The trouble and damage caused by the rift within the Commonwealth, and
the subsequent break in relations with Moscow, were in no way limited
to the lesser and intermediate socialist powers that came under Soviet
influence, nor did they wholly end with the eventual cessations of
those hostilities.
The growing instability of a dozen far-reaching theatres, had first
cautiously, and then more freely, burst into expansionist violence. It
was almost as if the perpetrators of these lesser conflicts had
simultaneously realized that Law along the frontiers was diminished,
and waited only long enough to be sure they were not caught alone in
the looting and thievery. And a riot, once begun, is very difficult to
bring under control.
Choose a metaphor. The Marshall of an Old West mining community gunned
down, and the town taken over by outlaws. The blackout of a large
metropolis, with bands of looters roaming the streets. The sudden
collapse of an Empire, or the death of an heirless king. By any name
the resulting darkness, the anarchy of violence, remained the same.
With this exception only. The Law was not wholly diminished, as two of
the four Superpowers remained largely unaffected. And the chief
pirateers were now nations, and there were, therefore, (supposedly)
higher motives, and diplomatic niceties involved.
Because respectable governments, if they want to stay in power, don't
call themselves outlaws; and to their collective mind the words
'occupation' and 'theft', 'war' and 'murder', are not interchangeable.
Though the difference might have been hard to explain to those on the
wrong side of the gun.
That the Belgians and Swiss struck again, and first, was perhaps not
surprising. That the Arabs and Israelis had yet one more go at each
other, perhaps little more so. That the German States continued to
sell arms to nearly anyone with the money to buy---they had taken that
job over from the Americans and Soviets---was, after all, only to be
expected. And if the Dutch lost nearly all they had in the outlying
sectors, bitter and friendless but for help from Sweden which arrived
too late, it was not, to some, considered a lasting tragedy.
In fact it was quite extraordinary how the moral judgments of those not
directly involved (and not wanting trouble themselves) were able to
bend to accommodate the bloodshed all around them. Not that some
didn't mourn, and all weren't scared and angry. But at such times the
Neville Chamberlains and Arthur Vandenberg's of the world are always
found in great abundance; and when was the last time YOU tried to break
up a fight while others watched, or came to the aid of a lesser
acquaintance clearly wronged?
Man's new life among the cold, distant stars, whatever other effects it
might have had upon humanity, had not, as the romantic had hoped at the
dawn of the Space Age, brought people closer together, or taught us
once and for all the need for brotherhood, peace, and mutual
understanding. For human nature is nothing if not stubborn, and where
there is a will to be ignorant, somehow a way will be found.
Like a tiny blaze of ignorance, prejudice and Fear: fanned by the
wind, the fire had spread.