In reading the history leading up to the second World War it seemed the world had learned an important lesson in trying to negotiate a peace through the concession of other people’s land and culture to the aggressor.  If you don’t believe history repeats itself you simply haven’t read history.  History repeats to the degree one ignores its lessons. The ongoing human tendencies that lead to the dreary repetition of historic mistakes boil down to ignorance, private greed, or fear. Those negative attributes firing human behavior are still very much with us today so history, which is a record of behavior, often appears to be going nowhere. For the US to promote appeasement of the aggressor suggesting Ukraine has lost so much of its country and its men, women, and children to a war for no purpose seems a bit presumptive to say the least.  America’s late start to World War II was centered around this kind of international isolationist power dynamic.  Ultimately, in WWII, when it became clear that the central power issues existing before WWII were going to consume the world, like it or not, our nation did the courageous thing, devastating as it was.  

Peace and Good are not easy dance partners. Peace is certainly not a real estate deal as Thomas Friedman put it so eloquently in his recent NYT article. How many relationships have gone bad because the enabler conceded bits and pieces of their life over time to their addicted partner?  The hard lesson at any level is you can parcel out your soul in bits and pieces for a long time before you realize something in yourself has gone irretrievably missing. For a nation it takes much less time to lose any grasp on greatness or integrity playing a game ruled by the the demands of mutual addictions. Right now the greatness of this country is kindling in the private hot fires of power addicted men and women. 

A modest Proposal for Good

This writer applauds an open mind and willingness to negotiate.  Still negotiation requires a clear bottom line that still leaves room for interests to be addressed.  Right now the private interests of our national leaders are smudging the interests of the people who they presumably think they represent.  International negotiations must be conducted at as public level as possible. The negotiator must be disinterested and public. The Public Self represents the core discipline of diplomacy.  Diplomacy is good when it is a public discipline and bad when it is a performance bent toward private interests.  Re-election tends to be either public or private in its motivation. This country has a lot of leadership right now who can’t or won’t separate those two elements of the democratic soul and it is killing us.  Good is returning governance to a public responsibility, service, and discipline. That would be good because nothing else will do if you have any intention of being a democracy.