March 31, 2004

Response to Readership

Modern Culture and Conflict

I recently heard someone make a prediction that within the next fifty years there will likely be a civil war in Europe between "old" Europe and Muslims. That currently there is (at least) an ideological war being waged between European Socialism/Secularism vs. American Capitalism/Judeo-Christian-ism, with Muslims fighting both European and American concepts. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, could you speculate as to how you feel it will likely play itself out?

Hanson: I agree with your diagnosis, but believe that Europe already is aware that the old rules must change if it is to survive—witness immigration reform in Holland and Scandinavia. It is one thing to triangulate between the United States and the Arab world for short-term advantage; quite another to find oneself alienated from the heretofore supportive Americans without finding commesnurate  gratitude from the Middle East. Sensible people in Europe grasp this and are in a race with demagogues to change before it’s too late.

With the strong possibility of Spain going wobbly in the War On Terror, what is the minimum set of allies we need for a success?

Hanson: Well, in the sense of allies, the United Kingdom is worth more than most of continental Europe combined. Most Americans find Poles and Czechs far more pragmatic and empathetic than they do Belgians and French. Let us not forget the Australians and the Japanese. And of course the United States spends more on defense than all of Europe combined several times over. Losing support of the Charles De Gaul at sea is not a setback.

What do you think the short-term ramifications of Spain's tentative withdraw from Iraq will be? Was this predictable?

Hanson: I think we feared appeasement given the insidious effects the last decade in Europe of socialism, pacifism, trendy anti-Americanism, and a general willingness to see people slaughtered nearby in the Balkans—all cloaked in ‘moral’ terms. When European peacekeepers by the thousands did nothing to stop mass murder a few miles away as we saw at Sbrenica, then we should not be surprised at what we saw in Spain and may well see elsewhere. It is a psychological mechanism to profess utopianism from afar as a way of reconciling the moral impotence of doing anything morally concrete in your midst.

Can the US successfully pursue a war against terror without our traditional allies in Europe?

Hanson: In the narrow military sense, yes; but it is hard without their help in rounding up terrorists in Europe—the home to so many of our enemies such as the 9-11 killers. And when they unleash their formidable culture machinery—print, television, intelligentsia—against us, our problems multiply worldwide. Yet we have cards to play ourselves, starting with strengthening our alliances with Britain, Eastern Europe, and Japan, as well as withdrawing troops from Western Europe, reexamining NATO, and demanding radical changes in the UN. We must remain friends with Europe but that involves an entirely new relationship.

Comment on the tendency of the Left in this country to "cozy up" to dictators.

Hanson: Well, the Right at least is now willing to confront fascists like Noriega, Milosevic, the Taliban, and Saddam and seek consensual government in their wake; but the Left more or less still gives a pass to thugs like Aristide, Castro, Arafat, and the Chinese communists if they mouth platitudes about social justice. The Left really does think forced equality is worth repression even at the expense of liberty and freedom.

What is Israel doing wrong?

Hanson: Not much. They are winning their war against terror. The Palestinians are on the verge of getting 95% of their West Bank state, albeit unilaterally and cut off by fortifications from the ‘Zionist entity.’ Arafat is lord of his rubble heap. Given the power of oil, anti-Semitism, fear of terrorism, and the antipathy of Europe, this tiny democracy is doing as well as we could expect.

Classical Literature and Other Historical Questions

Do you see any similarities between the demise of the Greek and Roman empires and the present situation in Europe?

Hanson: Yes, and I have written about them a lot in the nationalreview.com columns if you go to the archives there. The weakness of late Rome was never too many enemies but rather an inability to pass on the idea of what it was to be Roman and the need to defend it. Bribery to Attila or hiring mercenaries to fight the Goths was seen as preferable for an empire of 60 million to fighting—in a manner that a small agrarian republic of four million six centuries had once routed Hannibal.

I wonder if you could shed some light on fascism as an historical pattern. Specifically, are we seeing an emerging cyclic phenomena?

Hanson: It has always been there in the loose sense of appealing to a human desire for autocracy, racial or religious purity, and reactionary calls to return to past mythical glories. Among elite Westerners it has always evoked a certain attraction for the strong man and coercion dressed up as philosophy. Orwell was not wrong when he said of Western Marxists that if it paid better they’d be fascists. The chimera of absolute power has a certain hold on utopians, who claim they need to be devils to the do the work of angels.

