I came across this essay written eight years ago and felt its message was not only timeless but also impeccably timed for today in light of recent wars, cataclysms and our own government's stagnation.
Who knows, maybe we can create a publicly traded derivative to hedge our retirement funds against war, environmental cataclysm, nuclear annihilation and the heartbreak of psoriasis.
Princip, discouraged at the apparent failure of the planned murder, seized the unexpected opportunity and fired the shots that began the First World War, a cataclysm which claimed over nine million lives, ended four empires and set in motion events from the Communist Revolution in Russia to the rise of Nazi Germany.
But the reality is that, while Europe's lifestyle distinctions endured wars and cataclysms for centuries since the Celts landed in Brittany, the last few years have eroded them at a remarkable pace.
But our specialty is to look underneath "great wars," "terrible cataclysms," and "ingenious inventions," and to concentrate on "inclinations" of the "sensitive crown" of the human heart.
He tells his own story, a little autobiography beginning with an expression of humility and collectivism: "There are many like me". This is perhaps already a cue to imagine vaster populations, displaced by war or political cataclysm.
Even with all that OSIRIS-REx promises — the answers to primeval questions, a future of madcap gold rushes through the galaxy, the frisson of nuclear war and fiery cataclysm — it is surprisingly easy to become inured to the excitement of space travel.
The cross-cultural exchange was occasionally put on hiatus by wars and economic cataclysm.
Although the time is only three years after the end of World War II, the cataclysms of recent history seem remote, except for a couple of references to Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
