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Indifference is irresponsible

Whether we like it or not, our allies around the world look to us for leadership, as those who would harm us look at us for signs of weakness.

(Image: Random Person / Unsplash.com)

I can understand why many Americans seem dispirited about world affairs. Things are indeed a mess.

What I cannot understand, however, is the electorate’s seeming indifference to the global mess: an indifference that manifests itself in our national failure to demand that our wannabe leaders address the new world disorder seriously rather than through sound bites and snarky slogans (“endless wars,” “adventurism,” “global policeman,” etc.).

This is irresponsible politically and, if I may say, morally. The Lord’s injunction in Luke 12:48–“Everyone to whom much has been given, of him much will be required–is primarily addressed to us as individuals. But it is not stretching the biblical text beyond the breaking point to suggest that it also applies to the wealthiest, most powerful country on the planet.

Whether we like it or not, our allies around the world look to us for leadership, as those who would harm us look at us for signs of weakness. Yes, America has arguably borne more than its rightful share of the financial and human burden of leadership in the post-Cold War world. But is the world going to be a safer place for everyone (including us) if the Great Scuttle from Afghanistan–in which we abandoned co-workers and left Afghan women and girls to the tender mercies of the maniacally misogynistic Taliban–becomes the 21st-century metaphor for America’s global role?

Is the world going to be more secure if we abandon Ukraine to Putin’s Russia and Taiwan to Xi Jinping’s China, either by deliberate policy or by displays of fecklessness? Would an Iran with nuclear weapons make the world a better place?

It seems very unlikely.

In a rare moment of bipartisan seriousness, Congress created the Commission on the National Defense Strategy in 2022, with a membership of eight distinguished, experienced Americans from both parties. The Commission’s recently released report is, to put it gently, sobering–or should be for any thoughtful citizen. The crux of this lengthy document can be found in the first paragraph of its summary:

The threats the United States faces are the most serious and challenging the nation has encountered since 1945 and include the potential for near-term major war. The United States last fought a global conflict in World War II, which ended nearly 80 years ago. The nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago. It is not prepared today.

The report goes on to make scathing criticisms of the Department of Defense (“The Commission finds that DoD’s business practices, byzantine research and development (R&D) and procurement systems, reliance on decades-old military hardware, and culture of risk avoidance…are not suited to today’s strategic environment.”). But what concerns me more than the situation at the Pentagon–which could be addressed by a president and Congress willing to do so—is the culture of insouciance about world affairs in the public at large. For without a durable public commitment to using American hard and soft power in shaping a secure international environment, no president and no Congress is going to take the decisive action necessary to forestall another world war.

In the first book of his six-volume history, The Second World War, Winston Churchill recounted a conversation he had with President Franklin Roosevelt, shortly after Pearl Harbor and Germany’s declaration of war brought the United States openly into that conflagration. Roosevelt, always attuned to public relations, was seeking suggestions for what the war should be called and asked the British prime minister his view. Churchill immediately replied, “The Unnecessary War.” It wasn’t a snappy moniker around which Americans (or anyone else) could enthusiastically rally. It was true, however.

The refusal of Great Britain and France to take Hitler at his word, especially about his geopolitical intentions, helped bring on World War II in Europe. So did American public and political indifference to what was afoot on that continent from 1933 on. Are we in the same state of denial, insouciance, or indifference–call it what you will–today? Putin has made clear that he intends to reverse history’s verdict in the Cold War, ingesting Ukraine as a mere antipasto. Xi Jinping has made clear that he intends to respond to what he regards as China’s “Century of Humiliation” by making his totalitarian state the world hegemon. The Iranian mullahs take their vision of a Shiite apocalypse seriously, even if secularists in the State Department and other foreign ministries dismiss them as medieval fantasists.

Ignoring these realities is gross moral and political irresponsibility, because it makes a cataclysm of unprecedented lethality more likely.


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About George Weigel 516 Articles
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of over twenty books, including Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999), The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (2010), and The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform. His most recent books are The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission (2020), Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse Cast of Characters, Most of Them Admirable (Ignatius, 2021), and To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II (Basic Books, 2022).

38 Comments

  1. The president of the United States, as Commander in Chief, has control over our nuclear arsenal. Only a fellow imbecile would vote for an imbecile as president.

        • I wrote: “The president of the United States, as Commander in Chief, has control over our nuclear arsenal. Only a fellow imbecile would vote for an imbecile as president.”

          I add this: Those with only a modicum of common sense are in need of no further specification. For those who are imbeciles, further specification is useless.

      • It’s commonly referred to as “the red button.”

        Do you want someone who has the deer in the headlights looks when you ask them a fairly straightforward question having that oversight power?

      • I’ll give you a hint. Since this person drives a sane person to drink while listening, my bartender and I invented a cocktail. We call it a Kamalatini with lemon and plattitudes.

