Complacency

The guy who compiled the speeches I am reading in “Lend Me Your Ears” (William Safire) asks the question “Can an evil leader make a good speech?”  His answer “Of course.”  He sites as an example Joseph Starlin’s broadcast to the Soviet people when the Germans invaded.
I really like something Starlin said.  I believe it is as true today as it was when it was said.  I have mutilated it by leaving out specifics (relating to the Soviets).  What is said remains the same though. “Above all, it is essential that our people understand the full immensity of the danger that threatens…and abandon all complacency, all needlessness…when war has fundamentally changed everything.”
There is no doubt in my mind war changes everything.  I am not thinking of things like “the war on drugs” or causes that people take up that are to me like their own personal wars.  I am thinking more of wars with guns that are “us or them” things.
Looking at the rise and fall of empires it seems complacency is one of the biggest threats faced.  While ever Rome or the Greeks or Britain were expanding, complacency was not an issue.  Problems seemed to have arisen when they were at ease.
It seems to me nothing focuses like a common cause.  Like with people, it appears many problems arise when a nation ceases to be outward looking and becomes inward looking.  No doubt it has occurred many times, and I have seen my fair share of organizations being whittled away by internal division.  Winston Churchill galvanized the nation.  There was no time or place for complacency.  Us or them focused everyone.
In the West we have known peace for a long time.  There have been wars we have been involved in, but they are distant wars.  Some people have been intimately involved in them, and a portion of the population is affected by them.  What we have not known is something that has engaged all of us one way or another.
I personally am incredibly grateful for that, and do not want it any other way.  I do think though if I am not careful, I can forget what can be, and take things for granted.  That to me can be a huge danger.
I will never forget someone saying that what can happen is like me reading a book on dusk.  I only notice how dark it has gotten when I look up.  That to me does not mean I should stop reading, it just means I should use a light.  The last thing I want is to be caught unawares and be destroyed suddenly because I did not see something coming.  It seems to me complacency can cause that.