Uncanny Folly

Politicians in democracy are accustomed to getting their way by use of soft coercion (media coordination, speech spectacles, propaganda shaping public consensus, and the appearance of normalcy and public concern) and hard power (laws banning alternatives to their orders, using police and courts to intimidate citizens, and tasking the military with killing dissidents).

Creating a power vacuum in Libya was an obvious mistake, but so was the tremendous folly demonstrated by trying to force democracy upon Afghanistan and Iraq.

When their customary techniques failed and no further ammunition was at hand, they were left with an empty, useless gun. Everything they had tried to force had collapsed, and life returned to its previously unmanipulated condition.

Likewise, moving people from one piece of dirt to within the dirt borders of another country is at best the illusion of change. Forcing new laws and different standards of civilization upon people cannot change fundamental instincts and characteristics evolved over thousands of years.

The desire to impose Western civilization and institutions upon non-Western people will always fail, whether done by force in their own countries or importing them into the West to be coerced, threatened, and bribed into feigning ideological compliance.

Most politicians already knew it wouldn't work. After all, they are savvy lawyers and their clever dealings have brought them incredible wealth, while they comedically pose as millionaire public servants to appear harmless to their subjects.

They deliberately make a show of choosing actions they sensibly know won't achieve their claimed objectives, though costing trillions in currency and sometimes killing millions of people.

There is a second motive they ambitiously pursue, one that doesn't serve public interest and isn't disclosed for public scrutiny. They use their position for an alternative purpose, yet escape responsibility for the public harm they do by pretending to be ignorant and surprised of the calamities they knowingly engineer.