Money clarifies; so does war. As I write these words, news reports say that China may be willing to give military as well economic support to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. If that happens, certain dominos will or will not fall. Will the United States impose economic sanctions against China? If the possibility is mooted, what will Apple Inc. (for example) say about that? And what will its customers say? We support Ukraine, we say so all the time; we’re willing to send money and offer military support, but can we do without iPhones? Or, if Apple is willing and able to move its manufacturing elsewhere, would we be willing to pay double what we currently pay?
The full implications of our involvement in a truly global economic order have long been invisible to us, because such invisibility has been in the interests of those who most profit from that order. Over the next few months and years, on multiple fronts, what was invisible will become all too visible, and we will be faced with choices that so far we have been able to avoid. Like my former student, we’ll have to confront the chasm between our self-conception and our actual behavior. How will we bridge that chasm? And how happy will we be with ourselves when our choices are made? Money clarifies; so does war.