When Tails Should Wag the Dog

Jack R. Noel
October 31, 2023

No, I’m not talking about the example of the Halloween and Christmas ones where the desires of children for huge amounts of commercial candies and toys are frenetically supported. I am talking about the phenomenon where small countries end up in positions so influential that they may end Mankind as a species.

It’s not just Israel and Ukraine. (Respective populations of. 9.8 million and ~ 35.8 million) It’s also tiny countries like North and South Ireland. (South Ireland has risen to 5 million people and North Ireland has grown to 1.9 million).

Freedom of speech allows for even mistaken or harmful beliefs and arguments to be heard and so it is that we are seeing a number of prominent officials (and wannabes) saying that we should not support Ukraine (or Israel) with aid paid for by taxpayers. They sometimes resort to the claim that Ukraine (or Israel) doesn’t deserve our support because it amounts to letting the tail wag the dog.

But that’s just framing the matter as if human beings don’t deserve our support. Because both Ukraine and Israel are under existential threat. The Right is wrong if that becomes the position of the Right. At the same time, the Right insists on the right to self-defense and on the idea that people who believe in self-defense also believe in the defense of others. Our legal system is also based on the right of everyone to have other defenders (like defense attorneys).