When Opposites Come Together, Can Peace Follow?
by Jacob Newcomer, Chicory Wealth Financial Advisor
For much of the recent past, America has seemingly been at war somewhere. This has been costly – in terms of taxpayer dollars, and even more importantly, in the lives of soldiers and civilians who don’t take part in the decision-making process of whether to fight or not. On the one hand, there are real security risks today where insidious forces can communicate and spread easily online and across borders and oceans. On the other hand – do we really have to live this way?
Recently, two of the world’s richest people came together in the most unusual partnership to try and put a stop to what they call the policy of “forever war” that seems to have taken over American foreign policy. Charles Koch and George Soros likely need no introduction. They each have billions of dollars and typically fund causes on opposite ends of the political spectrum with huge sums. However, this time they are promoting a united front against this perpetual violence as described in this Boston Globe article.
Now, it’s probably OKAY to be a little skeptical, as it is unusual for billionaires to do something that isn’t steeped in self interest at least a little. But the purpose of this brief message is to focus instead on the optimistic outcome, which – if taken at face value – does seem almost too good to be true.
From Brown University’s Stephen Kinzer:
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In one of the most remarkable partnerships in modern American political history, Soros and Charles Koch, the more active of the two brothers, are joining to finance a new foreign-policy think tank in Washington. Soros and Koch are uniting to revive the fading vision of a peaceable United States. The street cred they bring from both ends of the political spectrum — along with the money they are providing — will make this new think tank an off-pitch voice for statesmanship amid a Washington chorus that promotes brinksmanship.
Since peaceful foreign policy was a founding principle of the United States, it’s appropriate that the name of this think tank harken back to history. It will be called the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an homage to John Quincy Adams, who in a seminal speech on Independence Day in 1821 declared that the United States “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.” The Quincy Institute will promote a foreign policy based on that live-and-let-live principle.
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Here at Chicory Wealth, we strive to help everyone find inner peace in the context of money. It goes without saying that this is quite difficult to do in areas of the world where there is no external peace. It is our hope that this new joint initiative is real and genuine and that it may reduce the flood of lives and dollars lost to constant fighting, so that they can be re-deployed (to use the military phraseology) toward things that improve our planet.
Maybe there is a catch we’re not aware of and it won’t succeed the way we want, but maybe there isn’t. Perhaps this is an unlikely and uncommon joint step in the right direction – two seemingly disparate entities overcoming their differences for the greater good. We’ll be watching and hoping, along with all of you, for the latter.
photo by Toa Heftiba from Unsplash