Most of human history has been characterized by the powerful ruling over the weak through brutality and fear. A quick survey of history will show one empire after another conquering as much of the world as they could. Big, powerful nations get the headlines in our history books: Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Rome. Many of the most famous leaders were also quite brutal: Caesar Augustus, Hannibal, Attila the Hun, Herod the Great, Alexander the Great, and plenty of familiar names from the twentieth century.
For most of history, most people have had to cope with oppression. They have fought for survival, trying to avoid the reach of the powerful. This is just the way of human history. Philosopher Thomas Hobbes described human life as "nasty, brutish, and short." He had a lot of evidence for his point.
There has always been incentive for the powerful to oppress the weak. The powerful can get what they want. They can provide some measure of protection for the oppressed. The powerful make sure to kill all the right people to ensure the outcome they desire. The domination of the strong is just the law of existence.
One exception to this rule, flawed as it may be, has been the United States of America. Objective history will reveal plenty of abuses of this nation, from slavery to slaughter of Indigenous Americans to internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II. But for most of American history, our leaders have acknowledged the danger of rule by brute force and fear tactics. Leaders have gone out of their way to justify any violence and claim the moral high ground. We Americans know that we are not like most nations in history. We look down on the brutal dictators of any century. We launched a revolution to free ourselves from oppression.
But now we find American brutality being justified without any claim to moral high ground. The world is a violent place, our leaders remind us, and the strong are right to dominate the weak. Our national interests are all that matters. We take what we want and need because we can. We use force on our own citizens and dare local officials to stop the feds. We bomb foreign nations at will, with no authorization from Congress. We bomb boats and kill people in the open sea, stating categorically that only drug smugglers have died. Meanwhile, Congress is too afraid of raw power and retribution to provide any check on executive power.
What we Americans fail to realize is that most of history has been like this. The strong have crushed the weak, because they can. The strong dare anyone to stop them. Leadership is defined by what you can get away with. And these stories are the stuff of history.
So now, Americans, welcome to normal history. It doesn't feel so good to me.