  2. Land wars on the Asian continent against Asian powers do not go well. They drag on forever, with endless blood and treasure. Our leaders usually “misunderestimste” to quote George W. Bush,our enemies, with disastrous consequences.

    Speaking of George W Bush, his Iraqi War was a mistake of epic dimensions. Lots of dead and maimed people, billions of wasted Dollars, and a big boost to Iran. Do we want more of this foolishness?

    I wore the uniform (USMC) and served overseas, but I am not prepared to sacrifice any of my children or grandchildren, for some incompetent, macho politician of either party.

    • I want someone to tell me:
      1. What was the point of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan? and;
      2. Did we win that war or did we lose it?

      • I wonder what any outsider has accomplished in Afghanistan since Alexander the Great? There doesn’t seem to be a great track record.

        • We should have known better. If both the British Empire and the Soviet Union couldn’t civilize Afghanistan, the odds were highly against us succeeding.

  3. Considering our national indifference to the three apocalyptic designs of Putin, Xi Jinping, and the Shiite mullahs…Even more globally, when are “synodality” too deconstructionist (?) and “mercy” too invertebrate, and therefore less signs of Christian hope than of post-Christian despair? The fourth horseman of the apocalypse?

    Less than a generation before the mentioned Winston Churchill and the Second World War, the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey remarked at the beginning of the First World War. “The lamps are going out all over Europe, and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

    What will it take for the worldwide Synod on Synodality and the accreted “study groups”—or some excluded voices—to unapologetically turn on the lights, and to clearly reaffirm the nature of the Triune God, the nature of the Church in the world, and even the nature and of Man and personal morality? Or, was this the voice of the backwardist/paradigm-shifted (!) Second Vatican Council:

    “Christ the Lord…by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to himself [!] and makes his supreme calling clear” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 22).

  4. George, I’m surprised at you. You know better than most that half of the American people — and *more* than half of American Catholics — vote for Democrats no matter what.

    No. Matter. What.

    In fact for the past 50 years, we’ve been witnessing an experiment in which Democrats have been trying to come up with a policy proposal so extreme, so ridiculous, so insane, that Catholics will stop voting Democratic. Just to see if it could be done.

    And it hasn’t happened yet.

    The prospect of killing all the babies didn’t do it.

    Mutilation and sterilization of the surviving children didn’t do it.

    Drug legalization didn’t do it.

    Borders open to murderers and terrorists didn’t do it.

    Brining the world to the brink of World War III didn’t do it.

    Even the elimination of women wasn’t enough to do it.

    Through it all, more than half of Catholics still vote for Democrats. Apparently without blinking an eye.

    (Sigh.)

    I think we can safely say that the results of the experiment are in.

    More than half of Catholic voters will vote for Democrats no matter what.

    We are forced to conclude that the national suicide attempt is never going to end — until it is successful, that is.

    Which could be sooner than most of us realize.

    • Regarding: “*more* than half of American Catholics — vote for Democrats no matter what.” Not to pick on our Hispanic brothers & sister, but if you remove the Catholic Hispanic votes (nearly half of all Catholics), the overall results change dramatically; hence, this is why some want an Open Border. There is evidence the Hispanic vote is starting to become less monolithic, but if you add 10-20 million new Hispanic voters, it is lights out for future elections.

      • I think the Hispanic vote’s become less monolithic also & the GOP could encourage that trend by being a little more welcoming & weeding out some of the “Heritage American” narratives you hear. Working class Hispanics are on the same page we are.
        I believe Trump has moved the GOP goalposts for the better, away from the country club Republican stereotypes, but there’s still work to do.

  5. The problem for us as citizens is that the people inhabiting the establishment are tyrants who ignore reality.

    And that establishment in Western Europe and the United States has failed and will now fall.

    When they are replaced, hopefully in our govt in November (and hopefully, in another topic, soon in our fraudulent Church hierarchy and its establishment) then maybe citizens (and faithful) can commit themselves to work with people who are ti be taken seriously. Indicators would be:
    A. We admit that Bruce Jenner and will Thomas aren’t girls, but are men who need psychological help…
    B. We admit that the EU is a tyrannical bureaucracy that must be dismantled.
    C. We admit that the UK government appears to be an enemy of free speech and liberty, and that must change or we must count them out, and start looking elsewhere for allies.

  6. “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
    ― Elie Wiesel
    We lost our soul as a country 50-60 years ago and is it any wonder God has allowed us to become what we are. Look out the window, the real epidemic in this country is indifference. And good luck finding an antidote for that epidemic.

  7. Hmmmm…Looks like Neocon George is back. This sounds exactly like George’s siding with the DC Neocons AGAINST St. John Paul’s public stance against W Bush’s invasion of Iraq! 20 years have passed and George must think we have forgotten what a 100% disaster that turned out to be.

