Might makes right

The world we exist in isn’t just or right. What is right often doesn’t win, and the morality of a topic’s rightness doesn’t assist it in victory. Frequently, what is wrong will be stronger, more convincing, or simply possess other compensating qualities that allow it to dominate. While it would be nice if goodness provided sufficient strength and power to guarantee a successful outcome, that’s simply not the reality we live in. This is the unfortunate truth of the plane we inhabit.

Let’s make something clear: the idea that justice or truth inevitably wins is a fantasy peddled by the feeble-minded and the desperate. Our entire culture, especially in the Jewish world, loves to repeat the comforting mantra that “the arc of history bends toward justice,” as if the universe is a moral vending machine that spits out happy endings for the righteous. This isn’t just naïve; it’s dangerous. If history has taught us anything, it’s that the arc bends toward whoever is holding the biggest stick. Justice is not a cosmic default; it is a product of strength. The world doesn’t reward the virtuous for being virtuous. It rewards those who can defend their virtue with force.

"During my time in the camps, I had got to know the enemies of the human race quite well: they respect the big fist and nothing else; the harder you slug them, the safer you will be." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

If you want proof, look around. The reason today that I am writing this in English and not in either konnichiwa or wienerschnitzel language is because the Allies in WWII had superior strength and abilities over the Axis powers. It was not because our morality was superior to theirs; that didn’t truly matter in the grand scheme of things. There isn’t some Force governing the world that ensures success for what is good and those with evil ideas will fail. The only reason evil lost was because someone stronger crushed it. When evil triumphed throughout history, it wasn’t because good failed to “persuade” evil with stirring speeches. It was because good failed to win.

Our own tradition doesn’t sugarcoat this, either. The conquest of Israel wasn’t secured by virtue alone. It was achieved through action, by people willing to take up arms and fight for their destiny. The Maccabees didn’t debate the Greeks on the virtues of religious liberty; they spilled their blood. Amalek wasn’t defeated by praying harder; Amalek was defeated by drawing swords and actually fighting. On the flip side, the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash didn’t come about because we weren’t righteous enough. It happened because we were divided, weak, and too powerless to defend ourselves.

If you want modern proof, just open your eyes. Israel exists today not because it has the most beautiful moral claims or writes the best op-eds in the New York Times, but because it is strong enough to defend itself. It exists because the IDF is formidable, Levi Eshkol struck first, and because, when push comes to shove, we are not afraid to do what’s necessary to survive. Meanwhile, every nation that placed its faith in the goodwill of others or in the benevolence of some imagined international community has been wiped from the map.

So here’s the ugly lesson, the one you were never supposed to learn: If you’re not strong, if you don’t make yourself formidable, your rightness will be trampled underfoot by whoever is stronger and hungrier. Stop investing in being the most righteous person in the room if you have no plan for surviving when the wolves come. Morality is worthless if it can’t defend itself.

History doesn’t remember who was right, only who was left.