This is a quote out of Thucidides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, and it pretty much sums up the basic relationship between various states and societies at that time. All politics was about power, and war was the logical extension of that power. Respect for the weak or compassion or even just pity for the powerless was practically non-existent. If you were not among the powerful, you were nothing.

It wasn’t until a rebel appeared on the scene who upset the established balance that was based on the principle of might makes right. He was a Jew, from Nazareth and he preached that compassion was an obligation, that wealth (e,g. bread) had to be shared, that the meek shall inherit the earth, and more such crazy ideas. This was revolutionary and ran completely against the existing belief system. If Kristi Noem had been alive at the time she would have branded him a “domestic terrorist”.

No wonder the Christians were persecuted. They were not persecuted because of their beliefs, but because of the dangers posed by a new belief system that was completely at odds with the old ways of governing relations between “strong” and “weak”. What was the purpose of being strong if you were not allowed to leverage your strength to take whatever you wanted from the meek, whether it be riches, territory, workers (slaves) or anything else you wanted.

But the new value system could not be stamped out. Against all odds, during the first century AD it found its way into public discourse and ultimately into politics. Concepts such as pity were first mentioned by Seneca in 64 AD in his debates over friendship, pity and human interdependence. In 380 AD the Roman Emperor Theodosius even made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

After the fall of the Roman empire Christianity continued to spread but only in form, not in substance. Virtually all of Europe was formally Christian, but the Christianity of the Middle Ages had little connection to Jesus’ teaching of compassion, helping the poor, feeding the hungry taking in the stranger and other moral commands. Instead, the medieval “Christians” were burning witches, conducted brutal inquisitions, prosecuted endless wars against each other (e,g, the Thirty Years war) and against non-Christians (the crusades), enslaved black people and nearly exterminated the native populations of the Americas in the name of “Christianization”.

It wasn’t until the Enlightenment in the 18^th century that the world found its’ moral compass again. Important events that took place during that time are the US declaration of independence: “We hold these truths to be self‑evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” the French Revolution: “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité“, and the works of Jean Jacque-Rousseau, e.g. his Discourse on Inequality and the Social Contract, which transformed compassion into a political virtue. From these works and events, a line can be drawn, albeit not a straight one, to the abolition of slavery, the end of colonialism, the civil rights movement and the Voting Rights Act.

Unfortunately, the Voting Rights Act was the high point of politics guided by moral principles. The conservative majority on the US Supreme Court has been chipping away at the Voting Rights Act ever since it took control during Trump’s first term by simply overpowering the three liberal justices. But “might makes right” has not only governed the business of the US Supreme Court but has been adopted as the guiding principle in international relations as well. Putin wants Ukraine, so he just takes it, or at least tries to. Trump wants Greenland, so he declares he will get it “one way or the other”; he wants the Venezuelan oil so he decapitates the regime, kidnaps Maduro and his wife but leaves the rest of the oppressive apparatus in place to serve his interests. He proudly exclaims “I am running Venezuela”. 

Many more examples of coercive domestic and international relations could be added and will have to be added in the future. Despite claiming to be a Christian nation, the US has given up the moral high ground in favor of an amoral “realpolitik”. Russia too, claims to follow Christianity, but little of that is evident in the way it tries to bomb Ukraine into submission. The hypocrisy on all sides is breathtaking.

The nuclear armed superpowers, the US, Russia and China, take us back to the pre-Christian times where “Might makes Right” was the guiding principle on how to conduct international relations. The rest of the World, all smaller non-nuclear entities, including the Europeans and Canada “suffer what they must”. This is very dangerous, for the competition among the superpowers of who controls these lesser entities will inevitably lead to conflict among them. I leave it to you to imagine how such a conflict, between Russia and the US, for example, would play out.

After World War II, the US took the lead in establishing a World order based on the (Christian) principles of freedom, compassion and mercy. The UN was set up with the goal of finding ways to settle conflicts without having to go to war. The losers of World War II, in particular Germany and Japan, were not subjugated but treated humanely. Reparation demands were moderate and the Marshal Plan helped re-build their industries. Both former enemies became worthy allies and members of the free World. This moral world-order gave us one of the longest periods of peace in human history.

But this “Christian” World order is now over, as the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney observed in his address at the 2026 Davos Forum. We are back to “might makes right”. But it is a frightening thought that after 2’000 years of development, we are morally back to 5^th century BC when the two superpowers of the time, Athens and Sparta, fought a long war over who would dominate the various smaller and nominally independent city states and other “weak” entities that populated the Peloponnese. Let’s not fool ourselves: Amoral politics has always led to war in the past and will lead to war in the future.