There are distinct disadvantages to living in a big country. Doubly
so for a big country isolated from the other ninety-five percent of
the world’s population. We can come, or jump, to some pretty
strange conclusions. Big countries allow for a lot of jumping space.
We might assume that the other people on planet Earth are out of
their minds for not playing ball with us, instead preferring to play
a far more exhausting form of “football”. Obviously, they’re
only doing this to piss us off and threatening our interests
overseas. One of the conclusions we don’t come to is those
“interests overseas” are really other people’s. Other people’s
countries, other people’s children, other people’s families, and
other people’s lives. That’s what we’re talking about when we
use the phrase, “our interests overseas.” In a big country they
seem so remote, it’s as if they aren’t real people like us. They
are more inanimate objects, even abstracts, but certainly not real
people like us. As I said, some pretty strange conclusions.
Much
of our foreign policy is driven by the need to protect our interests
overseas. It seems perfectly reasonable. After all, they are ours.
Personal property is the cornerstone of freedom, right? Pretty
strange conclusions.
It’s
a big country. So big we can forget where our boundaries lay.
