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Opinion | Broad, Sunlit Uplands


On June 18, 1940, Churchill gave his famous speechBest time” statement. British troops have been evacuated from Dunkirk. France, under Pétain, has decided to surrender. “Hitler knew he would have to destroy us on this island or lose the war,” Churchill told House of Commons.

“If we can resist him, the whole of Europe can be set free and the life of the world can advance to the vast, sunlit highlands. But if we fail, the whole world, including the United States, including all that we know and care about, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made of light. of metamorphic science. .”

Two of those phrases — “the vast, sunlit highlands” and the “abyss of the new Dark Ages” — will ring in our ears as we approach the end of this pivotal year in the calendar. history.

The vast, sun-drenched highlands are Iranian women tearing off their headscarves the way Berliners used to tear down their walls. And Ukrainian soldiers raised their flags over Irpin, Lyman, Kherson and other cities that had been liberated from Russian barbarism. And the Chinese protesters demanded — and achieved — an end to their brutal and insane Covid blockade by holding up blank sheets of paper where nothing needs to be written because everyone already knows. their will.

The vast, sun-drenched highlands are Emmanuel Macron’s victory over the fascist Marine Le Pen in France. They are the defeat of nearly every voter in the United States who run to oversee voting at the state level. They rival most of Donald Trump’s handpicked candidates in the midterm elections on the battlefield, including in states like Georgia where non-QAnon Republicans have won by one. easy way.

Large, sunny highlands are the death rate from Covid that, in the US, no longer spiked several weeks after the number of infections increased. They are proof that a laboratory-generated fusion reaction can produce more energy than it consumes. They are the loft of the telescope that allows us to look far into space and back in time.

This is not just a list of the good news of the year. It is an expression of the capacity of people in cultures and circumstances to claim, defend and define freedom; to challenge those who would reject it; and use freedom to push the boundaries of what we can know, do, and imagine.

But that’s not the only thing that 2022 represents. We continue to stare into the abyss of a new Dark Age, created not only by the malice of freedom’s enemies but also by the complacency and wishful thinking of its supporters.

The complacents include those who imagine that we can leave Afghanistan to the Taliban and not suffer the greater consequences. But the perception of American weakness spreads fast and far. by Vladimir Putin Monday The invasion of Ukraine, on 24 February, occurred about six months after that US defeat. Recall that his first invasion of Ukraine, in February 2014, occurred a few months after Barack Obama’s defeat in Syria over his chemical weapons “red line”.

The smug include those who think we can trade our way to a permanent form of peace – whether by bringing China into the World Trade Organization or hiring Putin to deliver. Europe’s energy needs or imagine that we could strengthen the “moderates” in Iran by lifting sanctions. Authoritarian regimes are rarely weakened by being enriched. Lenin maybe not said that “capitalists will sell us the rope to hang them,” but it is remarkable that successive generations of capitalists never seem to learn this point.

The smug include supposedly sophisticated Republicans who have never taken a real stand against Trump – first of all for the reason he can’t win; then the view that he could be the vehicle for conservative policy victories; then with the belief that he will gracefully admit it; then in the belief that impeachment after January 6 is a remedy too harsh — only to see him sabotage the party with conspiracy theorists and lead to a well-deserved defeat.

The smug are those who think that no essential American interests are at stake in Ukraine’s victory or in the outcome of the protests in Iran. Or China’s recent failures, along with Russia’s failures in Ukraine, could deter Xi from attempting to take Taiwan. Or that a corner has been turned up inflation. Or that the rising wave of migration across the southern border, caused by the collapse of authorities across Latin America, is more of a special right-wing obsession than a real crisis that would provoke populist backlash if it is not managed competently.

As Britain was fighting for its life in 1940, much of America was still uncertain about what, if any, timing required it. Churchill made a choice: sunny highlands, or abyss. It is still our choice today.

Happy holiday.

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