The Historical Blinders

One of the most pervasive problems in discussions of contemporary political issues, I think, is a tendency to compare the status quo to various historical reference points as a mechanism to discourage political action in the present.  Hitler and the Nazis, for instance, stand as a clear symbol of absolute evil that demanded righteous American intervention - by comparison, contemporary situations seem much more ambiguous, and therefore, goes the assessment, we should be resistant to any claims that America has some kind of moral obligation or even ethical or political interest in intervention or humanitarian involvement in modern crises, like the Syrian Civil War for instance.

But this is a fallacy.  When such a comparison is made, one evaluates one situation in hindsight through an interpretive lens crafted over decades of historical analysis.  Current crises, by contrast, are observed with incomplete information and more intense conflicts over interpretation of the literal facts on the ground.  Beyond that, we can look back on historical wrongdoing and assert moral responsibility to prevent bad acts with feeling the cost of taking action; action in the present requires that WE pay the cost.  Viewed in that light, all of the sudden, we reconfigure our decision-making in a way that puts more empathetic emphasis on the moral actor and less on the victims of catastrophe, because we are the so-called moral actors and it's much easier to empathize with ourselves than others.

If you took a jaunt back in history to 1939, you would find that most Americans were staunchly opposed to raising immigration quotas for Jewish immigrants from Europe, motivated by xenophobia and fearful for employment because of a depressed domestic economy.  Many questioned why Americans should have to sacrifice their own economic wellbeing to benefit the victims of a foreign war that they had no stake in. Sound familiar?  While these arguments played out in the American political scene, millions of Jews were murdered in Europe.  Thousands tried to flee to the United States and were denied entry.  No attempt to raise refugee quotas succeeded until 1944.

There's an additional wrinkle to consider - we, the citizens of the first world, DO bare some responsibility for the victims of the Syrian Civil War.  Arguably, the conflict is the first conflict originated by climate change, which is largely fueled by western overconsumption.  The

warming of the atmosphere affects global precipitation patterns.  Changes in rainfall caused extended droughts in Syria, caused crop failures, food shortages, and skyrocketing prices for basic commodities.  People protested for assistance.  The Assad regime responded with violence.  The rest is history.

So... where does that leave us?  We are the American generation that has created global climate disruption which has already destabilized governments in different parts of the world and led to massive human suffering.  We are also the American generation that largely denies any responsibility for the world's problems and feels entitled to ignore the suffering of the global population that is necessary to sustain our absurdly wasteful lifestyle.

Is your conscience clean?  I'm feeling a little ashamed.