3 ms·

Has there really ever been such a thing as a benevolent country? I think it only exists in subjective histories depending on who wins. For instance the Romans

Has there really ever been such a thing as a benevolent country? I think it only exists in subjective histories depending on who wins. For instance the Romans are thought of as a great, cultured civilisation because their histories won out, but the Gauls and Carthaginians would’ve disagreed. Like Lord Palmerston said, countries don’t have friends v or enemies, only interests. Russia and China get along well now, definitely didn’t 50 and 150 years ago, but did in intervening periods. Yet they would both consider themselves as in the right regardless.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> Has there really ever been such a thing as a benevolent country? Country? Probably not. Society? Yes. America’s treatment of Europe post-WWII, and even Japan and Germany, together with its restraint when it was the global nuclear hegemon, was benevolent.
- sillywalk 1y ago
  There are a lot of countries in South and Central America, where the US overthrew an elected government and supported dictators, that might disagree with the term "benevolent".
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > a lot of countries in South and Central America, where the US overthrew an elected government and supported dictators From that society? The people who were in power when we were the global nuclear hegemon? My point is societies corrupt, and great societies emerge from the corrupted. America before and after was not benevolent. The Americans at the helm during and at the end of WW2 were, as an aggregate, as expressed through our republic, benevolent. (Benevolence doesn’t require faultlessness.)
bryanrasmussen 1y ago
benevolent was perhaps the wrong word, but great powers in alignment with smaller powers can often be seen as benevolent by those smaller powers when what is really going on is their interests align at the moment, with a moment being multiple generations at a country scale of time.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

> Has there really ever been such a thing as a benevolent country? Country? Probably not. Society? Yes. America’s treatment of Europe post-WWII, and even Japan and Germany, together with its restraint when it was the global nuclear hegemon, was benevolent.

sillywalk 1y ago
There are a lot of countries in South and Central America, where the US overthrew an elected government and supported dictators, that might disagree with the term "benevolent".
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > a lot of countries in South and Central America, where the US overthrew an elected government and supported dictators From that society? The people who were in power when we were the global nuclear hegemon? My point is societies corrupt, and great societies emerge from the corrupted. America before and after was not benevolent. The Americans at the helm during and at the end of WW2 were, as an aggregate, as expressed through our republic, benevolent. (Benevolence doesn’t require faultlessness.)

bryanrasmussen 1y ago

benevolent was perhaps the wrong word, but great powers in alignment with smaller powers can often be seen as benevolent by those smaller powers when what is really going on is their interests align at the moment, with a moment being multiple generations at a country scale of time.