The war on civilization

World War I began on this day in 1914; it ended on this date also, in 1919.


"You can't say that civilization don't advance--in every war they kill you in a new way." -- Will Rogers.

   As far as the dregs of civilization went, he’d seen it all. The whole sad spectacle of jealousy, greed, vengeance, lust. Still, he had faith. The utmost credulousness together with the perfect cynicism. Which was truly the Shakespearean way to live, as somebody had written about someone. The villains in Shakespeare, when they were front and center you believed in them completely. You were ready to cast your lot with them. Their characters were truths.  --  Chapter 33, The Misforgotten.

War, what is it good for

World War I began on this day in 1914; it ended on the same day in 1919.

Men were bad, incorrigibly so, Sully knew. The specimens lurking in the library lobby, adoze in chairs and at tables, groping in the stacks and jerking off in the stalls, surfing the Internet for God knew what, plotting their hijacks and heists, were wholly representative of the populace at large. Mischief on their minds, malice in their hearts. Malevolence. Here the accumulated wisdom of the world, the exalted ideas of great men and women, published for posterity and arrayed on row after row of shelves, could not avail against its palpable presence. Or so it seemed to Sully. -- Chapter 16, The Misforgotten.