Posted on 07/12/2024 4:52:13 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Victor Davis Hanson’s latest book is a macabre warning to an aging America as it closes in on its 250th birthday. The warning comes in the form of a graphic depiction of the hideousness of war and the terrifying state of those who suffer ignominious defeat.
However different the four societies described in the book were, be they Thebans, Carthaginians, Byzantines, or Aztecs, each was blinded by the illusion of invincibility. Hanson shows that such an illusion is so persistent that even as the conquered were being slaughtered, they continued to think: “It cannot happen here.”
Thebes, the 4th century B.C. Greek city-state, sat confidently among the constellation of other Greek city-states. Thebans felt such confidence because of “their impressive military, the justness of their cause, the sympathy of their allies and their city’s hallowed reputation as an icon of eternal Hellenic culture,” as distinguished Professor of Classics Hanson writes.
Indeed, both Alexander the Great and his father, Philip, admired the great Theban general, Epaminondas. But Thebes was too cocky to return that respect. Though how could they have missed the threat posed by Alexander and his lethal Macedonian phalanx which he had used to conquer 1,500 other Greek city states?!
Since Thebes had sided with the Persian invaders in the fifth century B.C. Persian War, Alexander’s scheme to take Thebes gave her “allies” an opportunity for revenge as well as profit from her defeat. As Hanson notes, this case is “thematic in our study of doomed states,” showing how “allies” pile on to destroy their former friends.
Hanson notes that no deus ex machina descended to save Thebes just as it didn’t with the other doomed polities described in the book. Regardless, their respective fates were sealed because of their weak military, their naivete, their long decline, and...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
In the Bible, cities, regions, and states that went Sodomite were destroyed by God (e.g. Sodom, Gomorrah, Cities of the plain, Tribe of Benjamin, etc.) God destroyed them because of their militant predations on the innocent. How close do you think we are?
But, we are marching full speed into marxist dialectical materialism where we are to believe the imaginary promises of utopia and not believe our eyes and ears.
America has been an absolutely terrible ally to everyone for over 60 years. We stab all our friends in the back.
We're gonna pay for that.
Oh, SILLY VICTOR again, since we must be INVINCIBLE. After all, we wouldn’t let a bunch of 1960s Hippies be in the process of starting wars with Russia, China, and Iran, all at the same time, and only after depleting and neglecting our military for the past 35 years, while we CELEBRATED the “End of History”, meaning the end of major wars.
Victor needs to get his head examined, we’ll show him how it’s done!
> “It cannot happen here.” <
That was a good article.
Years ago I read an article about the fall of the Roman Empire. The author listed all the usual reasons. Corruption, barbarians, etc. Then he added one of his own.
The Roman Empire fell because the Romans couldn’t conceive of it falling. The Empire was all-powerful, and evidently eternal. Rome simply could not fall! Impossible! So there was no need to take any corrective action. Party on!
Too many Americans have that same mindset today.
How many "color revolutions" did we orchestrate?
To defend against domestic enemies, never stop speaking the truth about them and never give up your guns. To defend against foreign enemies with weapons of mass extinction, well...
Too many time Americans look back at WW II and inflate our role in the victory. We write books about out victories, discount the horrors, or brush aside the times we did war crimes, We make movies where one GI can kill a hundred Nazis in a fight. It makes us feel big and pure but as we speak our enemies are building coalitions (Say BRICKS) to destroy us. We are pushing closer and closer to WW III and I fear this one we will not win and suffer the fate of Germany and Japan. Only the experience of the occupied southern states after the Civil War can match our fate as a defeated nation. Heaven help us.
Bkmk
I’m not exactly sure I understand the use of the example.
The persian empire was established and strong.
Alexander was a relative upstart, and while he was winning like a jugurnaut and Thebes probably should have had better intel and been a little more fluid in their strategic thinking, can you really criticize them for being loyal to their alliances, at least on an ethical level?
Also, I’ll take a jab at the title of the book. A lot of conquerors like Alexander or Hannibal did not annihilate their opponents. This was usually reserved for those targets that fully resisted them or betrayed them, and they were made examples of, or it was particularly reserved for their arch enemies (like Darius in Alexander’s case). Many cities, city-states, and armies were spared when they didn’t resist or “opened up their gates” when they arrived. This is because of judicious use of limited assets. If you go mad attacking everyone on every front, you’ll defeat yourself in attrition.
For people’s fears and hopes are like gravity in their consistency and predictability. In that sense, Victor Davis Hanson is more Isaac Newton as opposed to the progressives, who dream “that money, education, and better intentions could arrest the gory arch of history,” as he wrote in one of his previous twenty-seven books.
A book review is the serious topic of the article about Prof Hanson latest somber book.
FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FR
Town Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town Hall
American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness
His website: Victor Davis Hanson
Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.
As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.
Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience.
Agreed. Thebes is a weak example.
I do agree with the premise about the mindset.
The one that sits with me is reading things from Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. They thought they were at the pinnacle of Civilization. While the Napoleonic wars was about a century old, I think they had a very naive and arrogant believe that they transcended the barbarity of the past. Boy were they in for a rude awakening.
It Can’t Happen Here, a political novel by Sinclair Lewis first published in 1935, details the rise, consolidation, and partial collapse of an American fascist dictatorship. The book is told primarily from the perspective of Doremus Jessup, an owner-editor of a small-town Vermont newspaper and self-described middle-class liberal intellectual. Jessup is 60 years old at the start of the novel.
Jessup begins as a cynical but detached observer of politics but over the course of the novel becomes an active member of the resistance, paying heavy personal costs. The book describes how easy it would be for a charismatic, populist politician to rise to power during times of economic crisis and implement totalitarian rule in America, in contrast to many characters in the novel who argue that totalitarianism can’t happen in America. Lewis argues for a politically-engaged and informed population that can resist the empty promises of demagogues, as well as for establishment political and economic elites to be aware of how they might be creating the conditions that allow totalitarianism to flourish.
Where's Suzie Cream-Cheese when we need her?
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