Humans didn’t start killing each other on a large scale until after they discovered agriculture and became sedentary about 10,000 years ago.
That was when land and its possession first became an integral part of human life. The further conglomeration of land into nation states turned that possession into something positively evil.
That evil has dogged humanity ever since.
Up to and including the First World War humans fought and killed each other hurling armies, usually made up of young men, at each other.
The First World War was significant because of the industrial scale of death involved. Soldiers in their millions ceased to be warriors and became simple cannon fodder fed into the sausage machine of that war.
Historians still argue about what caused the war but agree that inbred precocious aristocrats carry a lot of the blame.
For civilians war was something that didn’t necessarily involve them. Watching armies fighting each other was often a spectator sport, a bit like football is today.
It was only during World War Two that technology, especially airborne technology, enabled combatant nations to inflict heavy casualties on each other’s largely innocent civilian populations.
That now seems to have become the modus operandi of modern warfare.
We now have, for instance, nation states like Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Iran indiscriminately hurling missiles and drones at each other hell bent on murdering as many as possible of each other’s innocent civilians, especially women and children.
Where that ends and what the objective is defies logic. Presumably whichever side inflicts the most death, destruction and misery becomes the victor.
No other creature on the planet is this crude, capricious, greedy and blood thirsty.
I honestly can't help but say.. its not 'us'; it's fucking men(and yes I know not all men but somehow all the murderous fucking 'men' keep becoming the heads of our then perpetually warring states) insisting our young people are hurled at each other in bloody conflicts only barely discernable from each other by the location and numbers slaughtered.
Women know how much effort goes into creating the next generation. Women know how close to death both mother and child are during birth.
It doesn't bear thinking about, sending your children into a war that many won't return from. If women were in-charge that would be the equivalent of the nuclear Saber rattling - having a meeting over tea and crumpets where they steel eye each other and say is this really worth the loss of human life we miraculously created out of fuck all? Who should be home farming and restoring our lands and learning to live WITH the earth, not ON it?
I find myself, a new grandmother to a week old miracle of life, cursing the human stupidity that has allowed these mostly old, mostly white bastards to so deeply entrench themselves in positions of power.
Note none of the horsemen are women. I rest my case.
I'm a man/robot, and I think you're spot on. If women/femmebots ran the world I'm pretty sure cooperation on global problems like inequality and climate chaos would skyrocket, and warfare would largely disappear. Ugh.
Re the coming Murican Civil War, it's disturbing to watch S2 ep8 of Andor then see the same thing playing out in LA. When Marjorie Taylor Green recently referred to the protests as "the war being waged by the Dems, by the foreign nationals waving Mexican flags...", my Jaw dropped, the comparisons to Deedra just too close for comfort. On the flipside, she sewed the seed of her own demise in S2 ep1 by recommending to Krennik that they encourage an incompetent insurgency to justify their later false flag operation. Beware what you wish for MTG.
Also, don't watch the movie Civil War if you treasure your emotional stability. Some time soon someone who has lost people to the weaponsied incompetence of this administration is going to go Luigi on some National Guardsman and things only descend from there. I am dreading the first suicide bomber.
I'd argue the Empire peaked in the 90s and has been declining ever since the disastrous, illegal second Iraq war. But the decline sure has accelarated since the first Biff presidency, and at this point it's in complete freefall, Gilead incoming.
Mr Conquest forgot to mention his very successful billionaire outreach. Focus groups with oligarchs showed they love the national-security-by-deregulating-my-industry ad campaign. Monsieur Musk sulked about importing cheap coders but was reassured that leaving them in Bangalore was better in the long run. Three huzzahs for tax avoidance and starving the beast of state!
I've just seen Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later - and then followed up by watching a couple of reviews of the earlier films in the "franchise" and a panel discussion by Josh Horowitz with director Danny Boyle and two of the lead actors of this current film - Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor Johnson. This piece of "creatively realistic" writing - JB - fits right into the whole dystopian mood! Horror - except that your characters are dealing with living blubberish human beings - Netanyahu and Trump...so the horror is genuine. Jim
Mr Famine should cheer up. He is doing an increasing good job in South Sudan - with places like Haitian & Mali looking promising on the hunger front. That War dude is helping of course. They make a good duo.
It's not them - it's us.
Humans didn’t start killing each other on a large scale until after they discovered agriculture and became sedentary about 10,000 years ago.
That was when land and its possession first became an integral part of human life. The further conglomeration of land into nation states turned that possession into something positively evil.
That evil has dogged humanity ever since.
Up to and including the First World War humans fought and killed each other hurling armies, usually made up of young men, at each other.
The First World War was significant because of the industrial scale of death involved. Soldiers in their millions ceased to be warriors and became simple cannon fodder fed into the sausage machine of that war.
Historians still argue about what caused the war but agree that inbred precocious aristocrats carry a lot of the blame.
