"If only the authorities could be made to realize that the forces leading them on in the armament race are just insane"
About this Quote
A diplomat doesn’t usually reach for the word “insane” unless polite language has failed. Alva Myrdal’s line is a controlled detonation: she keeps the syntax bureaucratically mild (“If only… could be made to realize”) while smuggling in a diagnosis that’s moral, psychological, and political. The real target isn’t just weapons; it’s the self-licking logic of the arms race, where each side’s “security” becomes the other side’s proof of threat, and rational actors end up producing irrational outcomes.
The intent is twofold. First, to puncture the prestige of armament as a serious, technocratic enterprise. Calling the driving “forces” insane reframes them as compulsions rather than strategy: momentum, fear, institutional inertia, defense-industry incentives, and the careerist habits of national security elites. Second, to shame “authorities” by implying a failure of imagination and responsibility. They’re not ignorant of the dangers; they’re implicated in sustaining a system that makes catastrophe feel normal.
The subtext is the Cold War’s suffocating realism: everyone claims to be managing risk while stacking up the materials of apocalypse. Myrdal, deeply involved in disarmament debates, writes from the vantage point of someone who has watched negotiations buckle under the weight of “pragmatism.” The sentence works because it performs diplomatic restraint even as it refuses diplomatic euphemism. It’s a plea, but also an indictment: if sanity is the baseline for legitimate authority, then an arms race isn’t just a policy failure - it’s a crisis of governance.
The intent is twofold. First, to puncture the prestige of armament as a serious, technocratic enterprise. Calling the driving “forces” insane reframes them as compulsions rather than strategy: momentum, fear, institutional inertia, defense-industry incentives, and the careerist habits of national security elites. Second, to shame “authorities” by implying a failure of imagination and responsibility. They’re not ignorant of the dangers; they’re implicated in sustaining a system that makes catastrophe feel normal.
The subtext is the Cold War’s suffocating realism: everyone claims to be managing risk while stacking up the materials of apocalypse. Myrdal, deeply involved in disarmament debates, writes from the vantage point of someone who has watched negotiations buckle under the weight of “pragmatism.” The sentence works because it performs diplomatic restraint even as it refuses diplomatic euphemism. It’s a plea, but also an indictment: if sanity is the baseline for legitimate authority, then an arms race isn’t just a policy failure - it’s a crisis of governance.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
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