When do you think was the first time a society's army fought for good over evil as opposed to self-interest and preservation?

Hanson: I have very old-fashioned and simplistic views that the Persians at Thermopylae represented a different and far worse vision for the Mediterranean than the Greeks who barred their way. War is never between absolute good and evil, but over something better versus something worse.

Can you comment on the differences between the Western way of war in contrast to the Mongol way of war? After all, the Mongols had successful military strategies and tactics that allowed them to conquer cities and civilizations as far west as Leipnitz.

Hanson: I discussed this in Carnage and Culture somewhat. I think we have to distinguish nomadic and tribal raiding such as the Islamic inroads into 8^th century France and the Moguls with a systematic exploration, colonization, and occupation of territory in the manner of the Alexander the Great, Caesar, or the 16^th-century Europeans. For most of 2,500 years of civilization Europe’s core was more or less sacrosanct.

Was Cicero present at the assassination of Caesar? If not or if so, what sources can substantiate either position?

Hanson: Probably not. As I recall, he claims ignorance of the planning. Cf. his Letters and relevant passages in Plutarch.

Could you describe what Carthaginian society was like?

Hanson: I wrote about this a lot in   chapter on Cannae in Carnage and Culture

Are there any particular translations of classics (such as of Plutarch’s works), extant or in process that you would recommend as on or near the level of Landmark? Are there any websites with informed translations of the Classics?

Hanson: Well, not really, although the Modern Library is redoing its Plutarch series. I just wrote the introduction to a new edition of Plutarch’s Alexander. The Perseus website has relevant information as does the American Philological Association’s online resources. Mr. Strassler is organizing a new team to do a Landmark Herodotus and perhaps an eventual Landmark Xenophon and Polybius. It takes a businessman to understand what practical guides general readers really need.

Modern Intelligentsia

I wondered if you have any thoughts on the merits of the concept -- that history affects generations and generations affect history -- put forth by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book, The Fourth Turning.

Hanson: I really don’t. I know the book but never had done anything other than skim it. In Ripples of Battle I tried to show how a few hours of battle can transform generations in artistic, literary, political, and social ways for centuries afterwards.

What can be done, on an individual level, to counteract nonsense of liberals like Chomsky and Moore? I can argue against their books, but do you know of a book that explains all of the major holes in Chomsky's or Moore's books?

Hanson: I think Encounter Books has something coming out by Peter Collier on Chomsky.

The two must be distinguished. Moore is a buffoon and a cult personality like Al Franken, who are entertainers neither educated nor especially bright, but glib and savvy enough to tap into a deductive hatred of George Bush. Chomsky on the other hand once was a gifted linguist who let his anti-Americanism and weakness for conspiracy theory overwhelm his reason.

In general, I don’t take too seriously the radical rants of some pampered academic living in affluence in New England, working 9 months a year with guaranteed lifetime employment at a university dependent on defense contracts and the tuition payments from some of the wealthiest of Americans. In preference to soap-box invective and shrill accusations of exploitation, Chomsky could have resigned years ago as a sign of protest against MIT’s military connections or its elite student body or its emphasis on research for the capitalist war-machine or its use of exploited part-time teachers and graduate students or its tendency to hike tuition above the rate of inflation. Instead, he is a court jester for the privileged—but most working Americans dismiss him as a spoiled brat of sorts mad that his country does not take his juvenile tantrums too seriously. In general the American professoriate is about as in touch as Hollywood entertainers; that both do quite well in America perhaps explains their guilt and angst.

What is your opinion of James V. Forrestal?

Hanson: A gifted but tragic figure like so many in the postwar period that grasped the horrific sacrifices needed to stop the militarists in Japan and Germany could not be followed by a breather and isolationism that had occurred in 1918, but rather even greater vigilance against a Soviet nuclear threat even more deadly. How those Cold Warriors did it, I don’t know but we owe them collectively a great deal.

Personal

In your biography, I saw no mention of your religious background. Do you have a religious preference?

Hanson: Protestant