You don't have to be faster than a crocodile, you only need to be faster than the other guy running from the crocodile. That is the mindset of the appeaser. He is fine with feeding his friends to the crocodile if it means he gets to keep running. What he fails to consider is that someday he will run out of friends and the crocodile will still be coming for him. What he also fails to consider is that he cannot keep running forever and in the meantime he is committed to a life of running. The strategy only works as long as you keep running (and as long as there are others for the croc to catch).
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
—Rudyard Kipling, Dane-geld
Paying the dane-geld is never a good idea. It does not keep the dane away and it funds their gym membership in the interim. They grow stronger as they plan to come back. The more you pay, the stronger they get, and the more likely they are to return.
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