Most of us would agree with many of the aspects of Western leftists’ utopian objectives: A world at peace, disease, and starvation eradicated, and humanity living in harmony with Mother Nature. It all sounds wonderful, no doubt.
Just about every person on the planet would love to see an end to war, though once established utopia may look very different depending on one’s views on religion and governments’ roles. Seeing an end to global hunger and sickness has been a common goal of societies for all of human history, though the proper course of achieving that goal has been hotly contested. And a cleaner, healthier environment with a stable climate is something we all strive for, but reaching a consensus on how to get to that point seems almost impossible.
For each of these aspirations, a key difference between leftists and non-leftists tends to be a fundamental understanding of human nature. For those of us living in reality, we recognize that nationalism will always be prevalent because human beings are preprogrammed to “look out for number one.” And we dismiss the approach of “do-something-ism,” where we’re required to sacrifice God-given rights or personal property in the name of accomplishing a goal targeting the so-called greater good.
On yesterday’s edition of Face The Nation on CBS, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated the obvious, and in doing so he poured cold water on leftists throughout the West, just as they were starting their campfire singalong of “Kumbaya:”
“I think too many in the world were hoping that we are living in a different world that is different to the experiences of the last century and the centuries before, where might and power were deciding on the future of countries and not the rules and the agreements we have between states,” Scholz said.
We have had an agreement that there should be no attempt to change territory, to change borders, to invade the neighbor. And this agreement is now canceled by Putin.”
Later in his discussion with Margaret Brennan, Scholz expanded. Brennan pressed Scholz on his interpretation of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s motivations for his invasion of Ukraine, and Scholz stated what should be obvious to anyone who is paying attention:
“What is Putin thinking of? He is thinking like the imperialists in the 17th, 18th, 19th century. He is thinking that all about the nation is power, and that if you are mighty enough, you can just take territory of your neighbors. And this is an activity and an idea we cannot accept and we will not accept.”
You should have quit while you were ahead, Mr. Scholz. Accept it or not, the phenomenon of countries and their leaders looking out for their own best interests and trying to improve the lives of their people isn’t changing any time soon.
For as long as there have been people, there have been individuals or groups that have attempted to seize territory; to improve the lives and standards of living of their citizenry. There is virtually no morsel of land anywhere across the globe that hasn’t been fought over with spilled blood at some point in history. And as much as leftists would like to ignore this truth, there stands reality, staring them squarely in the face.
It’s not just those mean old European white men either. In America, native tribes had been fighting over land access from essentially the time they came to North America: millennia before any Europeans came here. The same can be said for the native peoples of Africa, Asia, and Oceana. Controlling territory means the ability to exploit resources. And resources mean wealth and well-being for those societies.
Imperialism has been around for as long as there have been people, and it isn’t going away no matter how many protest slogans you come up with and no matter home many “Coexist” bumper stickers you plaster on your Toyota Prius.
Our friends on the left, however, seem to believe that just because they want something to be true, it automatically becomes so. If someone wants to be a member of the other gender, then that is one’s “authentic self” and voila… mission accomplished. If facing the reality that a multitude of factors drives financial inequities is difficult to swallow, then they only need to holler about imaginary systemic racism to make excuses and they thereby feel better about themselves. And if dismantling our military and practicing foreign policy appeasement is their intention, then ignoring the bloodthirstiness of the Taliban or the conquering intentions of the Chinese, Putin, and others is more appealing the facing the facts. Ignorance is indeed bliss.
By Jess Lawson
Jess Lawson is a regular contributor to The Blue State Conservative and a passionate, conservative millennial who loves America.
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Featured photo: Frank Schwichtenberg, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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