New Warhorn Media post by Tim Bayly:
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Great discussion which brought back memories for me.
When West Germany re-armed and introduced the draft my (now very pietistic) grandfather made my uncles to object military service. My uncle had to endure the exact same tribunal/court situation as mentioned by Jürgen: “You are bringing your girlfriend to her parent’s home in the evening. Three RUSSIANS come out of the woods and threaten to rape your girlfriend. COINCIDENTIALLY you have a pistol in your pocket. What do you do?”
When he told is this story in the 90s of course we asked him: “What did you answer??” - He burst out laughing and said “I told them I pray to God that this would never happen to me!”
The other thing that came to my mind was:
25 years ago Israel and the Palestinians were in talks about a peace agreement and a “peace process” with heavy American influence. Bill Clinton facilitated it, the US and Europe gave a lot of money to the Palestinians to jump start economic growth, Shimon Peres had special industrial zones at the border to the Gaza strip where Israeli companies would set up factories and Palestinian workers could work there. Israel also gave up control in a few areas. Probably all good ideas.
The problem was that most of the money went down in the Palestinian Authority murky channels which resulted in a lot of corruption. Hamas took over the Gaza strip by being voted into government - democratically! - on the pretense to end corruption. At that time I remember reading an article in an Israeli newspaper (English) where they wondered why democracy wasn’t established even after having has a vote and a parliament and all. They came to the conclusion that democracy is always preceded by the rule of law, and everybody - especially the elites, the officials and the government - have to keep and enforce the law. Only then democracy is possible. To me this explains why for millenia people were fine with other types of government: As long as there is little to no corruption life will be at least ok.
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Every time I read stuff like this, I realize there is so much more history that I don’t know!
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