Is Vladimir Putin Beating the Drums of War?
“If you have a pistol hanging on the wall in the first act, it should be fired in the second.” — Anton Chekov
All around the world, the same song has been playing since the dawn of human civilization. Since humankind abandoned the tree tops to wander upright, then abandoned foraging for farms, then farms for towns and towns for cities, the same song has set the tune and history has danced.
We want to live together, obviously. The faster, free exchange of ideas from larger and larger groups of humans living in close proximity is a driver of modern technology and all life as we know it. We keep concentrating ourselves into larger and larger numbers, living all boxed-in apartment complexes, office buildings, and modular houses.
Once in a while, we collectively experience something so unpleasant or dangerous, it reminds us why this isn’t always a good idea.
Diseases and viruses spread more easily in a large, heavily-concentrated population. People sometimes concentrate so closely together as to cause injury and death.
And then there is the real mortal enemy of humans and it isn’t viruses or microbes but our own fatal flaw. It is a generational disease so deeply woven into the fabric of human society, it might even be imprinted on our DNA. We have been beset by…