On Violence, Power and their Geopolitical Implications
If you value articles like this, sign up for our daily email newsletter and support us with a donation.
Election Day is Nov. 5. Be ready for the ballot box by registering to vote. For information on registration deadlines in your state or territory, click here. To register to vote online, or update your registration, click here.
Power has always been, and will always be, predicated on violence. This is an uncomfortable truth, and one that will not change as long as human nature persists.
The Western noble conservative tradition always understood this reality. Because of this, it has long been considered the best recourse was in conserving peace through strength; strength that we, the Christian West, alone wielded.
I have long said to those who claim grievances against the West (sometimes rightfully), for the last several hundred years of Western global supremacy, that every group of people on earth, if given similar power, would do far worse things than the West ever did – often unbelievably worse.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Arab slavers raided European coasts capturing all they could get their hands on. This, of course, had gone on for centuries both on that continent and others (Africa, Asia and the Indian subcontinent.) In fact, it is said the popular song "Rule Britannia," often used to symbolize the United Kingdom in film and media, was written to celebrate the British anti-slavery campaign's defeat of Arab slavers. The words "Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves, and Britons never shall be slaves" were not just hyperbole. The ending of that slave trade through the United Kingdom's rule of the waves literally ensured that Britons would no longer face the threat of slavers landing on their shores to kill, plunder, enslave and pillage.
My intent here is not to pick on Arabs. In fact, quite the opposite. You see, as Lord Acton so wisely noted, power corrupts. It corrupted the West just as it would have corrupted any others. However, the West, specifically at that time, had at its roots a unique belief system so contradictory to power that it both restrained that power and crafted it into a benevolent use that no other culture or faith system in the world can or would have replicated.
Unlike empires before them, the Pax Britannia and the Pax Americana that followed it, paired the peace they created through their unmatched military might with a genuinely altruistic attempt to level previously (and naturally) uneven and disordered regions, races and cultures.
Though Indian nationalists today dislike the fact, India still uses British railroads, administration, and her system of government; all of which were unknown to the region before Britain's arrival. The United Kingdom found their colonial regions of Africa in a state of tribal anarchy and left them more ordered, well-built, well-administrated and updated with modern infrastructure. If not interrupted by Communist agitators on the continent and Communist infiltrators in the new center of power at Washington, the handover of power in Africa would have been completed after proper infrastructure and institutions were completed and enough locals were trained up to take back the reins.
The same could not be said of any empire before Britain, or any culture outside of the Christian West.
But the order that was imposed by the Christian empires is eroding, and what we are seeing emerge is much more violent, much more dangerous, and shows just how important the Christian ideal was in keeping the realities of power at heel.
Pax Americana
The end of the Second World War marked a changing of the guard as America took the reins of the global order from Britain, like a gallant son does from an aging father. Even in this world order, increasingly humanistic and neo-liberal as it was becoming, the benevolence was striking.
The establishment of global governance to sort out differences (through institutions like the United Nations (UN) and International Criminal Court (ICC), among others) was an attempt to create a way to overcome violence as the adjudicator of international disagreements and implement a more civilized, more just, more Christian system of governance.
Even though elements of exploitation remained, they were at least contested and those responsible shamed if ever their actions were discovered. No, the West was never perfect; only Christ's Kingdom on Earth will ever achieve that. However, the very values and morals that were deeply embedded in our culture and collective psyche gave us that impossible task as a guideline against which to measure our actions.
However, the West became increasingly secular and the enemies of the West used our own morals (and failure to live up to them completely) as a way to demoralize us while pushing subversive ideas and new values that rejected Christian morality entirely and pushed to destroy Christian culture. As this increased, the levers of power – the Pax Americana – fell further into hands untethered from both.
Anyone who was alive in the 1950s or 1960s, or who is familiar with media from that time, can attest to the vast cultural and moral difference between that time and now. If a person in the '60s looked back in Western history, they would see a similar thread of culture and civilization stretching back hundreds of years. However, a child of the same nation today can hardly find that culture anywhere anymore, even if they look for it diligently. The Western citizen of the 21st century hardly has the slightest idea of what Western Civilization actually was – they are completely disconnected from their roots.
This is having a profound effect on global politics, and is driving the increasingly multi-polar world.
As the power of the West is wielded by subversive hands, increasingly, the lessons of civilization past are ignored and the older more primal aspects of human nature begin to reemerge.
We see this in the disregard many have for US demands. This was outlined well in a recent article from Tablet Magazine where the author openly notes how Israel's flouting of the Biden State Department's rules of engagement is allowing Israel to win a war that the United States does not want fought. Changes in Middle Eastern and Subcontinental "loyalties" also hint at the declining belief in the power of the Pax Americana.
In the build up to the handover of hegemony from Britain to America, the latter had policies like the one espoused by Teddy Roosevelt. The "Big Stick" policy and the vast discrepancy between the military and financial capabilities of any potential rivals to Western power and the West (or Anglosphere, in particular) ensured that when new systems were instituted, the world went along. And this really did bring an unprecedented level of stability in a world (post-Manhattan Project) where tremendous volatility was extremely likely.
However, that time is over now. That power was squandered on greed (insourcing and outsourcing of jobs to pad profit margins for large investors), hubris (alliances and infiltration by "friends" who had only their best interests in mind), and subversion (the decades-long changing of perception to where everything to do with the West and its history are considered evil.)
As Christians stepped back, as the Churches allowed themselves to be married to the spirit of the new subversive world order, their power to defend themselves – much less enforce the better world they once had – dwindled to infighting and impotence.
As this took place, the rest of the world took note. As a result, the new resurgence of the old "might-is-right" world increasingly returns regions to mad scrambles for power and dominance.
Many wanted the Christian West gone, including many Christians and Westerners. The new and increasingly uncontrollable wars and rumors of war show us that perhaps we should have been careful over what we wished for.
Arthur is a former editor and consultant. Born in India to missionary parents, he spent his early career working in development for NGOs in Asia, Central America, and Africa.
Arthur has an educational background in history and psychology, with certifications from the University of Oxford and Leiden in the economics, politics, and ethics of mass migration and comparative theories in terrorism and counterterrorism. He is currently launching CivWest, a company focused on building capital to fund restorative projects and create resilient systems across the Western world.
Please join us in praying and fighting for Souls and Liberty; as well as, consider making a donation to support our work.
Absolutely brilliant historical review, Arthur. Thank you.