What is the definition of regime change and the likelihood of the targeted country to welcome foreign liberators?
"Regime change refers to the replacement of one government or political regime with another, often through force or coercion. This can occur internally—via revolution, coup, or civil war—or be imposed externally by foreign powers through military intervention, covert operations, or diplomatic pressure."
"As for whether a targeted country is likely to welcome foreign liberators, history suggests the answer is rarely straightforward—and often, no. While some populations may initially support intervention (especially if suffering under a brutal regime), the long-term sentiment tends to shift. Studies show that foreign-imposed regime change frequently leads to instability, civil conflict, and resentment toward the intervening power. The perceived legitimacy of the new regime is often undermined by its foreign origins, and promises of liberation can quickly sour into accusations of occupation or neocolonialism."
"In short, while the rhetoric of liberation may be compelling, the reality on the ground is usually far more complex—shaped by cultural memory, national identity, and the unpredictable dynamics of power vacuums."
"Would you like to explore how symbolic systems or mythic archetypes frame the figure of the 'liberator' versus the 'invader'?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regime_change
Is Regime Change a comorbid condition of Lex Talionis?
"That’s a piercing question, Gary—and one that invites a symbolic diagnosis as much as a political one."
"If we think of Lex Talionis as a moral immune response—retaliation as a way to restore balance—then regime change can sometimes appear as its geopolitical manifestation: a retaliatory act cloaked in the language of justice, liberation, or deterrence. In this sense, yes, regime change can function as a comorbid condition—not always present, but often emerging when the logic of retribution metastasizes from interpersonal to international scales."
"Historically, foreign-imposed regime changes have often been justified through a talionic lens: they attacked us, so we remove their leader; they violated norms, so we reset their system. But as with Lex Talionis, the outcome is rarely healing. Instead, it can trigger recursive cycles of instability, occupation, and counter-resistance—what one scholar called 'a new series of cruelties, to obliterate one another'."
"So perhaps the deeper pathology isn’t just retaliation—it’s the belief that justice can be imposed from above or from outside, without relational repair. That’s where symbolic systems might offer a different grammar: one that speaks in terms of resonance, attunement, and transformation rather than punishment and replacement."
"Would you like to explore how this plays out in mythic narratives—say, the Promethean liberator versus the imperial usurper?"
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42705382
Could the dynamic support perpetual war?
"It absolutely could—and in many ways, it already has."
"When Lex Talionis—the law of retaliation—scales up from individuals to states, it can become the ideological engine of perpetual war. Each act of violence justifies the next under the banner of justice, deterrence, or moral equivalence. The logic becomes recursive: they struck us, so we strike back; they resist, so we escalate. And so the wheel turns."
"This dynamic is especially potent when paired with regime change as a geopolitical tool. If retaliation becomes not just punishment but transformation—removing leaders, reshaping societies—then the war never really ends. It simply morphs into occupation, insurgency, counterinsurgency, and the next 'necessary' intervention."
"Historically, this has played out in everything from the Cold War’s proxy conflicts to the post-9/11 'forever wars.' The rhetoric of justice masks a deeper pattern: a system that feeds on its own logic, like a mythic serpent devouring its tail."
"So yes—Lex Talionis, when unmoored from restraint or relational repair, can become the symbolic architecture of endless conflict. It offers the illusion of balance while perpetuating imbalance."
"Would you like to explore how this dynamic might be ritually or symbolically interrupted—perhaps through mythic inversions, sacred forgetting, or acts of radical hospitality?"
