To understand what they do and why they are doing it you have to understand “brute force” as foundation of human life—in fact as foundation of universe. Every aspect of human life, every aspect of universe comes into existence through managing brute force. Read The Sucker Punch of Sharing and Here Comes the Watchman for detailed understanding but for now let me draw a simple picture. The North Korea and Iran behave as they do because they are exposed to the brute force of others. Just as the Roman armies constantly marched in every direction and took over and directed the lives and resources of others, The United States of America does the same today. The Roman Empire exposed everyone to its brute force and so does the US. In doing so they both claim to bring about the possibilities for a better “rule of law” that would obviate others using brute force and ultimately their actions would distance everyone from brute force exposure. Is that a right claim? In reading my books you will learn that laws originate at “many-agree positions” humans develop and declare as “all-agree” by backing with the societal brute force. Thus brute force, by its universal presence, becomes the mechanism for maintenance and implementation of the laws and not their creator. Applying brute force is not the mechanism for creating many-agree positions. It is humans that create the many-agree positions. Relying on brute force would only temporarily align the conquered humans with views of those that expose them to brute force. Then at some future time all conquered ones would appear on the scene with their own brute force to respond to those that have been exposing them to brute force. This is what happened to the Roman Empire and why it no longer exists. North Korea and Iran are conquered ones directing brute force at the US, the global applier of brute force on others. In the same vein the worldwide terrorism originates at the seeds of future outbursts directed against today’s prominent applier of brute force.
Assuming you have not yet read The Sucker Punch of Sharing, what I am telling you may not seem foundational and convincing. So let me introduce a simple yet foundational lesson provided by the universe. The lesson is in the solar system. At its center, at the place we know as the sun, all we have is brute force. To gauge the sun’s hierarchy among brute force appliers, all one needs to know is that every second it applies the equivalent of explosions of 100 billion one-megaton nuclear bombs.
Look at the picture of the sun and one of its eruptions into space in comparison with earth and it becomes immediately obvious that there is no existence for earth if it engages in brute force confrontation with the sun. The only alternative is to distance itself, to find the “rule of law” that would define its existence away from the brute force that sits at the center of the solar system. That kind of “distancing” from brute force may sound easy to do, but it is not.
Look at all planets that have tried to distance themselves from the sun. Except for earth, none has achieved the distancing that produces life. Venus is short on distancing; Mars is long. Only earth has the right distance and is managing brute force well.
The same universal lesson applies to human individuals and their societies. Have a look at the chart below.
The details of the chart are explained in The Sucker Punch of Sharing and Here Comes the Watchman. But this foundational view is simple enough to be understood by itself. It starts with the observation that everything in the universe, including the human individual, is an applier of brute force. Through millennia of experience, in every society, humans have learned that facing one another with brute force is a recipe for destruction of self and others. They have learned that to live well they have to manage the society’s many-agree positions such that some would become “all-agree positions” called laws. The only role for brute force is to back the laws. To do so, every society shares the individual’s brute force—the individual gives up brute force—replacing it with societal concentrated brute force we know as police and armed forces. This societally concentrated brute force is used to do two things: back the society’s declared all-agree positions and protect each individual from exposure to brute force. This is how, as shown in the chart below, humans distance themselves from the brute force that otherwise is everywhere.
Humans constantly seek to live their lives away from exposure to brute force. They want to be distanced from brute force. All goods and services humans make for one another are made in the force network that has distanced itself from human exposure to brute force.
When we encounter the force appliers like the US, Iran, and North Korea that consider facing one another with brute force, all we catch a glimpse of are humans and societies that have little or no understanding of what brute force is and how it is to be managed. They are ignorant humans without any understanding of the foundational view of life for managing brute force. They are the ones that must read—most carefully read— The Sucker Punch of Sharing and Here Comes the Watchman.