Saturday, April 14, 2018
The sound of NEUTRALITY
Following on last week's Bravo for Austria.
The concept of NEUTRALITY is entirely alien and unfamiliar in modern times. It was familiar and desirable to Americans in the '30s. We were officially NEUTRAL until we were ACTUALLY ATTACKED by the Japs. As the Krauts and Japs were clearly moving closer to attacking us, we were preparing and organizing our defenses, but we were NOT ATTACKING ANYONE.
You can get a strong sense of how NEUTRALITY felt and sounded by listening to CBS news in '39. Elmer Davis gave the details of the mounting war in Europe and Asia, but he never took sides. He treated the claims of both sides equally. When evidence disproved a Brit claim, he gave the evidence. When evidence disproved a Kraut claim, he gave the evidence.
This section of Archive.org includes a wide selection of Davis and other newscasters.
This 15 minute clip from Dec '39 is especially relevant. Stalin was briefly allied with Germany, and was briefly acting like Krauts or modern Americans. Russia was aggressively invading Finland to force regime change.
We were unhappy with Russia for its alliance with Krauts, but we didn't do anything in response because Russia was NOT ATTACKING US. Therefore we DIDN'T NEED TO RESPOND. IT WAS NONE OF OUR FUCKING BUSINESS.
Sane and moral behavior is the same for individuals or nations. 1. Don't start a fight. 2. Defend yourself when you are actually attacked.
Now we have perfectly reversed the rules of sanity and morality. We only attack countries that HAVEN'T attacked us. We collaborate with countries that HAVE attacked us, like Britain and Japan and Germany and Saudi.
Labels: defensible times
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