For civilians war was something that didn’t necessarily involve them. Watching armies fighting each other was often a spectator sport, a bit like football is today.
It was only during World War Two that technology, especially airborne technology, enabled combatant nations to inflict heavy casualties on each other’s largely innocent civilian populations.
That now seems to have become the modus operandi of modern warfare.
We now have, for instance, nation states like Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Iran indiscriminately hurling missiles and drones at each other hell bent on murdering as many as possible of each other’s innocent civilians, especially women and children.
Where that ends and what the objective is defies logic. Presumably whichever side inflicts the most death, destruction and misery becomes the victor.
No other creature on the planet is this crude, capricious, greedy and blood thirsty.
I honestly can't help but say.. its not 'us'; it's fucking men(and yes I know not all men but somehow all the murderous fucking 'men' keep becoming the heads of our then perpetually warring states) insisting our young people are hurled at each other in bloody conflicts only barely discernable from each other by the location and numbers slaughtered.
Women know how much effort goes into creating the next generation. Women know how close to death both mother and child are during birth.
It doesn't bear thinking about, sending your children into a war that many won't return from. If women were in-charge that would be the equivalent of the nuclear Saber rattling - having a meeting over tea and crumpets where they steel eye each other and say is this really worth the loss of human life we miraculously created out of fuck all? Who should be home farming and restoring our lands and learning to live WITH the earth, not ON it?
I find myself, a new grandmother to a week old miracle of life, cursing the human stupidity that has allowed these mostly old, mostly white bastards to so deeply entrench themselves in positions of power.
Note none of the horsemen are women. I rest my case.
Apologies to the good men out there.
I completely agree. And it disturbs me to watch the glossy handmaidens who often silently stand behind these ego driven power hungry madmen.
Did you forget Margarte Thatcher?
The exception that proves the rule
I'm a man/robot, and I think you're spot on. If women/femmebots ran the world I'm pretty sure cooperation on global problems like inequality and climate chaos would skyrocket, and warfare would largely disappear. Ugh.
Let's see how Sussan goes - could be a revelation.
I'm picturing a Clarke and Dawe-style podcast here. Could easily be a regular thing.
Pure genius, Birmo. Bravo!
Re the coming Murican Civil War, it's disturbing to watch S2 ep8 of Andor then see the same thing playing out in LA. When Marjorie Taylor Green recently referred to the protests as "the war being waged by the Dems, by the foreign nationals waving Mexican flags...", my Jaw dropped, the comparisons to Deedra just too close for comfort. On the flipside, she sewed the seed of her own demise in S2 ep1 by recommending to Krennik that they encourage an incompetent insurgency to justify their later false flag operation. Beware what you wish for MTG.
Also, don't watch the movie Civil War if you treasure your emotional stability. Some time soon someone who has lost people to the weaponsied incompetence of this administration is going to go Luigi on some National Guardsman and things only descend from there. I am dreading the first suicide bomber.
It eerily reminds me of my history essay on behalf of my teenage son at high school which I got a B for. The collapse of the US Empire.
I'd argue the Empire peaked in the 90s and has been declining ever since the disastrous, illegal second Iraq war. But the decline sure has accelarated since the first Biff presidency, and at this point it's in complete freefall, Gilead incoming.
*Distribution: Board Members, Stakeholder Relations, Accounting (for expense reporting), HR (for performance review documentation), Mr P Hegseth (and members of Secret Plans WhatsApp group)*
This John! More of this. I've missed it.
I can never read Death these days without putting it into CAPITAL LETTERS.
Its just scythe in time with a skilled operator
The whole "arc of the universe bending toward justice" doesn't really feel that true anymore does it.
Mr Conquest forgot to mention his very successful billionaire outreach. Focus groups with oligarchs showed they love the national-security-by-deregulating-my-industry ad campaign. Monsieur Musk sulked about importing cheap coders but was reassured that leaving them in Bangalore was better in the long run. Three huzzahs for tax avoidance and starving the beast of state!
I've just seen Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later - and then followed up by watching a couple of reviews of the earlier films in the "franchise" and a panel discussion by Josh Horowitz with director Danny Boyle and two of the lead actors of this current film - Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor Johnson. This piece of "creatively realistic" writing - JB - fits right into the whole dystopian mood! Horror - except that your characters are dealing with living blubberish human beings - Netanyahu and Trump...so the horror is genuine. Jim
Sadly too funnily true.
Yep four stars.
Brilliant satire
Feel like these guys are like fkn eshays riding their e-scooters around town these days. Fk the horses.
Mr Famine should cheer up. He is doing an increasing good job in South Sudan - with places like Haitian & Mali looking promising on the hunger front. That War dude is helping of course. They make a good duo.
Very clever writing.
John I agree with William - more like this please. It is funny haha but too true.