It’s All Been Done, pt. infinity
“The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.”–Paul Johnson
J. Christian Adams in The American Spectator:
“The Great Illusion” advocated for a system of international interdependence and a world where large powerful nations did not have greater international relevance than smaller weak nations. Obama’s address to the United Nations tracked Angell’s philosophy so closely it would be surprising if the similarities were accidental.
Angell wistfully advocated for “relinquishing the principle of isolated national defence…and erecting an international authority” to replace “the self interest of individual nations.” The Nobel Committee described Angell as “cool and clear,” and that he “spoke to the intellect.” Most notably, Angell argued, “you cannot kill ideas with bullets.” He believed that an enlightened citizenry, once someone or something enlightened them, would render war obsolete.
[Sir] Norman Angell won the Nobel in 1933, a most dangerous year for his ideas to gain currency. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. And in the following years, Norman Angell’s ideas flourished and were adopted as policy by a British Government unwilling to acknowledge the Gathering Storm. Winston Churchill, however, regularly and vociferously opposed Angell and his allies. It took Churchill’s courage to stand against this national naïveté throughout the 1930s, usually alone, and always jeered in the House of Commons. The British government followed Angell’s model for international relations and ignored Churchill, adopting timid diplomatic and defense policies.
The 1933 Peace Prize winner profoundly influenced British policy in ways that led directly to German tanks rolling into Poland in September 1939. War did not break out because nations ignored Angell’s advice; instead, the ensuing carnage in Europe happened because European democracies made Angell’s ideas government policy. Europe gambled that Angell’s model would ensure peace, and by the time everyone saw that the gamble had failed, it was too late.
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