It has been said that empires are very much part of human history. It might be in our nature to have a leader who runs our world or at least our clan for us, sort of like lions live in prides and bison in herds. History says our leadership, that is empires, generally last on average about 200 or even 300 years. By then, the leadership are there not because they are natural leaders, but as descendants or inheritors by education or service; the empire becomes so bound up by their incompetence and by precedents and old rules often in conflict with each other that it becomes non-functional and gets displaced by an upcoming empire.
It has also been said that history should not be written less than 50 years after the event happened, and preferably after 300 years to avoid the opinions and prejudices of the writer – the facts, ma’am, just the facts.
I have been reading Pierre Berton’s book ‘Marching as to War’, basically a history of Canada up until WW 2. Written some 20 years ago, so it meets at least the 50 years rule, and written before we became so hopelessly bound to WOKE causes we cannot write anything serious. So it is probably the most accurate account we are going to see.
What comes across in Bertons’ book, not directly but by inference as he describes events, is that the British Empire, the biggest force for world peace and prosperity ever, was in serious decline by the First World War and they did not seem to even realize it, arrogance shining through. Of course that empire was wiped out as a world force by the Second World War, and as we know Britain itself has since slipped all the way to irrelevance.
Berton’s history of WW1 is very much a story of general incompetence on the part of several European governments including Britain. Run by Government and military leaders with no real leadership ability or experience and in their position by family or wealth connections rather than by personal history or merit. Leaders making decisions, in hindsight asinine decisions, so a relatively solvable problem ends up tossing the world into war. And the war itself ends up disastrously mismanaged, with a huge loss of life and prosperity.
Even worse, it ends without addressing the problems that caused the war in the first place, so there had to be a follow-up, that is, WW2. That resulted in the rise of the American Empire, giving us some decades of remarkable progress before we began our present decline.
So what is interesting about all this? Just that reading that history, I am struck by how similar our world situation now is to that before WW1. The modern nations that created our unprecedented level of world prosperity now appear to be dominated by what I would call over-mature teenagers with no sense of personal responsibility, with no real world experience in leadership, in management, in git er done perseverance or in long term vision. In charge by wealth and/or education, just like the folks in charge at the time of WW1 were there by noble or quasi-noble birth or wealth.
And our Canadian scene is among the worst – our leadership certainly not there by virtue of personal qualification or achievement. Case in point – our idiotic response to our neighbour, who is ten times stronger than us. He requests we assist with the joint problem we have been ignoring, that being migrants and drugs (some would say a sneaky attack from China!) or he will give us a spanking. Our response is not ‘how can we work together to solve this problem’ but ‘Look out, we will spank you back’! Like a three-year old threatening to spank his dad! Teenagers!
Even worse, if indeed the ten times bigger neighbour is the sneaky empire-builder some suggest, and is just looking for an excuse to invade us because he wants the marvelous natural resources we keep locked up to ‘save the planet’ (including our water!), that ‘let’s fight’ response just gave him the excuse he needed! Idiotic, either way!
Better keep our pantry full, and maybe a woodburning stove available for when the hydro grid goes out!
Boy, guess I am in a sour mood to write all this!