Jonah Goldberg excerpted: “history”—a confusing euphemism for the passions, ambitions, and barbarisms that will always be part of human nature—is always out there
In the wake of 9/11, it became commonplace to describe the 1990s as a “holiday from history.” And I agreed with those who said that given the context of the time. But in one sense, we’ve been on a holiday from history for far longer. .. For eight decades, the West kept the historical norm of wars of territorial aggression and irredentism partially at bay. But it’s worth remembering just how partial and difficult that effort was.
If the 1990s were a holiday from history, why did we have to kick Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait? Why did we have to bomb the stuffing out of the Serbs? The 1990s weren’t a holiday from terrorism, either. We simply dismissed the decade as a nuisance or a series of one offs—the USS Cole, the World Trade Center, our African embassies—until our complacent self-delusion invited the attack that shattered it.
And even the post-WWII era was less of a holiday than our nostalgic memories would suggest. We didn’t stop the Soviet Union from conquering and effectively colonizing Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.... Even the talking points about how the current invasion of Ukraine is the “first” violation of European peace leave out ....Vladimir Putin’s previous assaults on Georgia and Ukraine.
The compelling part of the “holiday from history” phrase is the suggestion that it’s kind of a short-lived break from reality—vacations always end. The problem with the metaphor is it was never a vacation, not really. It can feel like one for those who are lucky enough not to be on that wall and thus enjoy the benefits of someone else being on it. But the wall always needs to be there—not physically, but conceptually and strategically. Because “history”—a confusing euphemism for the passions, ambitions, and barbarisms that will always be part of human nature—is always out there, just beyond the tree line, staring at us with feral yellow eyes that are hard to see through the light pollution of modern civilization. History is always waiting for an opportunity to invade that “zone of peace.”
Because history, like nature, abhors a vacuum. |
