Vote for Me or I Crush Your Genitals

The horrors of politics in Zimbabwe. One of the big downsides of globe-straddling information technology is that terrible things happening anywhere become instant and persistent public knowledge. The number of things we have to get in arguments with ourselves about (see post below) goes up. There are lots of dissembling ways of coping with this problem, but at a certain point in time decisions have to be made and actions have to be taken — even the decision to positively do nothing. It would be nice if the civilized world was able to muster a force able to end the insane evil going on under Mugabe. But obviously this is not going to happen.

Should we live more or less comfortably with the guilt of our inability to make Zimbabwe — much less the world — a decent place? I leave you with that big question. But a smaller, useful question is whether the US should have to bear the entire burden of letting populations of foreign strangers suffer. One wonders how recent history would be different if Europe had actually already been able to reassert itself as a moral leader in the world. Until it does, life will be too difficult for America.