  8. What the report willfully ignored was the persistent failures in recruiting, the implementation of DEI initiatives the reduction in numbers from the “classic” military leadership and dismal performance of civilian leadership in the White House. No amount of spending on more military stuff can overcome these deficiencies in character.

  9. An alternative even complementary simplistic viewpoint: the US went into both World Wars to bring the world out of those predispositions.

    Yet somehow somewhere the US has lost sight of that part of its self-possession with the sense of it and the leadership that was true to it.

    Bob Woodward has a new book where it is claimed President Biden has been berating PM Netanyahu. A conditioning that does not square with reality.

  10. The big problem right now is that we don’t have a military that’s prepared to fight wars– we have a military that’s designed by politicians to adhere to insane standards of political philosophy. First, we have to chase all the ideologues out of the military and start recruiting soldiers who know how to win wars– then, and only then, can we start thinking about being the world’s policeman again. And we also have to get our own moral house in order before we can have the moral authority to impose any sort of morality on other countries. With a weak military commanded by immoral leaders, though, our only hope of winning any war lies in the immoral use of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, which is a chilling prospect.

  11. I’m not sure it’s fair or accurate to assume that people are indifferent. Many people actually care deeply about what’s going on around them, but what can the average person really do?

    • If you’re a family with two parents working full time I don’t think the energy is there to regularly delve into what’s going on other than in your bubble, other than of course sports etc..

  12. Great comments brineyman and Chris.

    When Mr. Weigel says “through sound bites and snarky slogans (“endless wars,” “adventurism,” “global policeman,” etc.” we know who he is referring to, as his dislike for Trump seems to know no bounds. For It is certainly not the incumbents who oppose endless wars, etc.

    As a side note regarding Weigels mention of Putin and Ukraine, my online research on Ukraine at the start of the war listed Ukraine as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. They also cancelled their election this year – so much for democracy.

    As for our military, money will not fix it. Our civilian leadership, the armed forces secretaries, and many of the top generals would have to go, as they seem to have signed on to current military woke situation.

    As a side note, our latest 5th generation fighter, the F-35 has a 51 % available rate – apparently too complex to keep in the air. I agree with Weigel that our procurement policies for ships and other military equipment is very bad.

  13. To paraphrase something I once heard, “I’m not so worried about our country having a leader like (here insert Biden or Harris) as I am about our country having an electorate who would vote someone like that into office. There is plenty to find wrong with Trump’s character but no Catholic, worthy of the title, can vote democratic these days. If a person has to look at his vote as the lesser of two evils, so be it, but we must get Trump elected. I’m especially angry at people who say they were turned off by both candidates so they didn’t vote for either. One prominent person I’m thinking of in particular did this last election and look where that helped get us. If people would just look past the personality traits that bother them and look at the policies that both candidates have done while in office then Trump, I believe, will be elected in a landslide. God Bless America

  14. It seems that with all the change in the world people seem more weary, but maybe that’s because I’m getting long in the tooth. Many people don’t follow the news at all.

    The media does a poor job of reporting what is actually going on in this country and abroad, so much of the reporting is suspect.

  15. Sounds like Weigel has been drinking too much of the neocon kool aid for too long (together with a Vatican II mixer).
    The US led during the Cold War because it faced a militant atheistic sworn enemy that had been unleashed by the idealist Wilson/FDR war aims of “making the world safe for democracy”. Richard Nixon brilliantly drove a geopolitical wedge between the Soviet Union and the Red Chinese — and Reagan came around to pick up the credit for the resulting collapse of Communist hegemony in Eastern Europe and in all the Russias.
    Trouble is, Reagan’s successors — Republicans and Democrats — conflated anti-Communism with the old Wilson/FDR “make the world safe for democracy” mission. A Nixonian geo-realpolitik is what is sorely needed at the US helm today. If we’re lucky, Donald Trump will be elected next month, and the US will be able to unwind its current ideological posture in world affairs.

  16. Why does CWR publish such nonsense from Weigel?
    Is he oblivious to the fact that his neo-con heroes instigated the war in Ukraine? That Obama and Clinton and Bush set the middle east ablaze?
    We have the largest defense budget by a factor of 10? compared to other nations yet our weapons are being outclassed by Russia’s much smaller and far more innovative defense industry.
    The USA cannot even run honest elections so many people ‘apathetically’ conclude voting is useless. If we had a national holiday for presidential elections and paper ballots counted on election day perhaps many more citizens would vote. All ballots should be microcoded or watermarked for authenticity and voters given an access key to verify their ballot online. Voter rolls should be verified against property records and voter ID must be required as it is elsewhere all over the world. The printing of false ballots should be punished by life in prison.
    To the disgrace of our feeble and effeminate bich-ups 60% of Catholics are pro-choice – a Luciferian lie – one is either pro-life or one is not. That is why Trump pivoted- he was undermined by those excellencies in pointy hats.
    It does seem our country is already doomed – bankrupt financially and morally – it is probably too late for Trump to ‘save’ us but he is pledging his fortune, his honor and his life to try to make America Great Again.

