Again and again, a truism of the human condition is replayed for all to see. The ghosts of war and evil flit back and forth between the past and present, leaving their trails of horror for those with eyes to see.
Anti-Semitism has become a resurgent worry among the civilized peoples of the earth, just as religious animus again fuels an arms race in the Middle East. We’ve been here before…so many times in fact that the path is worn and broad, no signs needed on this road to perdition.
The responses to these warnings are no different either. We still see appeasement offered as a responsible and prudent course to be preferred over armed conflict. We witness the sickness of avarice as some seek to profit from the circumstances, just as many Germans turned a blind eye to atrocity in exchange for being among the first to plunder the belongings of the Jewish family down the street.
Why are we so myopic? How can life bring the exact same choices to us, yet we still make the same bad selection, as if this time, it’s going to work out the way we hoped. We are a foolish creature and given to fantasy. All well and good if your name is Disney, but catastrophic if your name is prefaced with the title “President.”
The old saying about “politics being the art of compromise” is only partly true; I would argue that politics is actually the artful balance of doubt and risk. Unleavened risk leads to conflict, often needlessly, while unchecked doubt leads inexorably to failure.
A certainty of life is found in the arrival of doubt. Whenever a decision must be made, whenever a choice presents itself or an opportunity comes our way, doubt will soon follow. As a commonality of the human condition, doubt is right up there with death, a more or less constant companion.
However, doubt has a bad reputation it really hasn’t earned. Sure, we all know “he who hesitates is lost,” and bold action is often a hallmark of success; but sometimes doubt is a needful thing, leading us to measure again before we cut; to look both ways…twice.
Truly, the problem isn’t with doubt itself, but rather the power we grant it in our lives. Is it a healthy emotion urging a balanced review of plans, or an overbearing foreman, micro-managing our every step until we take no steps at all?
In my life, doubt has played both roles many times, often while I remained unaware of its influence, believing myself to be “prudent,” or “cautious,” when in truth I was indulging in cowardice – moral or physical.
Doubt is the handmaiden of risk in the life of a well-adjusted adult. We need the latter to thrive and the former to survive. A life absent either doubt or risk is no life at all; it is a tragic waste of potential. Absent risk, there is no gain. Absent doubt, there is no wisdom. Only with a carefully measured dose of each can we impact the world around us in a positive way.
But the ghosts of war argue against this concept. They are eager to urge reckless abandon, or paralyzing doubt; there can be no balance in war, only one or the other; only a winner or a loser.
Our leaders (at all levels, local, state and federal) must be constantly reminded that past is prologue and the ghosts of war are no mere apparition, they are the very real voice inside of each of us screaming that “only this” will work, or “never do that” if you value your life.
I’ve long said that few things in life are all of one thing and none of another, and so it is with the lessons of the past. Learn from history and recognize the parallels in present day decision-making. Allow doubt to lead you to learn and let risk propel you to act, but never let one or the other dominate. That is the clearest road sign I can offer.