This morning, sixty-nine years ago, the European continent awoke to peace for the first time since Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia and a group of generals of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces declared their opposition to the Second Spanish Republic. The rivers of blood flowing from those events precipitated the torrential downpour that created oceans nearly drowning the entire continent.
If World War I had been 'the war to end all wars' by the time we got to Double U, Double U Two, we all knew better Before anyone got used to the quiet, the Cold War descended and five decades of armed ignorant arrogance were to follow.
Countless dollars of international treasure were expended to guarantee
Mutually
Assured
Destruction (I've always loved how the acronym was a descriptive) and because the Soviet Union went broke first, we, the good guys "won."
I'm still not sure what the prizes were for winning, but the price was very high in opportunities lost and developments and discoveries not made because we chose guns over butter. It looks like some decisions are being revisited though to what end is unclear.
Those who cannot remember history are fated to repeat it and in light of how many of us seem to have Attention Deficit Disorder, this phase may go on for quite some time until, like our parents and their parents before them, and theirs before them, we confuse peace with times of no war. Our inability to learn is ignorance more than an accident of biology or circumstance.
See how the tail can wag the dog.
-bill kenny
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