Victor Davis Hanson on 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜

[00:02] the end of everything is about the

[00:04] existential destruction of the losing

[00:07] side in a

[00:09] war this is very rare in history it

[00:12] doesn't happen very often but when it

[00:14] does it should Enlighten us how it does

[00:17] why it does and can it happen

[00:23] again every society is in denial every

[00:26] society is narcissistic and egocentric

[00:29] their mantra in all of these cases the

[00:31] past are very similar to the present and

[00:34] they can be summed up as something along

[00:36] the lines it won't happen to us it can't

[00:39] happen

[00:41] here I was interested in this phenomenon

[00:44] for years because it's the exception not

[00:46] the role in military history usually

[00:49] when two opposing Nations or States go

[00:52] to war and one loses there are some

[00:54] types of armist

[00:56] Arrangements uh concessions that allow

[00:59] the defeated to survive and to continue

[01:03] its civilization and culture but every

[01:05] once in a while that does not

[01:08] occur there are several cases in history

[01:11] of peoples being wiped out and some of

[01:14] them are recorded in history very

[01:15] graphically the melians were wiped out

[01:18] by the Athenian the oans were wiped out

[01:21] by Philip II they lose their language

[01:23] their population often their

[01:25] infrastructure their religion and within

[01:27] 20 to 50 years afterward

[01:30] they're completely wiped

[01:31] [Music]

[01:34] out I chose four of the most iconic I

[01:38] chose classical thieves that was

[01:40] destroyed in 335 by Alexander the Great

[01:43] classical Carthage that was wiped out

[01:45] and destroyed down to the foundations in

[01:47] 146 BC by skipio amanas Majestic city of

[01:51] Constantinople and its civilization that

[01:53] we know as Byzantium that was destroyed

[01:56] by the ottoman Turks in 1453 and finally

[02:00] the Mexican capital of Teton the center

[02:03] of Aztec civilization completely

[02:05] annihilated destroyed obliterated by

[02:08] Hernan Cortez in

[02:11] [Music]

[02:14] 1521 so in all of these four

[02:17] examples not only were the targeted

[02:20] peoples deluded about their actual

[02:22] strength Visa the conquerors they were

[02:25] diluted because they felt that they were

[02:28] somebody they were not they had never

[02:30] taken a realistic

[02:33] estimate it's a frightening lesson for

[02:35] the modern world that any powerful State

[02:39] should not talk about its past successes

[02:42] but only look at its present ability to

[02:45] to defend itself or to create an image

[02:47] of deterrence and it's not predicated on

[02:51] past successes in fact past successes

[02:53] can be a narcotic that deludes people

[02:55] from the reality and the dangers of the

[02:57] present

[03:00] I wrote the book in one sense not just

[03:02] as a historical journey to document the

[03:06] rare cases of a targeted Nation being

[03:09] completely destroyed but as a warning

[03:12] that human nature doesn't change the

[03:15] delivery system the weapons that humans

[03:18] use the types of government the degree

[03:20] of affluence or technology changes but

[03:23] the people themselves are innate nature

[03:25] does not and what that means is that the

[03:29] destruction of Thieves or Constantinople

[03:32] or Carthage could happen

[03:38] again in the last five or six years I'd

[03:41] noticed that there was more and more

[03:43] existential threats coming from

[03:45] autocratic regimes the Turkish

[03:48] government was threatening Armenia not

[03:50] just with defeat but complete

[03:53] destruction president of Turkey was

[03:54] threatening the Kurds and the cypriots

[03:57] and the Greeks the eliminationist

[03:59] rhetoric from Iran and Hezbollah and the

[04:01] houthis and Hamas prior to October 7th

[04:05] of 2023 had vastly accelerated so it was

[04:08] almost common place to say the Zionist

[04:10] entity will be destroyed Israel is a

[04:13] one- bomb

[04:15] State North Korea had become nuclear and

[04:18] it was threatening Japan with

[04:20] Annihilation it was threatening the

[04:21] United States with nuclear attacks

[04:24] everybody in all of these cases was

[04:26] reacting in the sense that well the

[04:28] United States has such a nuclear

[04:30] deterrent or where in the 21st century

[04:32] in the United Nations security Council

[04:35] can handle this or these people are just

[04:37] doing it to get money or political

[04:40] concessions but Iran would never destroy

[04:42] Israel Russia would never wipe out parts

[04:45] of Ukraine turkey would never Wipe Out

[04:47] the Kurds or the Armenians or attack

[04:49] Greece much less would they attack

[04:51] Israel and so in the 21st century of

[04:54] globalization that we thought would

[04:56] create a common humanity and Evolve P

[04:59] War just the opposite effect took place

[05:02] it was almost as if familiarity created

[05:04] greater

[05:06] contempt and I would like everybody

[05:08] reading the book to be aware that it can

[05:11] happen here and it's just as likely as a

[05:14] people would cease to exist or disappear

[05:18] today as it was 2,000 years ago a

[05:21] thousand years ago and that means that

[05:23] didactically we should learn from the

[05:26] past and protect ourselves in the future

[05:31] [Music]