Some thoughts on the Long Peace (aka Pax Americana)

Every life lost, every casualty of war, is a personal tragedy for some family, its friends and neighbors.  Modern media – with its emphasis on “human interest” stories has tended to magnify these personal tragedies, turning them into national tragedies as well. 

This November, the first children born after the attacks on September 11, 2001, will be coming out to vote.  They who were not present for that seminal event are now coming into the bloodstream of the body politic.  

The question is:  Can we really judge what national tragedy is anymore?  Our perceptions have changed.  In a world of “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” what measurements do we use to make that judgement? 

Establishment media now uses histrionics and superlatives to describe most every person and event.  “Donald Trump is a Nazi” is among the most frequent.  But if we place what we call tragedy into the longer context of history, perhaps we will learn to temper our use of superlatives?

Below is a very straightforward video on the on-going tragedy of war that serves to place the violence of the last century into some context.  It will also serve a self-congratulatory role for those of us who are happy to call ourselves Americans – citizens of the great Republic that has provided for the world this “Long Peace” that is another name for Pax Americana.  We will let Wikipedia explain…

Pax Americana (Latin for "American Peace", modeled after Pax Romana, Pax Britannica, and Pax Mongolica) is a term applied to the concept of relative peace in the Western Hemisphere and later the world beginning around the middle of the 20th century, thought to be caused by the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States.

Pax Americana is primarily used in its modern connotations to refer to the peace among great powers established after the end of World War II in 1945, also called the Long Peace. In this modern sense, it has come to indicate the military and economic position of the United States in relation to other nations. For example, the Marshall Plan, which spent $13 billion to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, has been seen as "the launching of the Pax Americana".

The Latin term derives from Pax Romana of the Roman Empire. The term is most notably associated with Pax Britannica (1815–1914) under the British Empire, which served as the global hegemon and constabulary from the late 18th century until the early 20th century.

Happy Independence Day all you Americans out there… take a moment to pat yourselves on the back.  Pax Americana… the world owes our Republic a debt for the Long Peace.