Alan Wolfe Quotes
Appeasement cannot happen again because there is nothing like totalitarianism left to appease.
Wolfe uses the term in the classic sense of appeasing Hitler or Stalin—appeasement of a powerful totalitarian force. However some politicians—usually at the extreme wings of the political spectrum—see any concession to political opponents as “appeasement”. Some, like the Tea Party Republicans of that era, regard any compromise as “appeasement”.
Alan Wolfe, Political Scientist, Political Evil: What It Is and How to Combat It, 2011
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
See {633152} for more of the reasoning for this point. “Neocon” is a shortened form of “neoconservative”. At the time the neoconservatives were advocating use of military intervention in the Middle East. Munich was the German city in which British Prime Minister notoriously tried to appease Hitler and the Nazis. This led to WWII and has become the historical icon for appeasement of a powerful tyrant and the cost of such.
This is the quotation that came to define Chamberlain’s naivety for history and the icon of failed diplomacy. However to see the beginning of the sequence of events that would lead up to this statement, see {585940} when Chamberlain suggested the infamous meeting in Munich. There had been an interesting history to Chamberlain’s appeasement of Germany. 39 years earlier, Chamberlain’s father, then Britain’s Colonial Secretary, and advocated a natural alliance with Germany. See Joseph Chamberlain, 1836-1914: {585939}.
Neville Chamberlain is viewed in Britain as one of the worst appeasers of all time. He refused to fulfill the obligations of Great Britain when Hitler invaded parts of Europe. He appeased Hitler because he wanted to avoid war and is a historical icon of a person who would do anything to avoid war.
Alan Wolfe (born 1942) is a political scientist and a sociologist on the faculty of Boston College who serves as director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Future of American Democracy Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation in partnership with Yale University Press and the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, "dedicated to research and education aimed at renewing and sustaining the historic vision of American democracy".
