"Exoteric or Esoteric Buddhism" on the Principle of Self-Help

 In the early modern era (1618-1648), the "Thirty Years' War," also known as World War zero, burned the central part of the European continent to the ground, and finally the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope fell to the ground. The "Treaty of Westphalia" system was established, under which the various "Sovereign States" of various sizes were lined up against each other. After this, there was no longer any (real legal) authority over the sovereign states. Consistently since then, until the present day, in the 21st century, the modern world has become an arena of power politics (the weak and the strong), where the great powers take the lead and join forces.

※cf.　Collapse of Social Order and Salvation of the Individual: 本に溺れたい

　In the modern era, when the Western world began to compete in the division of the non-Western world, their practices expanded to a global scale, and at the same time, the system of sovereign states spread to the non-Western world. The League of Nations, the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, etc. were established, but none of these systems could bring the sovereign nations under the same law, and their role today is barely to reconcile interests among sovereign nations. This ultimately means that international disputes are resolved through political transactions among the major powers. When "deals" fail to work, the result is a Hot War, which has been the outcome of two world wars and a proxy war between the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union in a disputed region during the Cold War.

　In summary, it is as follows. In modern times, the "realization of the Recht/droit by self-help" within a territorial state was prohibited. However, the "prohibition of realization of 'Recht/droit' by self-help" between sovereign states was applied to small states, but not to large states, and "realization of 'Recht' (law/rights) by self-help" has remained virtually tacitly approved. This pathetic situation has continued for 500 years since the 16th century. So to speak. The real order of things among sovereign nations is that small nations are "Nobita" and large nations are "Gian". The fact that former U.S. President George Bush, a war criminal who inflicted more than 100,000 Iraqi civilian casualties during the Iraq War (2003-2011), has not been arrested, prosecuted, or even lifted a finger speaks volumes about this reality.

　When you are confronted with these realities of the 21st century, you may wonder what "natural law" or "international law" you learned in college was all about. Hume and Smith's idea was that mutual adjustment of "interest" was sufficient to control "passions" such as "armed struggle" rather than "real law. In other words, the market mechanism (so-called "private evil is the public good") would be more effective in achieving control. This seems to work well among micro "persons," but among "sovereign nations," the game players are too large, and the formation of a spontaneous order has not worked as the theory suggests. In addition, "profit interest" is blown away in areas where ethnic cleansing occurs.

　Of course, activities, efforts, and mechanisms to "suppress" as much as possible the "violence" arising from "passion" must continue. However, just as "evil" (crime) within a territorial state does not disappear, "evil" (use of force) among human groups will not disappear. However, the former "evil" can be "controlled" within the realm of modern sovereign nations. The only thing we can do for the time being is to continue to devise a workable mechanism that will at least bring us a little closer to that state.

※The above article is an English translation by DeepL of the following article.
「自力救済の原理 the principle of self-help」を巡る顕教と密教: 本に溺れたい