The Drums of War

Ruminations regarding ruin

When viewed outside History, looking backward through time and from a distant space, extreme events and violent epochs retain a veneer of grand illusion and transcendent drama, as if these traumatic milestones occurred on another world, or were the stuff of pure fiction, scratchy newsreel flights of fanciful f/x, reckless expressions of an intoxicated imagination…

Such habits of detached retrospection make actually living within a cataclysmic generation seem equally illusory and unreal. Strange circumstances creep up, petty and often ridiculous happenstance slowly mounting, imperceptibly gaining momentum until a critical point is breached and chaos ensues, all Hell breaking loose, reality exploding into a dire and petrifying NOW.

Bad things always happen to others, never us. Conspiracy theories abound as do doomsday prophecies. Apocalyptic pageantry aside, headlines for the past three months have ricocheted the world yet again to the brink of a terrifying precipice — not a partisan, whiny ledge of disappointment, but a gaping chasm not experienced since the dawn of the last and most violent century in human history.

The reality has yet to fully settle in. Denial and delusion reign supreme, instinctual defense mechanisms designed to prepare for the uncertainty and terror ahead. Hopefully the signs are wrong, or grossly exaggerated. Yet the cycle seems to have completed a full revolution, the deep wounds have healed and been forgotten, and the world seems again ripe for Total War, as if waiting patiently for this moment…