I have to apologize in advance for an underlying tone of irreverence in the coming pieces. In deference to Sherman's declaration that "war is hell," general war is indeed a terrible thing and the level of suffering of those closest to it can only be imagined in approximation. In some cases it even comes to be a sort of sacred thing, not to be spoken about. But the gallows humor does come out nevertheless, even in, and perhaps especially in, the outlooks of the afflicted themselves.
The joking of soldiers in the trenches during WWI about the various recognizable parts of "Bill" flung about, for example, may arouse a sense of horror and bewilderment in many observers, but a little jogging of the imagination and one can picture those conditions: months on end living in muddy trenches, smelling the death and the human waste, watching one's compatriots blown senselessly to bits wave after wave, and that emerging tendency seems to make a little more sense.
In our case, even though there was nothing peaceful about the last couple of decades, compared to the circumstances of a great war we could call it peacetime, and within that peacetime the tension has been growing to a level so palpable you could cut it with the proverbial knife. And there are number of knives waving about at the moment. At certain points it helps to take a deep breath and shrug some of it off - cue the gallows humor - to avoid losing it altogether.
As usual I've been sitting on a few things, but current events in Eastern Europe have prompted me to get on with it. Current conditions are in quite an excited state and things are moving very fast. There have already been a number of surprises that others have analyzed in detail, which I won't get into, but I'll just say that things are getting pretty hot and a number of things could happen with the Ukrainian conflict. In the next couple of pieces, I'd like to move further out and explore some of the bordering issues, both historically and philosophically, and then see about working my way in.
To begin with, there has been a lot of talk about the circumstances and events leading up to WWI. That period serves as an archetypal cautionary tale in which a relative peacetime geopolitical environment spiraled out into a protracted state of total war. That process has been described as completely escaping beyond anyone's control and unwinding madly in a number of unpredictable directions.
I want to explore some of the dynamics and consequences of that process, because part of what we call a "cautionary tale" implies some remaining level of control, but when big things start moving and they get to moving fast, that control evaporates very quickly and profound changes happen in very short amounts of time.
Just ask anyone who has been in a car accident, or an industrial or farming accident for that matter, and you'll get some version of "it was all a blur and everything was over before I knew it." The physics and the external forces involved take over and become master, and the controller or manipulator is simply deposited to where the forces decide, regardless of the interest or intention of the individual.
Now part of the issue with that is that those big things and those heavy forces didn't come out of nowhere. They formed and they gathered strength and then the individuals caught up in their pathways and movements then had to interact with them whatever their choices. One may "lose control" of a car for example but then what was it that got one into that car and moving on that road? Where did the car and the road come from? What interests and historical processes brought those things into being and into motion? What is chance and what is volition?
There is so much to explore here, and I'll do what I can in time.
