December 6, 2004
ENDOWED BY THEIR SUPERIORS WITH UNALIENABLE PASSIVITY:
Is this the world's least effective UN peacekeeping force? (Economist; via Belmont Club)
Morale among the blue helmets is not high. Many regard their posting to Congo as the height of misfortune. Some are ashamed to be part of such an indolent force. During massacres in Ituri's main town of Bunia last year, some Uruguayan peacekeepers suffered nervous breakdowns after watching atrocities they had been ordered not to prevent. One reportedly told his psychiatrist that goats were talking to him. When asked what they were saying, he replied, “They're shouting: ‘Help me! Help me!'”
The human psyche naturally rebels against Euro-left ineffectualism.
Posted by Paul Jaminet at December 6, 2004 4:47 PM
Belmont Club is an excellent blog.
Posted by: Twn at December 6, 2004 5:00 PMIt occurs to me that this story is a good example of what AOG calls "logo-realism": http://blog.thought-mesh.net/archives/000317.html
We need to put a blue helmet on Kofi, and toss his sorry *** in there with his troops.
Posted by: AllenS at December 6, 2004 5:43 PMPaul, maybe your human psyche does; but, I don't think the average human psyche does.
The kind of people who join the peace corps are deluded, good people. Most people, however, don't join the peace corps and couldn't care less.
What the average person wants is "Euro-left ineffectualism". You see it in the U.S. with the isolationists.
Posted by: Randall Voth at December 7, 2004 8:43 AMRandall - I've known several peace corps people, and they weren't the sort I mean by Euro-left ineffectualists. They joined in order to accomplish something, and when they came back, they accomplished something here. Similarly, the isolationists are not Euro-left ineffectualists. They have projects here at home they want to focus on.
No, what I'm referring to are people who belong spiritually to the "culture of death." Jesus told us he was bringing more abundant life; they want to bring less abundant life. They stifle creativity; they welcome death and destruction; they do little to preserve life from destruction or to create a better life. And the people who dominate the UN, France, and much of the EU bureaucracy are of that sort. They are cynical and will tolerate all sorts of destruction and murder, but show then an entrepreneur or a prolific family and they become hostile.
Normal people respond to the law of God written on their hearts: they were made for love. The Uruguayan soldiers were made for love, and thus they want to save the Congolese from destruction. This instinct clashes with the life-destroying spirituality of their UN commanders. The holy part of them rebels, and those who try to suppress this rebellion are driven to psychologists.
It's true that most people here don't care what's going on in the Congo. People have their own lives to lead. But if they were put in the place of the Uruguayan soldiers, they would rebel.
Posted by: pj at December 7, 2004 9:05 AMIt is a rare person who lifts a culture above the "culture of death".
I think the key to what you are saying is the local aspect. Even an evil man gives good gifts to his children.
Posted by: Randall Voth at December 7, 2004 11:02 AMThere is a reason Americans don't serve in the UN "army". They would actually kill the bad guys, and people like Kofi who get in the way.
Posted by: jim hamlen at December 7, 2004 12:27 PM