Go Pick On Someone Your Own Size

Years ago — so many years ago I think it was the FIRST Bush administration, right after he’d said something about the axis of evil — I had a phone conversation with my brother which shocked me so much that I still remember it vividly.

He was very disapproving of Bush of course. Look, no. He’s not stupid. In fact I’m the dumb bunny of my (I was going to say birth, but it’s both, really, birth and married) family. But you have to understand the “news” they get in Europe make ours sound raving right wing. Yes, even CNN. CNN international is… well, I won’t insult piles of steaming garbage. At least they’re not communist propaganda.

Anyway, he was ranting about Rush and war monging (I THINK. It’s been a while) and then he said “He’s even picking on poor, mad little North Korea.” My jaw dropped. I don’t think I ever managed to pick it up off the floor. It’s still there, metaphorically speaking.

I was a large, ungainly child. Not fat, just built like a tank. And for those who’ve met me and are staring at the page in confusion, yeah, I gained a lot of weight since the six months in bed with pre-eclampsia and repeated dances with hypothyroidism some of which took a while for the doctors to figure out. But I was not a fat child. What I was was huge. And if you’re staring at the page and going “But you are–” Yeah, well, you see, it was Portugal in the sixties. When I stopped growing, at 5’7″ I was taller than probably half the men. (I am now shorter yes. Pre-eclampsia did weird things to my joints, okay?) In all my pictures with my class or friends, from first grade on, not only do I stand a head taller than them, but I’m built on a different scale. Brick sh*thouse comes to mind. (It’s very different in Portugal now. Keep that in mind when we talk about the effects of nutrition. A lot of younger people over six feet.)

Anyway, perhaps because of my size and my being … uh… combative, dad sent me to school with a set of instructions that included “never physically fight someone smaller than you.” Dad truly didn’t understand what evil lives in the heart of little girls. Oh, not mine. Neither subtlety nor conniving were ever part of my character. I’m too ADD to plan underhanded attacks, and as for subtlety, I plain can’t be arsed and besides my face is glass fronted. Most little girls…. uh… Make use of the weapons they have. I’m trying to remember which British author said the most conniving thing in nature is a school boy. He OBVIOUSLY never hung out with school girls.

I was completely unprepared for the character shredding, undermining, “pranks” that destroyed my belongings, etc. And the solution would have made dad very worried, if he’d ever known about them which he didn’t. I couldn’t nor did I want to change my entire personality to retaliate in kind. Frankly, besides the fact that it was against my inclinations, that kind of underhanded attack struck me as something that, for lack of a better term, stains the soul. So once the mess obtruded on my consciousness (you’d really need to know me very well to know how much it takes for me to realize I’m being harassed much less who is doing it) I arranged for a moment where no one saw it, smacked the idiot once or twice and told her next time I’d wipe the floor with her. It’s REMARKABLE how that stopped the shenanigans cold. In fact it stopped them so much I aggregated a circle of friends who were also socially awkward and likely to be the target of such bullying. (Later, in the bigger schools, I also acquired a bunch of LITTLE (or handicapped) friends who were the target of PHYSICAL bullying from larger people. But they weren’t conniving. They were all Odds, bless them. I wish I had pictures. We were the most ridiculously assorted bunch.) I acquired them because being my friend, even if I never did anything (and sometimes I did) to protect them meant they could say “if you mess with me, she’ll be upset.)

However, to dad’s advice, I never picked on those smaller than myself. Actually I never picked on anyone. My basic attitude is that I very much would like to be left alone, preferably with a book and (these days) a cup of coffee. Frankly I think this attitude attracted a lot of the nonsense, but I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHY. Still don’t.

Anyway, countries of course aren’t people. The dynamic in “girl’s schools’ works though, in a weird way, only more so.

