We are all slow in our thinking. Changing our mind may take ten years, but by then the chance is over. Consider the end of the Cold War. The USSR had imploded under its military costs, and both Gorbachev and Yeltsin wanted an end to these two vast arsenals which were impoverishing us all. It was the obvious opportunity to close down world militarism. There was genuinely no big enemy. Millions of us probably thought – I certainly did – Why don’t they disarm and agree to stay disarmed? What a great move that would have been. Saddam off the map. The Middle East stable. The CIA without a job and seventy million refugees not fleeing their homes. Yes, that was good thinking of a kind, but it was pathetic, inadequate.
What was needed was another bit of thinking. I was dimly aware of it then, but not really switched on. It was not difficult, or academic, though academic thinking helps a bit sometimes. It was really ordinary human wisdom. I needed to understand that turkeys do not vote for Christmas, and they have never voted for Christmas. Of course, everybody understands that, and most people have probably said it. But you cannot do disarmament if the militarists are in charge of it. They will not do their own obsolescence. And insofar as they control the politicians, they will not let the politicians do it either. So, disarmament in 1990 would be killed if the wrong people were in place, and they were. Thinking needs to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves, as Someone once said, but most of us are as wise as doves. We were not up for it. We were not prepared. We were foolish virgins, as Someone once said. We could read the weather, but could not read the times, as he insisted he should. We were cooing about the end of the Cold War, but our thinking was asleep, and the wrong people were in charge. President Reagan had learned his trade with an arms company, General Electric, and George H. W. Bush was pro-military and had Rumsfeld as his advisor, the one who had given aid to Saddam to buy arms. There was not much intellect there.
So, there was the time we all lived through. We celebrated the end of the Cold War, but we were not thinking. We were not switched on. Millions needed to think and act decisively. Really, we had about six months to think. On 2nd December 1989 Bush and Gorbachev declared an end to the Cold War. But nothing happened. The US military were asked about disarmament, but they said they would wait about for another enemy to emerge, and the CIA eventually laid on Russia and possibly China, after they had had to make do with Saddam for a decade, even when he had no WMDs.
So, where were you in early 1990? You were probably not thinking effectively, like me. You made do with a warm feeling. You were asleep. Things were better, but not really better, because turkeys do not vote for Christmas. We are still not thinking, and now the leader of the free world is an idiot.
Sign: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300818
It does not require much thought.