"The
only possible gain to be derived from a continuation of high levels of
military spending, La Follette believed, would go to armaments
manufacturers and to financial elites wanting powerful offensive forces
to protect their interests and investments in foreign lands....
"La Follette feared in the aftermath of the Great War that the United
States would never get back to a rational basis in its dealings with the
world. Wilsonian rhetoric about the unique marvels and glories of
America’s selfless goodness, which became a permanent part of the
American psyche, had robbed the country of the realism and sense of
limits without which no people could keep their balance. Americans
actually seemed to believe their own twaddle about their country’s
freedom from those laws of history that governed the rest of the world."
Today, high levels of military spending are touted as sustained
economic stimulus for each of the nation's 435 congressional districts.
"American exceptionalism" also provides soothing rhetorical cover for
wayward adventurism that runs afoul of the lessons of history, much of
it driven by prior errors in judgment by those charged by the solemn
duties of sound governance.
There are no "laws of history," but hubris does appear to be a latent human trait.
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