Putin indulged in a lunatic rant that cast Russia as the noble defender of civilization against the West-which somehow manages to be both decadent and all-powerful. Announcing the annexation of big chunks of eastern Ukraine, V. On the other side, the war has brought to a boil the crude, violent, self-pitying nationalism so characteristic of post-Soviet Russia. The noble impulse to defend one’s homeland is accompanied by a base but understandable desire for revenge. Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the great destruction wrought thereby, the countless war crimes committed by Russian soldiers, have roused the hatred and enmity of the Ukrainian people.
But it slights the other elements of the trinity, which are co-equal with pure reason and interact with it over the course of a war. Now if rational calculation were the only factor in play, a scheme like that might work. The friends of Ukraine would make the best deal possible on its behalf-adding, sotto voce, Take it or leave it. In practical terms, this would probably mean a US-led negotiation with Russia over Ukraine’s head. It also implies that other parties to the conflict should step in and impose a settlement if the principals are recalcitrant. “Pure reason,” indeed, dictates that Russia and Ukraine should immediately stop fighting and go into conference, resolving their differences with a little give here, a little take there. And by applying it as a template to the present war, we can see where Trump, Gutfeld and other people who place their faith in a diplomatic solution have gone wrong. Hence his conception of the trinity, which sums up war’s timeless, therefore fundamental, characteristics.
#Critique of pure reason free
In his celebrated treatise on war, Carl von Clausewitz described it as “a fascinating trinity-composed of primordial violence, hatred, and enmity, which are to be regarded as a blind natural force the play of chance and probability, within which the creative spirit is free to roam and its element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to pure reason.” Those who think that diplomacy can bring the Russo-Ukrainian War to an end are betting on that last element-it must be said, to the exclusion of the other two.Ĭlausewitz treated war as a political, social and cultural phenomenon, and he sought to distinguish those aspects of it that are timeless from those that are transitory.
But leaving the theatrics and the yucks to one side, might Trump have the right idea? Is it possible that a diplomatic overture by the United States and NATO is all that’s needed to stop the fighting? One’s instinct is of course to dismiss Trump’s bombastic self-promotion and Gutfeld’s light-minded cheerleading. To summarize Gutfeld’s opening monologue: The hapless Joe Biden won’t do it- probably he couldn’t do it-but Trump the Dealmaker has what it takes to hammer out a compromise peace plan acceptable to both sides! Last Friday night, FNC’s Greg Gutfeld led off his show with a hymn of praise for Donald Trump-who’d just proposed himself, with the usual Barnum & Bailey flourishes, as the honest broker who could bring the Russo-Ukrainian War to an end.
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