The last century has been the story of why we will not have a World War III. We have seen in the wake of World War 2 a series of conflicts we might call faux-colonial. They are not exactly false because they reflect American interest, but they are not territorial grabs. While we spoke of exporting democracy, that was a neocon fantasy. You cannot force democracy at the point of a gun or with the percussion of a big bomb, We will not have World War Iii because it takes two to tango and the US is the only show in town.
FOX's shameful response
This is not a boast or the occasion for a FOX victory lap.
What FOX calls freedom is a diminution of what freedom is. Freedom is first the sacred right to say no. It is undefeatable. It is the heart of our dignity and possibility. It makes the individual the only real mover of history. Trump almost never mentions exceptionalism but Obama has more than once.
The 7x factor
Power and force are synonyms which is why power is dangerous in the wrong hands. There is a simple fact that explains why we will not have a World War III. When our military exceeds the next six countries on the list the likelihood of anything like a global conflict diminishes. It may be that there was only one real world war, the second. It involved the entire world and it should have gotten the demon out of our system.
That it failed to do so is largely the fault of the US.
The US has been a semi-poor show
The US has had it all and thrown it away with prodigal zeal. The US created and celebrated the Cold War, which depended on there being an opponent who could do us in. We have inherited that legacy. Even the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the capacity to use them is not an occasion for fearing a war.
Suicide is more like it.
The US has negotiated the first stage of an evolution toward a provisional decency in the world. That stage culminated in the reviled reign of so-called neoliberalism. It is what has lifted the globe from the deepest poverty. It has enabled the growth of the still-unfair but dominant world economy. We are at the stage of that economy's death.
We should worry more about articulating a new economy than worrying about World War III.
Only transformed selves can begin to make reciprocity and neighbor love an accepted actuality.
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) April 15, 2017
The next stage of history is the delicate and centuries-long climb to nonviolent community consciousness. It is unnamed but for the moment cybercommunities is a way of saying that the future needs to integrate spirituality, design, and sustenance. There are other ways to put it. Americans are best when they go Walt Whitman and celebrate universal openness and appreciation of life is a spectrum that embraces everything.
