War Trauma

In many ways, these complex tragedies self-replicate through the trauma they invoke. It’s something that is so characteristically human that we often don’t perceive it. The systems of psychology, culture and communication that we (all) inhabit are quite naturally and autonomously oriented towards their own recursive self-propagation. A primary method of this replication has historically been that of dissonant turbulence and adversarial competition. Language is a template case of this kind of communications system symmetry. It is the limitations of language (and, not coincidentally, of technology) that indicate another instance of this communication breakdown that endlessly reproduce itself through and as us.

As for war itself – it is a wildfire. Control (or victory) is only ever superficial, almost always and in one way or another generating and displacing more conflict to other times and places. We do not end wars, we can only ever manage them where and when they arise. It is a bitter pill to swallow but human political and emotional maturity remains such that extremes of adversarial conflict are unlikely to disappear any time soon.