    • You made some good points, but to claim that “neo-cons instigated” the war in the Ukraine and American Presidents were the cause of mid-East discord is off-the-wall preposterous.

  17. Indifference can be considered a Christian virtue. But not as defined and understood as a pejorative. Christian indifference is actually a walk of faith wherein we place our desires below His will trusting that no matter what happens that it serves His purpose and is for our sanctification.

    For the purpose of this article however, yes, indifference is a vice but Athanasius askes the topical (and practical) question; “What can anyone do?” (Besides pray.) The American people are not stupid. They know that the main stream media is the mouthpiece of the ruling class and that they are not telling us the full truth of a given story. They know that the news is agenda driven. Then there is this; how many Americans have lost faith in their elected officials concluding that the majority of politicos at the federal level are beholden to the Deep State and therefore in no way represent them? It is not indifference so much as it is helplessness. Add to that, regarding the Pope’s Church of Abandonment, ultimately the Latin Mass Catholics are powerless in the face of an openly hostile pope who is trying to marginalize if not destroy them. What can anyone do? The powers that be aren’t listening. It isn’t indifference so much as hopelessness and helplessness.

  18. Where does one start? With hurricanes Helene and Milton creating unbelievable loss of life and homes, pain and suffering, the focus should be on storm mitigation. Our dismissal of global warming as a HOAX should prompt more international focus to mitigate these powerful storms as they spawn. The ocean temperatures are reaching 80 degrees which presents “food” for hurricanes. It is obvious that hurricanes are becoming more frequent, and powerful. They hover over land longer. Helene spread disaster over several states. Milton was more deadly and zeroed in on Florida. Almost all spawn in the Atlantic off western Africa.

    Amazing that we can put a man on the Moon in the 60s. Some say the earth goes through cycles every 10 thousand years. OK. But the earth has not had 8 billion consumers at that time.

    Political adoration of murderous tyrant leaders. profuse hatred, lying, misdirection, and even our sacred right to vote is entering the darkness of turmoil. I can’t remember when families were threatened because of their disappointment with a politician.

    The future of our children, our democracy and our political system should motivate us to take action on all.

    • Storm mitigation? I’m not sure there will ever be an answer for that but we could at least consider what sort of development is constructed on our coasts & barrier islands. If not storm mitigation, at least damage prevention.
      Newer construction codes require raising structures in certain zones. Flooding often affects older homes built on cement slabs. Like mine unfortunately & a lot of folks in FL. I’ve been blessed to have avoided water intrusion so far, thankfully. Our grandparents were smarter & built their homes raised off the ground. It’s a little harder to heat a house that way but it sure beats flooding.

      • mrsc. As you might know, I always seek out the sources. You are right, mitigation may be out of reach. I have researched hurricane disasters for some time after we left Florida. I am convinced that extensive human use and emissions of fossil fuels into the atmosphere is a contributor to global warming. The earth protection Ozone layer keeps expanding and contracting, (NOAA and NASA). However, the amount of loss of Ozone protection, a colorless gas, is still debatable. We notice catastrophic evidence elsewhere. In sub-Saharan African nations in the mid-80s, an estimated one million people died from food shortages in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia. Planting of food is impossible when the fields are turned to dust. The icebergs in Greenland and the Artica are melting at an alarming rate and destroying the hunting fields for wildlife. The list goes on, but is there anything scientific on the horizon? Maybe. The latest idea, published in the August issue of the journal Atmospheric Science Letters. I encourage you and others to read the article from Inside Climate News.

        https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24102012/hurricanes-global-warming-climate-change-scientists-cloud-seeding-geoengineering-storms-temperatures/

        In the meantime keep praying for a solition. God speed.

    • Lose the drama and the “sky is falling” routine. It’s unbecoming and childish. We’ve been through many difficult times as a nation in the past and pulled through. We will again.

      • What a statement! “the sky is falling”. Yes, indeed it is. It is in the form of two massive destructive hurricanes. I want you to walk in the tattered and wet shoes of anyone in my former destroyed home of Ashville, NC or the wet leaking boots of anyone from my family’s new home in Tampa, Fl. and experience the horrors of the two cities. The loss of life and the catastrophic damage may not allow them to fully recover.

        Experience is a powerful reminder.

  19. Wealthiest nation? Can someone who knows Weigel teach him something about economics, which should include a discussion about the national debt?

  20. Q: what’s worse , ignorance or apathy?
    A: I don’t know and I don’t care.
    How many marked Oct. 7 as the day Palestine bombed Pearl Harbour?

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