According to the Japan Times, Japan has made its 17th submission to the UN General Assembly calling for a complete nuclear disarmament. Surprisingly the United States is among the 50 nations which agreed to the submission. Really the submission is stupid for the folllowing reasons:
1. A nuclear disarmament agreement can only embolden those countries who have the most to gain from the adoption of nuclear weapons. Its a red flag saying that we will allow you to have an advantage.
2. Nuclear weapons are not the problem, it is the motives of the country developing them which is the problem.
3. Nuclear disarmament as a moral crusade is compatible with dogmatic religion (i.e. mysticism), and places morality outside the real of logic. Little surprise the initiative was taken by Japan, and little surprise that the USA has endorsed it.
4. Nuclear weapons discouraged war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The 'Cold War' resulted in one of the longest periods of global peace in history.
5. Nuclear weapons are an important component of any military force. We need to remember that nuclear weapons are not solely for armed aggressive, but can have peaceful applications. Some of these applications might actually save human lives. Such applications of course need to be researched, however there might be applications for deviating the orbit of a comet so that it does not strike earth. There might be opportunities to modify geological processes to attain some resource development advantage. The mind boggles at the opportunities.
6. Collectivist countries are the ones which seek to initiate the use of any force in order to gain some advantage. The threat is not nuclear weapons any more than the threat is knives and guns. The problem is the collectivist politicians who drive political debate. Countries like Iran, Korea, Japan, Russia have more 'collectivist' leaders, however the moral ambivalence in the West shows that it is a significant factor in our political system. Democracy is a collectivist construction, imposing the will of the majority on the minorities. The arbitrary statutory legal system, which has displaced a relative rational 'common law' system is testimony to that...and the 'collectivist creep' of statutory law is driving the West to universal tyranny.
Let me suggest to you how this tyranny is going to manifest in war in future. We are witnessing an increasing use of immigration in Western countries to stimulate economic development. If you cannot use debt, governments like to rely on immigration. Political correctness rather than logic demands that you allow everyone into your country, irrespective of their values. Collectivism is no barrier. In fact, we have already argued its well-entrenched in the West. The problem is that, immigration adds a cultural element. By allowing fundamentalist mystical creeds into the secular western countries, we are likely to see an escalation in racial/rligious prejudice. This is going to inspire reactionary nationalism, such that collectivists identities will be polarised. Sub-cultural persecution will ignite national tensions as foreign governments around the world are compelled for the sake of political correctness to draw attention to the tyranny in the host 'Western' nations. Politically ambitious collectivists in Western countries will then use these issues as a basis for expanding their political support and for sponsoring more prejudicial arguments. This will be compatible with our arbitrary statutory laws, so opponents will be standing on weak moral foundations. Before you know it, you have wars. Politically correct governments defending their prejudices or racially-based prejudices.
This ought not be new to us. We can already witness in European nations the growing hostility to foreigners, and Muslims in particularly. We have already witnessed a racially-divisive war in the old Yugoslavian states, as well as the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. This is a fertile legacy to be used by 'majorities' to insight racial prejudices. Its going to happen eventually. All it takes will be a breach at the 'weakest link'. There is good reason for thinking the problem will ignite in Europe. It is among the most collectivist regions in the world. Perhaps the poorer areas of Germany or France are the most likely hot spots of resentment. All we need is a deterioration in economic circumstances, and governments resorting to immigration in order to stimulate economic activity. Understand that this economic activity is only needed because these governments maintain such a strangehold over their economy. Government control = bottlenecks on a nation's productive capacity. Justice facilitates commerce and job creation; but most government intervention has nothing to do with justice, and distorts economic activity, causing the boom-bust cycles we are accustomed to. These practices create vulnerabilities in the economy, and the prospect of war in collectivist countries. These wars have the tendency to draw even the most individualistic nations into the fray. The consequence is that even the freest nation's are sabotaged. Look at what the 'freedom loving' USA adopted after WWII. It was Roosevelt's 'New Deal', i.e. Measures to stimulate domestic demand after it was ravaged by a global war and acute destruction in Europe. Expect it again.
A little bit of conceptual foresight can avoid this trend. Just don't expect it.
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Author
Andrew Sheldon