The reason my jaw dropped is that my brother seemed utterly unaware that not only was North Korea hell on Earth for its citizens (do they consent? Who knows? No, seriously. When you’re brought up in that kind of regime, you don’t even know there’s alternatives) but also a danger in the larger sphere. Turns out nuclear bombs are not that difficult to build though thank the Lord apparently near impossible to build functionally for most of the schrecklich regimes of this world. Even “little mad North Korea” can build nukes. And while reaching us with one is unlikely, reaching South Korea or much of the Asian sphere is within their means. And this is not just bad because of alliances, but because it disrupts global trade and America lives and dies by global trade. (Among our many virtues. You don’t kill people you hope to sell to. that would be stupid.)

Beyond nuclear danger though, which our own missiles might or might not deter (say, if a regime is nuts and wants to bring about the apocalypse, “we’ll nuke you back” might mean very little. Just off the top of my head.) The world is not the size it was even in World War II. Not only is travel faster, but money and propaganda flow freely.

Which are the way the weak battle the strong. See my brother’s indignation on behalf of poor little mad North Korea. Note I don’t ask him his opinion of Hamass. I’d like us to remain friends.

In that way the world and the relations between countries are a lot closer to an all girl school and anything between men. Though in our feminized age, a lot of men fall into the worst female behavior, so my guess is this is about to become a universal problem even at the interpersonal level, if it hasn’t already.

Which brings me “To what does size have to do with it?” or even relative health or capacity for war.

Sure, the US can and is wiping the floor with Iran. This is justified because Iran has killed a lot of Americans in terrorism, and I don’t put it beyond them and the current axis of evil, including Venezuela and China to have financed most of the invasion of our borders (helped, of course by the enemy within) which was a genuine and disturbing innovative way of war. “Attack by human wave, with the human wave weaponized to disrupt and hate and the host country.” (A lot of the recruiting for ‘immigration’ was via communist group membership and worse, criminal organizations.) And that stroke of genius tactic almost did for us, will probably do Europe in, and our only chance of surviving it is to keep the left out of power long enough. That is evil, diabolic, and weaponizes our compassion and generosity against us, helped by a giant dose of insidious propaganda.

So should we hit “little mad” countries. Yes. At least when they’re attacking us by various insidious means. Because as the actress said to the Bishop “what does size have to do with it?”

Sure, if the US took it upon itself to attack countries because they’re small, that would be wrong and evil. But Lichtenstein is safe from us, and I don’t see Portugal on the hit list.

Look, the more important thing is you can’t really apply the size or “many against one” thing to nations that you’d apply to people. If we did, then the allies ganging up on “poor little Germany” which was certainly mad and by LAND MASS much much smaller than the rest, would be wrong and evil and a terrible injustice.

But you see, it’s not land mass that makes a country dangerous. Or even population. It’s what they try or succeed to do to countries that just want to be left alone, and often, in fact, to their own people. (No, we’re not the world’s social worker, but there are limits. And their actions against their own people and the world are often linked. See Germany.)

Take the current hotness for terrorist mass shooters. I don’t care if the tactical armored guy with the gun intent on shooting kids in synagogue is a shrimp, and if he’s taken down by ten big footballs players who beat him to death with his own gun. He was a clear and present danger.

Anyone who pushes the “look at big country attacking little country” is selling you something. Russia invading Ukraine isn’t wrong because the Ukraine is smaller. It’s wrong because Russia’s aggression came out of nowhere (trust me on this. False flag doesn’t justify it) and is fueled by Russia’s deranged fantasies of reviving past glory. You can disagree on the causes (and you’d be wrong, but never mind) but from my perspective, size ain’t got nothing to do with it.

In the same way, the US has a lot of land mass, resources and wealth, but it’s not stomping around the world trying to destroy small lands. Anyone who tells you that is also selling you snake shoes. We are mostly, at heart, businessmen. And businessmen can’t sell to the dead.

It’s time people realized the international sphere is NOT in fact a scaled up kindergarten. And even if it were, sometimes the little kid is a stone cold psychopath, and a slap and the promise of more stop a lot of suffering before it happens. Yes, sometimes the big guy ALSO uses that as an excuse.

Which is why sane people judge individually and not generally and blinded by their prejudices.

Unfortunately sane people are rare in this world, and propaganda makes them rarer.

Keep that in mind when propaganda buffets you.