There was a plaque on Harry Truman’s desk. It said that nobody else will be blamed for a decision taken by the president of the United States. The American century was in full swing. Two out of three architects of the Second World War, Germany and Japan, surrendered in 1945. The third architect, Russia, switched sides, and was allowed to enslave the eastern half of the European continent. The Russian communist threat was kept out of the Western Europe and the Chinese communist threat was kept out of the southern Korea. The Iron Curtain froze. Until the oil prices went up worldwide in the 1970ies, prompting a search for cheaper energy. Until the Polish citizens invented the independent trade union – “Solidarity” – in August 1980, demonstrating that there is an alternative to the communist party. Oil crisis made the nukes great again. “Solidarity” made democracy great again. The political climate warmed up much more quickly than the one studied by the meteorologists.
Barrack Obama did not mention the buck’s last stop. Neither did Joe Biden. Neither did Donald Trump (so far). We do not know if their successors will. But the buck will stop somewhere. Where?
Successive Popes do not insist on being infallible since 1950. Successive secretaries general of the United Nations Organization wait for the votes in Security Council, which fails frequently. The president of FIFA delegates his authority to referees on a football field. Referees rely on their common sense, on the FIFA regulations, and on cameras and drones. Should we conclude that the buck stops much more quickly and much more frequently than it did in 1945? That hierarchy does not accumulate responsibilities as readily as it did before 1950? That individuals are expected to exercise it much more freely than they did before the world wide web replaced libraries and the influencers replaced experts?
In November 2021, a rubber boat carrying immigrants from France to the United Kingdom capsized in the English Channel. Some of the mobile phones worked and the French coast guard responded. A female officer on duty told the sinking callers to wait for the British coast guard boats nearby. Twenty seven immigrants drowned, two survived. Did the buck stop at her station?
Haarlem, July 23, 2026