One would think that after thousands of years of human civilization, man would get the idea that appeasement is not a self-defense strategy. How many times has appeasement been tried and failed, not only in the social collective of world history but in peoples’ personal lives as well?
The answer is that appeasement never works. Bullies who force themselves on others are never appeased. To them, appeasement is a sign of weakness and a green light to attack and destroy and then keep on attacking and destroying. Verily, appeasement is no self-defense strategy. It is, however, a tried and true formula for personal defeat, humiliation, subjugation and destruction.
Any proficient and studious self-defense student understands this simple concept. Yet, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, millennium after millennium, people keep trying to appease those who attack them, and time after time they, the appeasers, fail; the attackers win, again, at least until they’re stopped. Just think of Hitler and how countries bowed down to him in an effort to appease him and save themselves. How did that work out? Can you say “World War II?” Estimates are that 50 to 80 million people died in what was the deadliest military conflict in world history.
Why try appeasement? Because conflict is distasteful, distressing, dangerous and destructive. True, but conflict is woven into the fabric, the warp and woof of this creation. It’s never going to go away. This world will never be at peace. When has it ever been at peace? There is day and there is night. There is hot and there is cold. There is joy and there is sorrow. There is war and there is peace. There are good guys and there are bad guys, and the only way to stop a bad guy is a good guy willing to stand his ground and, if necessary, push back, fight back, give back. This is the way of this world and it’s never going to change.
Enter the reality of self-defense. When attacked, one has a choice – defend or acquiesce. To acquiesce means the attacker will keep on bullying, keep on taking, keep on destroying. The one who caves in and accedes to the demands of his attacker loses his dignity, sovereignty, identity, his way of life and possibly even his life and the lives of those he loves. In contrast, the one who stands and fights back maintains his dignity, sovereignty and identity. He may lose his life but it’s better to die fighting than die quitting, recoiling into a state of ignobility, cowardice, fear and submission. There really is no middle ground. This is why the great Winston Churchill said: “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.” Of course, the reality is that the croc will keep on eating; the appeaser will keep on being eaten. Appeasing a croc is no strategy. It is simply a crock.
This drama of appeasing the aggressor has perfectly played itself out in the autonomous “No Cop Zones” of Seattle and New York. The mayors of both cities have caved in to the demands of rioters and militant protesters and insatiable radicals. There was no push-back in Seattle and two young people died, businesses were destroyed, lawsuits filed. Finally, after three weeks, Seattle’s Chop zone was shut down.
No crystal ball was necessary to foretell this tragedy. It was the result of mayoral and governmental incompetence and ignorance of reality. In the beginning, the rioters were appeased and they kept taking and destroying, even building a wall to protect them, until finally being pushed back and stopped. Such a scenario could have been nullified at the first sign of aggression but “No.” The fallacious and grossly misguided strategy of appeasement was applied and, predictably, it failed, as it always fails. This is not new news.
The final word is that appeasing crocodiles never works. It is, and will always be, a failed strategy. What must be done immediately when aggressed upon is to stop the malignancy “before” it metastasizes. This is true of any disease, and it is equally true of insatiable radicals seeking to destroy for the sake of destruction. If one wishes to protect himself, he must never adorn himself in the yellow robes of acquiescence and appeasement. He must stand, push back and, if necessary, fight to preserve his dignity, sovereignty, nobility and life.