joe Biden bragged of the calm that it would be the administration\u2019s\u201cgreatest achievement.\u201d\u00a0[3]\u00a0But by pulling out all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/obama_analyst_1-6-14-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7615,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/in-search-of-what-you-resent\/","url_meta":{"origin":7712,"position":4},"title":"In Search of What You Resent","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJMedia The Maliki government in Iraq fueled anti-Americanism as it systematically destroyed the coalition government that the Americans had created and protected by the surge. 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The West responds with\u00a0 a one-bit imitation of 1930s Britain and France. 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