Crimea River

If you’ve ever wondered why liberal foreign policy is doomed to be feckless—as it has proved, once again, in the face of Russia’s most recent provocation—the great Eric Voegelin, in his 1952 lecture series The New Science of Politics, summed it up: In what Voegelin calls “gnostic societies” (societies dominated by a foolish desire to “immanentize the eschaton”), dangers to existence. . .

. . .will not be met by appropriate actions in the world of reality. They will rather by met by magic operations in the dream world, such as disapproval, moral condemnation, declarations of intention, resolutions, appeals to the opinion of mankind, branding of enemies as aggressors, outlawing of war, propaganda for world peace and world government, etc. The intellectual and moral corruption that expresses itself in the aggregate of such magic operations may pervade a society with the weird, ghostly atmosphere of a lunatic asylum, as we experience it in our time in the Western crisis.

In the present administration’s dream world, everyone will have health insurance without anyone having to pay more, Bashar al-Assad will observe American “red lines” without the need for enforcement, and Russia will voluntarily surrender access to a long-coveted warm-water port. But back in reality, things are not so easy. . .

Voegelin is heavy-duty philosophy, but highly recommended. The world would be much more sensible—and probably safer—if there were a few more Voegelinians around.