https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-preparedness-the-road-to-universal-slaughter
"Forty years ago Germany proclaimed the slogan: “Germany above everything. Germany for the Germans, first, last and always. We want peace; therefore we must prepare for war. Only a well armed and thoroughly prepared nation can maintain peace, can command respect, can be sure of its national integrity.” And Germany continued to prepare, thereby forcing the other nations to do the same. The terrible European war is only the culminating fruition of the hydra-headed gospel, military preparedness. "
She’s absolutely right. And she identifies the core problem too. It only takes one country. So we’re trapped by the prisoner’s dilemma. There is a multiverse slice out there somewhere where Democracy solved these issues because proponents of military build ups were voted out everywhere. But it’s not our universe. As long as there’s a state building hard power to fuck with other countries we’re all trapped.
you seem to be trapped in the dilemma of picking up a flag when fighting against something.
Are you suggesting we need military preparedness in case of non state organizations?
Eh, military unpreparedness, to compare, leads to becoming a victim.
And (some) democracy, (relative) equality and all that (including trade and peaceful life being perceived as something more honorable than conquest) in Europe were historically spearheaded by United Provinces, Hanseatic cities and all those guys who were militarily prepared.
Because Germany, as well as any other european state at that time, was a genocidal maniac who shouldn’t be trusted with guns. However the Germany of today is far removed from those times and rivalries. And we’re not even talking about Germany, but the EU as a whole. We are talking about Europe, was a community of states, providing the protection themselves that they enjoyed by the US in the past.
