A Retrospective On The 21st Century
Modern History 101: the Century of Blood
Welcome, Class of 2157, to today’s lesson which is: why the 21st Century is known as the Century Of Blood. As we all know, the Western world seemed all set for relative peace and prosperity when the century began. There was a very silly historian who wrote a very silly book called The End of History, the title of which alone tells us everything we need to know about the complacent triumphalism that, for a few brief years, was prevalent among political and so-called intellectual circles in Western and in Western-oriented nations around the world.
As we all know, history didn’t end and what really happened was that populations and the politicians they voted for went on to repeat the same mistakes made in the 20th century, thus proving conclusively that no one learns anything from the experiences of those who went before. The only major difference is that while around two hundred million people died around the globe because of wars in the 20th century, more than one billion people died as a result of wars during the 21st century. Yes, the total population of the Earth was indeed greater by then, but still, on a per capita basis the 21st century killed more people than the 20th century. And the number of people impoverished by the inane protectionism of the second Trump administration was…
